Notice of Privacy Practices
It is the policy of our practice that all physicians and staff preserve the integrity and the confidentiality of protected health information (PHI) pertaining to our patients. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that our practice and its physicians and staff have the necessary medical and PHI to provide the highest quality medical care possible while protecting the confidentiality of the PHI of our patients to the highest degree possible. Patients should not be afraid to provide information to our practice and its physician and staff for purposes of treatment, payment and healthcare operations (TPO). To that end, our practice and staff will:
- Adhere to the standards set forth in the Notice of Privacy Practices.
- Collect, use and disclose PHI only in conformance with state and federal laws and current patient authorizations as appropriate.
- Not use or disclose PHI for uses outside of the practice’s TPO, such as marketing, employment, life insurance applications, etc. without an authorization from the patient.
- Treat all PHI data as confidential in accordance with professional ethics, accreditation standards, and legal requirements.
- Not disclose PHI data unless the patient or legal representative has properly authorized the release or the release is otherwise authorized by law.
- Recognize that although this practice “owns” the medical record, the patient or legal representative of the patient has the right to inspect and obtain a copy of his/her PHI. In addition patients have a right to request an amendment to their medical record if they believe their information is inaccurate or incomplete.
To that end our physicians and staff will:
- Permit patients access to their medical records when their written requests are approved. If we deny their request, we must inform the patients that they may request o review of our denials. In such cases we will have an on-site healthcare professional review the patient’s appeal.
- Provide patients an opportunity to request the correction of inaccurate or incomplete PHI in their medical records in accordance with the law and professional standards.
- Maintain a list of disclosures of PHI for purposes other than TPO for each patient and those made pursuant to an authorization as required by HIPAA rules. We will provide this list to patients upon written request.
- Adhere to any restrictions concerning the use or disclosure of PHI that patients or their legal representatives have requested in writing and have been approved by our practice.
All staff and physicians must adhere to this policy. Our practice will not tolerate violations of this policy. Violation of this policy is grounds for disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment and or criminal or professional sanctions in accordance with our practice’s personnel rules and regulations.
Our privacy policy is subject to change at any time. Any changes will be effective upon the release of the revised privacy policy and will be made available to patients upon request.
Thank you for taking the time to read our Notice of Privacy Practices.
