This notice describes how health information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. It is effective September 1, 2020 and applies to all protected health information contained in your health records maintained by us. We have the following duties regarding the maintenance, use and disclosure of your health records:
We are required by law to maintain the privacy of the protected health information in your records and to provide you with this Notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to that information.
1. We are required to abide by the terms of this Notice currently in effect.
2. We reserve the right to change the terms of this Notice at any time, making the new provisions effective for all health information and records that we have and continue to maintain. All changes in this Notice will be prominently displayed and available at our office.
There are several situations in which we may use or disclose to other persons or entities your confidential health information. Certain uses and disclosures will require you to sign an acknowledgement that you received this Notice of Privacy Practices. These include treatment, payment, and health care operations. Any use or disclosure of your protected health information required for anything other than treatment, payment, and health care operations requires you to sign an Authorization. Certain disclosures are required by law, or under emergency circumstances, may be made without your Acknowledgement or Authorization. Under any circumstance, we will use or disclose only the minimum amount of information necessary from your medical records to accomplish the intended purpose of the disclosure. We will attempt in good faith to obtain your signed Acknowledgement that you received this Notice to use and disclose your confidential medical information for the following purposes. These examples are not meant to be exhaustive, but to describe the types of uses and disclosures that may be made by our agency once you have provided Consent.
Treatment: We will use your health information to make decisions about the provision, coordination, or management of your healthcare, including analyzing or diagnosing your condition and determining the appropriate treatment for that condition.
Payment: We may need to use or disclose information in your health record to obtain reimbursement from you, from your health-insurance carrier, or from another insurer for our services rendered to you. This may include determinations of eligibility or coverage under the appropriate health plan, pre-certification and pre-authorization of services or review of services for the purpose of reimbursement. This information may also be used for billing, claims management and collection purposes and related healthcare data processing through our system.
Operations: Your health records may be used in our business planning and development operations, including improvements in our methods of operation and general administrative functions. We may also use the information in our overall compliance planning, healthcare review activities and arranging for legal and auditing functions.
Health Information Exchange Organization: Federal and state laws permit us to participate in organizations with other healthcare providers, insurers, and/or other health care industry participants and their subcontractors in order for these individuals and entities to share your health information with one another to accomplish goals that may include but not be limited to: improving the accuracy and increasing the availability of your health records; decreasing the time needed to access your information; aggregating and comparing your information for quality improvement purposes and such other purposes as may be permitted by law. You can opt-in for participation in this database.
There are certain circumstances under which we may use or disclose your health information without first obtaining your Acknowledgement or Authorization. Those circumstances generally involve public health and oversight activities, law- enforcement activities, judicial and administrative proceeding and in the event of death.
We may also be required to report instances of suspected or documented abuse, neglect, or domestic violence. We are required to report to appropriate agencies and law enforcement official’s information that you or another person is in immediate threat of danger to health or safety as a result of violent activity. We may contact you from time-to-time to provide appointment reminders or information about treatment. We will try to speak quietly to you in a manner reasonably calculated to avoid disclosing your health information to others. Specifically, there are eight reasons when we can disclose the minimum necessary client information:
NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
1. To qualified business associates with a business associate agreement in place
2. To State or Federal auditors or in the process of research
3. To medical providers in a medical emergency
4. To report child abuse or neglect
5. To another Akeela, Inc. personal
6. To report a crime committed on Akeela’s premises or against Akeela’s personnel
7. Suicidal or homicidal threats or attempts
8. As allowed by an authorizing court order
You have certain rights regarding your health information, as follows:
You may request that we restrict the uses and disclosures of your health record information for treatment, payment, and operations, or restrictions involving your care or payment related to that care. We are not required to agree to the restriction; however, if we agree, we will comply with it, except with regard to the above noticed exceptions, disclosures of the information to you, or if we are otherwise required by law to make a full disclosure without restriction.
You have a right to request receipt of confidential communications of your medical information by an alternative means or at an alternative location. If you require such an accommodation, you may be charged a fee for the accommodation and will be required to specify the alternative address or method of contact and how payment will be handled.
You have the right to inspect, copy and request amendments to your health records. Access to your health records will not include psychotherapy notes contained in them, or information compiled in anticipation of or for use in civil, criminal, or administrative action or proceeding to which your access is restricted by law. We may charge a reasonable fee for providing a copy of your health records or a summary of those records at your request, which includes the cost of copying, postage, and preparation of an explanation or summary of the information.
All requests for inspection, copying and/or amending information in your health records and all requests related to your rights under this Notice, must be made in writing and addressed to the Privacy Officer at our address. We will respond to your request in a timely fashion.
You have a limited right to receive an accounting of all disclosures we make to other persons or entities of your health information except for disclosures required for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations, disclosures that require an Authorization, disclosure incidental to another permissible use or disclosure and otherwise as allowed by law. We will not charge you for the first accounting in any twelve-month period; however, we will charge you a reasonable fee for each subsequent request for an accounting within the same twelve-month period.
If this notice was initially provided to you electronically, you have the right to obtain a paper copy of this notice and to take one home with you at your request.
You may file a written complaint to us or to the Secretary of Health and Human Services if you believe that your privacy rights with respect to confidential information in your health records have been violated. All complaints must be in writing and must be addressed to the Privacy Officer at Akeela, Inc. or to the person designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services if we cannot resolve your concerns. You will not be retaliated against for filing such a complaint. More information is available about complaints at the government’s web site: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa
ALL QUESTIONS CONCERNING THIS NOTICE OR REQUESTS MADE PURSUANT TO IT SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO:
