PRIVACY NOTICE
Preferred
Excellent Care (PEC), has policies and procedures in place according to Federal
and State laws and regulations for Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and Privacy rules.
This
notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed
and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully.
Our
company is required by law to abide by the terms of the following notice. If at any time changes in this information
must be made, you will receive a revised copy of this notice. If you have any questions, concerns, or
complaints about the information provided here or the handling of your health
information by our agency, please contact our office and speak to one of our
privacy committee members at
(714)
590 3620 extension 23 and 25. This
notice takes effects March 1, 2003.
Grievances
arising from matters covered by our company notice of privacy practices are to
be given directly to the Privacy Officer who will investigate the grievance
within five working days after receipt of such grievance and will make every
effort to resolve the grievance to the patient’s satisfaction.
Your
personal and medical information will not be disclosure to third party unless
it is authorized by you in the Agreement and Consent, the form which you sign
at the beginning of the service. Typically, your information is only to be
transferred and/or discussed when the issue regarding your care is
involved. The third party may be the
other home health agency, the hospital, the laboratory, the pharmacy, the
hospital, the physician, the physical therapy, the DME company, the
accreditation body (such as JCAHO), the Department of Health and Services, and
your insurance company.
Our
company will use your individually identifiable health information to:
·
Carry out the
treatment ordered for you by your physician, such as wound care, physical
therapy, and/or medication administration including IV medications.
·
Bill your
insurance/payer sources for our services, including sending copies of our
evaluations, clinical notes progress notes to them.
·
Carry our
health care operations such as quality assurance reviews and practitioner
evaluations.
Our
company, by law, will also use your medical information for certain purposes
for which it does not require your consent including:
·
Giving
information to emergency technicians and ER personnel to facilitate treatment
in the case of an emergency.
·
Complying with
State Law regarding the reporting of certain communicable diseases, evidence
of/information on victims of abuse, neglect or domestic violence, birth or
death, or the conduct of public health surveillance, investigation or
intervention.
·
Complying with
federal and/or State Law to report or to provide access to information for the
purpose of management audits, financial audits, program monitoring and
evaluation, or licensure or certification of the company or individuals.
·
Where required
by law including to report adverse events with respect to food or dietary
supplements, product defects or problems including problems with the use or
labeling of a product, or biological product deviations if the disclosure is
made to the person required or directed to report such information to the food
and drug.
·
Where needed
to enable product recalls, repairs or replacements.
·
To conduct
post marketing surveillance to comply with requirements or at the direction of
the food and drug administration.
·
To an employer
about you if you are a member of the workforce of the employer and only if the
company has provided healthcare to you at the requests of your employer to
conduct an evaluation relating to medical surveillance of the workplace or to
evaluate whether you have a work related medical surveillance and the employer
needs such information to comply with State or Federal law.
Our
company may use your information to call you with appointment reminders or
information about treatment alternatives or other health related benefits and
services that may be of interest to you.
Any
other uses or disclosures of your individually identifiable health information
by us can only be made with your written authorization, and you may revoke such
authorization at any time, provided that you do so in writing.
You
have the right to:
1. Receive a written notice of information
practices from our company such as this one.
2. Access your own health information,
including a right to inspect and obtain a copy of that information.
3. Request amendment or correction of protected
health information that is inaccurate or incomplete.
4. Request restrictions on certain uses and
disclosures of protected health information as provided by section
164.522a. Under the provisions of that
rule, PEC does not have to agree to those requested restrictions.
5. Receive a paper copy of this notice if you
had originally agreed to receive an electronic copy.
6. Designate another person such as a family
member to exercise your rights under this privacy notice for you.
In
addition to the provisions above, PEC protects your health information by the
following practices:
·
All physical
copies of individually identifiable health information maintained in our agency
are locked up each night in a specific room set aside for that use.
·
When such
physical copies of your health information are in use in other parts of the
office, they are handled in such a manner as to prevent casual viewing of that
information.
·
Physical
copies of your referral information which can include your diagnoses, certain
medications such as IV medications your are currently receiving, and your name,
address and telephone number or other such contact information held by nurses,
therapists, and other providers of care involved in your treatment are
maintained by them in a manner which precludes their being seen by persons not
in the agency or involved your care.
·
Electronic
copies of your health information are secured in password-protected programs
and only transmitted over special secured telephone lines.