{"id":51,"date":"2018-10-11T23:33:56","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T23:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahgeorgia.fm1.dev\/?page_id=51"},"modified":"2021-02-23T19:13:31","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T00:13:31","slug":"hipaa-statement","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/advancedhearingga.com\/resources\/hipaa-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"HIPAA Statement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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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.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The practice provides this Notice to comply with the Privacy Regulations issued by the Department of Health and Human Services in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).<\/p>\n\n

The term “protected health information,” means any health information about your health and health care services that you have received or may receive in the future.<\/p>\n\n

This Notice of Privacy Practices applies to any health care professional or administrative staff employed by Advanced Hearing. It also applies to our business associates (including billing services or facilities to which we refer patients), oncall physicians, and so on.<\/p>\n\n

OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU<\/h2>\n

We understand that your medical information is personal to you, and we are committed to protecting your health information. As your health care provider, we create medical records about your health and the services or items we provide to you as our patient. We need this record to provide your care and to comply with certain legal requirements.<\/p>\n\n

HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR MEDICAL INFORMATION<\/h2>\n

The following are examples of different ways that we use and disclose protected health information. Each type of use or disclosure provides a general explanation and provides some examples of uses. This list does not include every potential use or disclosure of information in a category. The explanation is provided only to help you understand how the practice may use or disclose your protected information in compliance with any authorizations or consents required by law.<\/p>\n\n

Medical Treatment<\/u><\/strong> We will use medical information about you to provide, coordinate or manage your health care and any related services. This includes the coordination or management of your health care with a third party that has already obtained your permission to have access to your protected health information. Therefore we often disclose medical information about you to doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory or imaging technicians, hospital or home health personnel who are involved in taking care of you. We may also disclose information to other health care providers who may be treating you or to whom we may refer you for care. These doctors may need information from your medical record to provide appropriate care.<\/p>\n\n

We also may disclose medical information about you to people outside our practice who may be involved in your medical care after you leave our practice; this may include your family members, or other personal representatives authorized by you or by a legal mandate (a guardian or other person who has been named to handle your medical decisions, should you become incompetent).<\/p>\n\n

Payment<\/u><\/strong> We may use and disclose medical information about you for services and procedures so we may obtain payment from you, an insurance company, or any other third party. For example, we may need to give your health care information to obtain payment or reimbursement for the care. We may also tell your health plan and\/or referring physician about a treatment you are going to receive to obtain prior approval or to determine whether your plan will cover the treatment.<\/p>\n\n

Health Care Operations<\/u><\/strong> We may use and disclose medical information about you so that we can run our practice more efficiently and make sure that all of our patients receive quality care. These uses may include reviewing your treatment to evaluate the performance of our staff, to decide what additional services to offer, to decide what services are not needed, and to evaluate new treatments. We may also disclose information to doctors, physician assistants or nurse practitioners, nurses, technicians and other personnel for review and learning purposes. We may also combine the medical information we have with medical information from other practices to evaluate and improve our performance. Where possible, we will remove information that identifies you so others may use it to study health care and health care delivery without learning the identity of individual patients. <\/p>\n\n

We may also share information about you to external entities for utilization review and\/or quality assurance, for compliance with legal requirements, to verify our records. We shall endeavor, at all times when business associates are used, to advise them of their continued obligation to maintain the privacy of your medical records.<\/p>\n\n

Appointment and Patient Recall Reminders<\/u><\/strong> We may ask that you sign in at the Receptionists’ Desk, a “Sign In” log on the day of your appointment with the practice. We may use and disclose medical information to contact you as a reminder that you have an appointment for medical care with the practice or that you are due to receive periodic care from the practice. This contact may be by phone, in writing, e-mail, or otherwise and may involve the leaving of an e-mail, a message on an answering machine, or otherwise which could (potentially) be received or intercepted by others. Please let us know in writing if this is not acceptable or if there is another telephone number, e-mail address, or method of notification you prefer.<\/p>\n\n

Emergency Situations<\/u><\/strong> In addition, we may disclose medical information about you to an organization assisting in an emergency situation so that your family can be notified about your condition, status and location.<\/p>\n\n

Research<\/u><\/strong> Under certain circumstances, we may use and disclose medical information about you for research purposes such as medications and efficiency of treatment protocols. Before we use or disclose medical information for research, the project will have been reviewed and approved. If possible, we will make the information non-identifiable to a specific patient. We will obtain an authorization from you before using or disclosing your individually identifiable health information unless the authorization requirement has been waived. If the information has been sufficiently deidentified, an authorization for the use of disclosure is not required.<\/p>\n\n

Required By Law<\/u><\/strong> We will disclose medical information about you when required to do so by federal, state or local law.<\/p>\n\n

To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety We may use and disclose medical information about you when necessary to prevent a serious threat either to your specific health and safety or the health and safety of the public or another person. Any disclosure, however, would only be to someone able to help prevent the threat.<\/p>\n\n

Organ and Tissue Donation<\/u><\/strong> If you are an organ donor, we may release medical information to organizations that handle organ procurement or organ, eye or tissue transplantation or to an organ donation bank, as necessary to facilitate organ or tissue donation and transplantation.<\/p>\n\n

Worker’s Compensation<\/u><\/strong> We may release medical information about you for workers’ compensation or similar programs. These programs provide benefits for work-related injuries or illness.<\/p>\n\n

Public Health Risks<\/u><\/strong> Law or public policy may require us to disclose medical information about you for public health activities. These activities generally include the following:<\/p>\n\n

    \n
  • To prevent or control a disease, injury or disability <\/li>\n
  • To report births and deaths <\/li>\n
  • To report child abuse or neglect <\/li>\n
  • To report reactions to medications or problems with products <\/li>\n
  • To notify people of recalls of products they may be using <\/li>\n
  • To notify a person who may have been exposed to a disease or may be at risk for contracting or spreading a disease or condition <\/li>\n
  • To notify the appropriate government authority if we believe a patient has been the victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence. We will only make this disclosure if you agree or when required or authorized by law.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n\n

    Investigation and Government Activities<\/u><\/strong> We may disclose medical information to a local, state or federal agency for activities authorized by law. These oversight activities include, for example, audits, investigations, inspections, and licensure. These activities are necessary for the payor, the government and other regulatory agencies to monitor the health care system, government programs, and compliance with civil rights laws.<\/p>\n\n

    Lawsuits and Disputes<\/u><\/strong> If you are involved in a lawsuit or a dispute, we may disclose medical information about you in response to a court or administrative order. This is particularly true if you make your health an issue. We may also disclose medical information about you in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process by someone else involved in the dispute. We shall attempt in these cases to tell you about the request so that you may obtain an order protecting the information requested if you so desire. We may also use such information to defend ourselves or any member of our practice in any actual or threatened action.<\/p>\n\n

    Law Enforcement<\/u><\/strong> We may release medical information if asked to do so by a law enforcement official:<\/p>\n