Notice of Privacy Practices
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND
DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION.
Pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
(HIPAA), you have a right to adequate notice of the uses and disclosures of
your protected health information ("PHI") (i.e., information that
discloses your identity or leads to disclosure of your identity) that may be
made by this medical practice. You are also entitled to notice of your rights
and the duties of this practice with respect to your personal health
information.
"We respect your right
to privacy and understand that your medical information is personal to you. In
order to provide medical services to you, we create paper and electronic
records about your health and the care we provide. Your personal health
information is confidential and this notice is intended to help you understand
how our practice uses and discloses your personal health information and what
rights you have with respect to your medical information."
Required by Law
Our practice has the
following duties with respect to your personal health information:
1) We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your personal health
information.
2) We must provide you with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices
with respect to personal health information.
3) We must abide by the terms of the notice of privacy practices that is
currently in effect.
How We May Use and Disclose Your Information
The following describes how our practice is permitted by law to share your
personal health information with others in order to provide you with medical
care. This notice does not describe every use or disclosure our practice makes;
it is intended as a general overview.
Medical Treatment. We may need to share information
about you in order to provide medical care to you. For example, we may share
information with other physicians, nurses or healthcare professionals entering
information into your medical records relating to your medical care and
treatment. We may share information about you including x-rays, prescriptions
and requests for lab work.
Payment. We may need to disclose information about the treatment,
procedures or care our practice provided to you in order to bill and receive
payment for services we provided. We may share this information with you, an
insurance company or any third party responsible for payment. We may also need
to disclose personal health information about you with your health plan and/or
referring physician in order to obtain prior authorization for treatment, to
determine whether payment for the treatment is covered by your plan or to
facilitate payment of a referring physician.
Healthcare
Operations. In order to help us
run our practice more efficiently and provide better patient care, we may use
and disclose your personal health information to Business Associates who need
to use or disclose your information to provide a service for our medical
practice, such as our billing company or software vendors who provide
assistance with data management on our behalf or vendors who provide orthopedic
supports and compression garments.
Required by Law. We will disclose medical information
related to you if required to do so by state, federal or local law.
Public
Health Activities/Risks. Your
medical information may be disclosed to a public health authority that is
authorized by law to collect or receive such information for public health
activities. Certain disclosures may be made for public health activities in the
following circumstances:
1) to prevent or control disease, injury or disability;
2) to report of births or deaths;
3) to report child abuse or neglect;
4) to report reactions to medications or product defects;
5) to notify individuals of product recalls;
6) to notify a person who may have been exposed to a communicable disease or at
risk of contracting or spreading a disease or condition;
7) if our practice reasonably believes a person is the victim of abuse,
neglect, or domestic violence, we may disclose personal health information to
the appropriate authority. We will only make this disclosure if you agree to
the disclosure or we are required or authorized to do so by law without your
permission.
Appointment
Reminders or Treatment Alternatives. Our practice may use and disclose medical information about you to
provide you with reminders that you are due for care or you have an upcoming
appointment. We may also wish to provide you with information on treatment
alternatives or other health related benefits that may be of interest to you.
We may contact you by phone, fax or e-mail. We will make every effort to
protect your privacy when leaving a message for you and try to reveal as little
confidential information as possible (e.g., when leaving a message on your
answering machine that may be heard by others).
To Avert Serious Threat to Health or Safety. If our
practice believes, in good faith, that a use or disclosure of your medical
information is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to
the health or safety of a person or the public, we may disclose your medical
information.
Worker's
Compensation. We may release
medical information about you for work-related illness or injury for workers'
compensation or other related programs.
Health
Oversight Activities. Your
personal health information may be disclosed to federal, state or local
authorities as part of an investigation or government activity authorized by
law. This may include audits, civil, administrative or criminal investigations,
inspections, licensure or disciplinary actions or other activities necessary
for the oversight of the health care system, government benefit programs and
compliance with government regulatory programs or civil rights laws.
Law
Enforcement. We may disclose your
personal health information to law enforcement individuals if we are required
to do so by law. We may also disclose medical information about you in
compliance with a court order, warrant or subpoena or summons issued by the
court. We will make best efforts to contact you about these types of requests
so that you can obtain an order restricting or prohibiting disclosure of the
information requested. We may also use such information to defend ourselves in
actions or threatened actions that may be brought against our practice.
Other uses and disclosures
will be made only with your written authorization and you may revoke your
authorization at any time.
[Please Note: If a use or
disclosure for any purpose as described above is prohibited or materially
limited by other applicable law (e.g., state law), the
description of such use or disclosure must reflect the more stringent law.]
