Facility
Our facility directory may list the following information about you: (1) your name, (2) your location in our facility, (3) you general condition without reference to specific medical information, e.g., stale, serious, fair, etc., and (4) your religious affiliation, if any. Our facility directory information may be disclosed to clergymen and, except for religious affiliation, to other people. You may restrict or prohibit the release of the above information.
Locating Responsible Parties
Your PHI may be disclosed in order to locate, identify or notify a family member, your personal representative, or other person responsible for your care. If we determine in our reasonable professional judgment that you are capable of doing son, you will be given the opportunity to consent to or to prohibit or restrict the extent or recipients of such disclosure. If we determine that you are unable to provide such consent, we will limit the PHI disclosed to the minimum necessary. Disasters – We may use or disclose your PHI to any public or private entity authorized by law or by its charter to assist in disaster relief efforts.
Required by Law
We may use or disclose your medical information when we are required to do so by law. For example, your PHI may be released when required b privacy laws, workers’ compensation or similar laws, public health laws, court or administrative orders, subpoenas, certain discovery requests, or other laws, regulations or legal processes. Under certain circumstances, we may make limited disclosures of PHI directly to law enforcement officials or correctional institutions regarding an inmate, lawful detainee, suspect, fugitive, material witness, missing person, or a victim or suspected victim of abuse, neglect, domestic violence or other crimes. We may disclose your PHI to the extent reasonable necessary to avert a serious threat to your health or safety or the health of safety of others. We may disclose your PHI when necessary to assist law enforcement officials to capture a third party who has admitted to a crime against you or who has escaped from lawful custody.
Deceased Persons
After your death, we may disclose your PHI to a coroner, medical examiner, funeral director, or organ procurement organization in limited circumstances.
Research
Your PHI may also be used to disclose for research purposed only in those limited circumstances not requiring your written authorization, such as those which have been approved by and institution review board that has established procedures for ensuring the privacy of your PHI.
Military and National Security
We may disclose to military authorities the medical information of Armed Forces personnel under certain circumstances. When required by law, we may disclose your PHI for intelligence, counterintelligence, and other national security activities.
Access and Copies
In most cases, you have the right to review or to purchase copies of your PHI by requesting access or copies in writing to our Privacy Officer. Please contact our Privacy Officer regarding our copying fees.
Disclosure Accounting
You have the right to receive an accounting of the instances, if any, in which your PHI was disclosed for purposes other than those described in the following sections above: Use and Disclosures, Facility Directories, Consumer Access, and Locating Responsible Parties. For a 12-month period, you have the right to receive a free copy of an accounting certain details surrounding such disclosures that occurred after April 13, 2003. If you request a disclosure accounting more than once in a 12-month period, we will charge you a reasonable, cost-based fee for each additional request. Please contact our Privacy Officer regarding these fees.
- Additional Restrictions – You have the right to request that we place additional restrictions on our use or disclosure of your PHI, but we are not required to honor such a request. We will be bound by such restrictions only if we aggress to do so in writing signed by our Privacy Officer.
- Alternate Communications You have the right to request that we communicate with you about your PHI by alternative means or in alternative locations. We will accommodate any reasonable request if it specifies in writing the alternative means or location, and provides a satisfactory explanation of how future payments will be handled.
- Amendments to PHI You have the right to request that we amend you PHI. Any such request must be in writing and contain a detailed explanation for the requested amendment. Under certain circumstances, we may deny your request but will provide you a written explanation of the denial. You have the right to send us a statement of disagreement to which we may prepare a rebuttal, a copy of which will be provided to you at no cost. Please contact our Privacy Officer with any further questions about amending your medical record
Complaints
If you believe we have violated our privacy rights, you may complain to us or to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. You may file a complaint with us by notifying our Privacy Officer. We support your right to protect the privacy of your medical information. We will not retaliate in any way if you choose to file a complaint with us or with the U.D. Department of Health and Human Services.
