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You can rest assure that we are
100% committed to protecting your healthcare privacy!
The United
States Congress recognized the need for mandatory patient
record privacy standards in 1996 when they enacted the
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
(HIPAA). The law included provisions designed to save money
for healthcare businesses by encouraging electronic
transactions, but also required new safeguards to protect
the security and confidentiality of that information.
The law requires us to (1)
Ensure your medical information is protected; (2) Provide
you with this Notice describing our legal duties and privacy
practices with respect to medical information about you; (3)
Follow the current terms of the Notice in effect.
LIMITED DISCLOSURE OF YOUR MEDICAL INFORMATION
All of the ways we are permitted to use and disclose
information will fall within one of the following
categories. Some
information such as certain drug and alcohol information,
HIV information and mental health information is entitled to
special restrictions related to its use and disclosure. CCMI
will abide by all applicable state and federal laws
related to the protection of this information.
Supplies. We may use medical information about you to
provide you with medical supplies and services. We may
disclose medical information about you to doctors, nurses,
technicians, or other personnel who are involved in your
care. For example, a doctor treating you may need to know if
you have diabetes because diabetes may slow the healing
process. We may also share medical information about you
with our office personnel or other providers, agencies or
facilities in order to provide or coordinate such things as
prescriptions, CMN’s, lab cultures and other medical
documentation. We also may disclose medical information
about you to people outside our office who may be involved
in your continuing medical care after you leave our office
such as other home health care providers, transport
companies, community agencies and family members.
Payment.
We may use and disclose medical information about
the supplies and services you receive from our office so
that payment may be collected from you, an insurance company
or a third party. For example, we may need to give
information to your health plan about supplies you received
from our office so your health plan will pay us or reimburse
you. We may also tell your health plan about a proposed
service in order to obtain prior approval or to determine
whether your plan will cover the treatment.
Internal Operations. We may use and disclose medical
information about you to support our office operations.
These uses and disclosures are made to improve our quality
of service. Your medical information may also be used or
disclosed to comply with laws and regulations, for
contractual obligations, patients. claims, grievances or
lawsuits, health care contracting, legal services, business
planning and development, business management and
administration, the sale of all or part of our office to
another entity, underwriting and other insurance activities.
For example, we may review medical information to find ways
to improve services to our patients. We may also disclose
information to doctors, nurses, technicians, and other
personnel for performance improvement and educational
purposes.
Alternative Supplies. We may tell you about or recommend
possible supply alternatives that may be of interest to you.
Benefits and Services. We may contact you to tell you about
benefits or services that we provide.
Care Providers. We may release medical
information to anyone involved in your medical care, For
example, a friend, family member, personal representative,
or an individual you identify. We may give information to
someone who helps pay for your care or we may tell your
family or friends about your general condition.
As
Required By Law. We will disclose medical information about
you when required to do so by federal or state law; If asked
to do so by law enforcement in response to a court or
administrative order, subpoena, discovery request, warrant,
summons or other lawful process; or for intelligence,
counterintelligence, and other national security activities
authorized or required by law.
To
Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety. We may use and
disclose medical information about you for public health
purposes or when necessary to prevent or lessen a serious
and imminent threat to your health and safety or the health
and safety of the public or another person. Any disclosure
would be to someone able to help stop or reduce the threat.
Workers' Compensation. We may use or disclose medical
information about you for Workers' Compensation or similar
programs as authorized or required by law. These programs
provide benefits for work-related injuries or illness.
Inmates. If you are an inmate of a correctional institution
or under the custody of law enforcement officials, we may
release medical information about you to the correctional
institution as authorized or required by law.
YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU
Although the medical information we obtain about you is the
property of CCMI, you do have the following rights:
With certain exceptions, you have the
right to inspect and/or receive a copy of your medical and
billing information. To inspect and/or to receive a copy of
your information, you must submit your request in writing to
our Office Manager. If you
request a copy of the information, we may charge a fee for
these services. We may deny your request to inspect and/or
to receive a copy in certain limited circumstances. If you
are denied access to medical information, in most cases, you
may have the denial reviewed. Another professional chosen by
the our office will review your request and the denial. The
person conducting the review will not be the person who
denied your request. We will comply with the outcome of the
review.
If you feel that medical
information we have about you is incorrect or incomplete,
you may ask us to amend the information or add an addendum
(addition to the record). You have the right to request an
amendment or addendum for as long as the information is kept
by or our office. To request an amendment, your request must
be made in writing and submitted to our Office Manager. In
addition, you must provide a reason that supports your
request. We may deny your request for an amendment if it is
not in writing or does not include a reason to support the
request. In addition, we may deny your request if you ask us
to amend information that: Was not created by our office; Is
not part of the medical information kept by or for Our
office; Is not part of the information which you would be
permitted to inspect and copy; or Is accurate and complete
in the record. An addendum must not be longer than 250 words
per alleged incomplete or incorrect item in your record.
You have the right to receive a
list of the disclosures we have made of medical information
about you that were for purposes other than treatment,
payment, health care operations and certain other purposes.
To request this accounting of disclosures, you must submit
your request in writing to our Office Manager. Your request
must state a time period that may not be longer than the six
previous years and may not include dates before
January 1,
2006. You are entitled to one accounting within any 12-month
period at no cost. If you request a second accounting within
that 12-month period, we may charge you for the cost of
compiling the accounting. We will notify you of the cost
involved and you may choose to withdraw or modify your
request at that time before any costs are incurred.
You have the right to request
a restriction or limitation on the medical information we
use or disclose about you for services, payment or health
care operations. You also have the right to request a limit
on the medical information we disclose about you to someone
who is involved in your care or the payment for your care,
such as a family member or friend. For example, you could
ask that we not use or disclose information to a family
member about a surgery you had. We are not required to agree
to your request. If we do agree, our agreement must be in
writing, and we will comply with your request unless the
information is needed to provide emergency treatment. To
request a restriction, you must make your request in writing
to our Office Manager. In your request, you must tell us (1)
what information you want to limit; (2) whether you want to
limit our use, disclosure or both; and (3) to whom you want
the limits to apply, for example, disclosures to your
spouse.
You have the
right to request that we communicate with you about medical
matters in a certain way or at a certain location. For
example, you can ask that we only contact you at work or by
mail. To request confidential communications, you must make
your request in writing to our Office Manager. We will
accommodate all reasonable requests. Your request must
specify how or where you wish to be contacted.
You have the right to
a paper copy of this Notice. You may ask us to give you a
copy of this Notice at any time. Even if you have agreed to
receive this Notice electronically, you are still entitled
to a paper copy of this Notice.
We
reserve the right to change our privacy practices
and this Notice. We reserve the right to make the revised or
changed Notice effective for medical information we already
have about you as well as any information we receive in the
future. We will post a copy of the current Notice on our Web
site. The Notice will contain the effective date at the
top of the first page. In addition, at any time you may
request a copy of the current Notice in effect.
Download
here
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