Patient Rights
You have the following rights with respect to your
personal health information:
Right to
Receive Personal Health Information Confidentially. You have the right to receive confidential
communications of your personal health information by alternate means or at
alternate locations. For example, if you would like for us only to communicate
with you at home, and never at your workplace or to send information to you on
your workplace e-mail, you may request this of our practice. You must make this
request in writing but do not need to disclose the reason for your request. We
will attempt to accommodate all reasonable requests. Please be specific as to
how or where you wish us to communicate with you.
Right to
Inspect and Copy. You have the
right to inspect and copy your medical record that has been created to treat
you and is used to make decisions about your care. This includes medical and
billing records. Records related to your care may also be disclosed to an
authorized person such as a parent or guardian upon proper proof of a
legitimate legal relationship. You must submit your request in writing to
inspect and copy your records. If you would like to copy your records, our
practice may charge you fees for the cost of copying records, mail or other
minimal costs associated with your request. See Appendix A.
Right to
Amend. If you think there is
information in your record that may be inaccurate or incomplete, you have the
right to request an amendment or clarification of information in your record.
Your request to make an amendment to your record must include the following and
may be refused if the following elements are not met:
1) Submit your request in writing
2) Describe what you would like the amendment to say and your reasoning for why
the change should be made
3) The amendment must be dated, signed by you and notarized
Please note that we will not change information created by third parties, if
the information is not part of the medical information kept by our practice or
we believe the information you provided to us is inaccurate or incomplete. We
reserve the right to deny your request if we have reason to believe the
information is accurate. See Appendix B.
Right to
Restrict Uses and Disclosures.
You have the right to request restrictions on how our practice makes certain
uses and disclosures of your personal health information for treatment, payment
or healthcare operations. You may restrict how much information we may provide
to family members regarding your treatment or payment for your care. You may
also restrict certain types of marketing materials related to your care or
treatment. We are not required to agree to your request or we may not be able
to comply with your request, but we will do all that we can to accommodate your
request. If we agree to your request, we must comply. However, if the
information is required to provide emergency treatment to you, we will not
comply. Your request must be in writing and include the following:
1) what information you would like to limit
2) whether you want to limit our use, or disclosure or both
3) to whom you want the limits to apply (e.g., disclosures to parents,
children, spouse, etc.) See Appendix C.
Right to
an Accounting of Uses and Disclosures. You have the right to receive an accounting of the disclosures of your
personal health information that our practice makes for purposes other than
treatment, payment or healthcare operations. All requests must be submitted in
writing. All requests must be for disclosures dated AFTER
See
Appendix D.
All requests should be submitted to the reception desk for appropriate
processing.
Right to
Copy of Notice. You have the
right to obtain a copy of our notice of privacy practices upon request at any
time. Please call us at 515-233-2263 for a copy or ask for a copy at the
reception desk. [Please Note: You may provide the option to receive the notice
via e-mail, but you can inform your patients they are still entitled to a paper
copy if they choose this option].
Changes to
this Notice. Our practice is
required to abide by the terms of this notice, which is currently in effect. We
reserve the right to change the terms of this notice and to make the new notice
provisions effective for all personal health information we already have about
you and may obtain in the future. If we change our notice, we will post notice
of this change thirty (30) days prior to making the change effective. Notice
change will be placed in our reception area at the front desk and web site.
Practice Contact. If you
would like more information about this notice, please contact Dr. Rebarcak at 515-233-2263. If you have any complaints
regarding our privacy practices, please address your complaint to Dr. Rebarcak in writing and follow the designated complaint
process below.
Complaints. If you believe your privacy rights may have been
violated or you become aware of a privacy concern you would like to report to
our practice, please follow this complaint process:
1. Send a written letter to the practice contact named above, including the
following information:
a. Name and Address
b. Social Security Number or Patient Identification Number
c. Detailed description of the circumstances surrounding your complaint
including dates, times and any relevant information to help us understand your
complaint.
d. Contact information
e. Signature and Date
2. Please allow fourteen (14) business days for an answer from our practice
regarding your complaint.
3. If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you may notify
the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Please note, all concerns or complaints regarding your personal health
information are important to our practice. There will be no retaliation against
you for filing a complaint with our office.
Additional Privacy Protections. Our practice is
committed to protecting your privacy and for the proper use and disclosures of
your personal health information. For example, if you treat patients with
particularly sensitive conditions, even though the law allows you to disclose
the information for various reasons, you will not do so unless required by law.
Electronic Notice. We are also required to prominently post our Notice of Privacy Practices on our medical practice Website.