NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
This Notice is effective September 13, 2013
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
WE ARE REQUIRED BY LAW TO PROTECT MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU
We are required by law to protect the privacy of medical information about you and that identifies you. This medical information may be information about healthcare we provide to you or payment for healthcare provided to you. It may also be information about your past, present, or future medical condition.
We are also required by law to provide you with this Notice of Privacy Practices explaining our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to medical information. We are legally required to follow the terms of this Notice. In other words, we are only allowed to use and disclose medical information in the manner that we have described in this Notice.
We may change the terms of this Notice in the future. We reserve the right to make changes and to make the new Notice effective for all medical information that we maintain. If we make changes to the Notice, we will:
The rest of this Notice will:
WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE MEDICAL INFORMATION
ABOUT YOU IN SEVERAL CIRCUMSTANCES
We use and disclose medical information about patients every day. This section of our Notice explains in some detail how we may use and disclose medical information about you in order to provide healthcare, obtain payment for that healthcare, and operate our business efficiently. This section then briefly mentions several other circumstances in which we may use or disclose medical information about you. For more information about any of these uses or disclosures, or about any of our privacy policies, procedures or practices, contact our Privacy Officer at .
We may use and disclose medical information about you to provide healthcare treatment to you. In other words, we may use and disclose medical information about you to provide, coordinate or manage your healthcare and related services. This may include communicating with other healthcare providers regarding your treatment and coordinating and managing your healthcare with others.
Example: Jane receives healthcare services from the company. The receptionist may use medical information about Jane when setting up an appointment. The nurse practitioner will likely use medical information about Jane when reviewing Jane’s condition and ordering a blood test. The laboratory technician will likely use medical information about Jane when processing or reviewing her blood test results. If, after reviewing the results of the blood test, the nurse practitioner concludes that Jane should be referred to a specialist, the nurse may disclose medical information about Jane to the specialist to assist the specialist in providing appropriate care to Jane.
We may use and disclose medical information about you to obtain payment for healthcare services that you received. This means that, within the health department, we may use medical information about you to arrange for payment (such as preparing bills and managing accounts). We also may disclose medical information about you to others (such as insurers, collection agencies, and consumer reporting agencies). In some instances, we may disclose medical information about you to an insurance plan before you receive certain healthcare services because, for example, we may need to know whether the insurance plan will pay for a particular service.
Example: Jane receives healthcare services from the company and she has private insurance. During an appointment with a nurse practitioner, the nurse practitioner ordered a blood test. The company’s billing clerk will use medical information about Jane when he prepares a bill for the services provided at the appointment and the blood test. Medical information about Jane will be disclosed to her insurance company when the billing clerk sends in the bill.
Example: The nurse practitioner referred Jane to a specialist. The specialist recommended several complicated and expensive tests. The specialist’s billing clerk may contact Jane’s insurance company before the specialist runs the tests to determine whether the plan will pay for the tests.
We may use and disclose medical information about you in performing a variety of business activities that we call “healthcare operations.” These “healthcare operations” activities allow us to, for example, improve the quality of care we provide and reduce healthcare costs. For example, we may use or disclose medical information about you in performing the following activities:
4. Persons Involved in Your Care We will use and disclose medical information about you whenever we are required by law to do so. There are many state and federal laws that require us to use and disclose medical information. For example, state law may require us to report gunshot wounds and other injuries to the police and to report known or suspected child abuse or neglect and elder abuse or neglect to the Department of Social Services. We will comply with those state laws and with all other applicable laws.6. National Priority Uses and Disclosures
5. Required by Law
Threat to health or safety: We may use or disclose medical information about you if we believe it is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious threat to health or safety.
Court proceedings: We may disclose medical information about you to a court or an officer of the court (such as an attorney). For example, we would disclose medical information about you to a court if a judge orders us to do so.
7. Authorizations
YOU HAVE RIGHTS WITH RESPECT
TO MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU
You have several rights with respect to medical information about you. This section of the Notice will briefly mention each of these rights. If you would like to know more about your rights, please contact our Privacy Officer at .
You have a right to have a paper copy of our Notice of Privacy Practices at any time. In addition, a copy of this Notice will always be posted in our waiting area. If you would like to have a copy of our Notice, ask the receptionist for a copy or contact our Privacy Officer at .
You have the right to inspect (which means see or review) and receive a copy of medical information about you that we maintain in certain groups of records. If we maintain your medical records in an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, you may obtain an electronic copy of your medical records. You may also instruct us in writing to send an electronic copy of your medical records to a third party. If you would like to inspect or receive a copy of medical information about you, you must provide us with a request in writing. You may write us a letter requesting access or fill out an Access Request Form. Access Request Forms are available from our Privacy Officer.
We may deny your request in certain circumstances. If we deny your request, we will explain our reason for doing so in writing. We will also inform you in writing if you have the right to have our decision reviewed by another person.
If you would like a copy of the medical information about you, we will charge you a fee to cover the costs of the copies, including direct labor costs associated with fulfilling your request. Our fees for electronic copies of your medical records will be limited to the direct labor costs associated with fulfilling your request. We may be able to provide you with a summary or explanation of the information. Contact our Privacy Officer for more information on these services and any possible additional fees.
You have the right to have us amend (which means correct or supplement) medical information about you that we maintain in certain groups of records. If you believe that we have information that is either inaccurate or incomplete, we may amend the information to indicate the problem and notify others who have copies of the inaccurate or incomplete information. If you would like us to amend information, you must provide us with a request in writing and explain why you would like us to amend the information. You may either write us a letter requesting an amendment or fill out an Amendment Request Form. Amendment Request Forms are available from our Privacy Officer.
We may deny your request in certain circumstances. If we deny your request, we will explain our reason for doing so in writing. You will have the opportunity to send us a statement explaining why you disagree with our decision to deny your amendment request and we will share your statement whenever we disclose the information in the future.
You have the right to receive an accounting (which means a detailed listing) of disclosures that we have made for the previous six (6) years. If you would like to receive an accounting, you may send us a letter requesting an accounting, fill out an Accounting Request Form, or contact our Privacy Officer. Accounting Request Forms are available from our Privacy Officer.
The accounting will not include several types of disclosures, including disclosures for treatment, payment or healthcare operations. If we maintain your medical records in an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, you may request that include disclosures for treatment, payment or healthcare operations. The accounting will also not include disclosures made prior to April 14, 2003.
If you request an accounting more than once every twelve (12) months, we may charge you a fee to cover the costs of preparing the accounting. The fees for providing an accounting more than once every twelve months will be supplied separately.
5. Right to Request Restrictions on Uses and Disclosures
You have the right to request that we limit the use and disclosure of medical information about you for treatment, payment and healthcare operations. Under federal law, we must agree to your request and comply with your requested restriction(s) if:
6. Right to Request an Alternative Method of Contact You also have the right to be notified in the event of a breach of medical information about you. If a breach of your medical information occurs and if that information is unsecured (not encrypted), we will notify you promptly with the following information:
7. Right to Notification if a Breach of Your Medical Information Occurs
8. Right to Opt-Out of Fundraising Communications
YOU MAY FILE A COMPLAINT
ABOUT OUR PRIVACY PRACTICES
If you believe that your privacy rights have been violated or if you are dissatisfied with our privacy policies or procedures, you may file a written complaint either with us or with the federal government.
We will not take any action against you or change our treatment of you in any way if you file a complaint. To file a written complaint with us, you may bring your complaint directly to our Privacy Officer at:
Name of Privacy Officer: Jennifer Winkelmann
Address:2250 South Oneida Street, Suite 200, Denver, CO 80224
Phone: (303) 564-2722
Email:
or you may bring your complaint directly to our Chief Privacy Officer at:
Joyce A. Montes
Chief Privacy Officer
10304 Spotsylvania Avenue, Suite 300
Fredericksburg, VA 22408
Telephone Number: (520) 747-6653
Email:
To file a written complaint with the federal government, please use the following contact information:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20201
Telephone: (202) 619-0257
.