Your Information. Your Rights. Our Responsibilities.
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.
Your Rights
You have the right to:
- Get a copy of your paper or electronic medical record
- Correct your paper or electronic medical record
- Request confidential communication
- Ask us to limit the information we share
- Get a list of those with whom we’ve shared your information
- Get a copy of this privacy notice
- Choose someone to act for you
- File a complaint if you believe your privacy rights have been violated
Your Choices
You have some choices in the way that we use and share information as we:
- Tell family and friends about your condition
- Provide disaster relief
- Include you in a hospital directory
- Provide mental health care
- Market our services and sell your information
- Raise funds
- Our Uses and Disclosures
We may use and share your information as we:
- Treat you
- Run our organization
- Bill for your services
- Help with public health and safety issues
- Do research
- Comply with the law
- Respond to organ and tissue donation requests
- Work with a medical examiner or funeral director
- Address workers’ compensation, law enforcement, and other government requests
- Respond to lawsuits and legal actions
Your Rights
When it comes to your health information, you have certain rights. This section
explains your rights and some of our responsibilities to help you.
- Get an electronic or paper copy of your medical record
You can ask to see or get an electronic or paper copy of
your medical record and other health information we have about you. Ask us how
to do this.
We will provide a copy or a summary of your health information, usually within
30 days of your request. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee.
Ask us to correct your medical record
You can ask us to correct health information about you that you think is
incorrect or incomplete. Ask us how to do this.
We may say “no” to your request, but we’ll tell you why in writing within 60
days.
- Request confidential communications
You can ask us to contact you in a specific way (for
example, home or office phone) or to send mail to a different address.
We will say “yes” to all reasonable requests.
Ask us to limit what we use or share
You can ask us not to use or share certain health information for treatment,
payment, or our operations. We are not required to agree to your request, and
we may say “no” if it would affect your care.
If you pay for a service or health care item out-of-pocket in full, you can ask
us not to share that information for the purpose of payment or our operations
with your health insurer. We will say “yes” unless a law requires us to share
that information.
- Get a list of those with whom we’ve shared information
You can ask for a list (accounting) of the times we’ve
shared your health information for six years prior to the date you ask, who we
shared it with, and why.
We will include all the disclosures except for those about treatment, payment,
and health care operations, and certain other disclosures (such as any you
asked us to make). We’ll provide one accounting a year for free but will charge
a reasonable, cost-based fee if you ask for another one within 12 months.
- Get a copy of this privacy notice
You can ask for a paper copy of this notice at any time, even if you have agreed to receive the notice electronically. We will provide you with a paper copy promptly.
- Choose someone to act for you
If you have given someone medical power of attorney or if
someone is your legal guardian, that person can exercise your rights and make
choices about your health information.
We will make sure the person has this authority and can act for you before we
take any action.
- File a complaint if you feel your rights are violated
You can complain if you feel we have violated your rights by
contacting us using the information on page 1.
You can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Office for Civil Rights by sending a letter to 200 Independence Avenue, S.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20201, calling 1-877-696-6775, or visiting
www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/.
We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.
Your Choices
For certain health information, you can tell us your choices about what we
share. If you have a clear preference for how we share your information in the
situations described below, talk to us. Tell us what you want us to do, and we
will follow your instructions.
In these cases, you have both the right and choice to tell us to:
- Share information with your family, close friends, or others involved in your care
- Share information in a disaster relief situation
- Include your information in a hospital directory
If you are not able to tell us your preference, for example,
if you are unconscious, we may go ahead and share your information if we
believe it is in your best interest. We may also share your information when
needed to lessen a serious and imminent threat to health or safety.
In these cases we never share your information unless you give us written
permission:
- Marketing purposes
- Sale of your information
- Most sharing of psychotherapy notes
- In the case of fundraising
- We may contact you for fundraising efforts, but you can tell us not to contact you again.
Our Uses and Disclosures
How do we typically use or share your health information?
We typically use or share your health information in the following ways.
Treat you
We can use your health information and share it with other professionals who
are treating you.
Example: A doctor treating you for an injury asks another doctor about your overall
health condition.
Run our organization
We can use and share your health information to run our practice, improve your
care, and contact you when necessary.
Example: We use health information about you to manage your treatment and
services.
Bill for your services
We can use and share your health information to bill and get payment from
health plans or other entities.
Example: We give information about you to your health insurance plan so it will pay for your services.
How else can we use or share your health information?
We are allowed or required to share your information in other ways – usually in
ways that contribute to the public good, such as public health and research. We
must meet many conditions in the law before we can share your information for
these purposes.
- Help with public health and safety issues
- We can share health information about you for certain situations such as:
- Preventing disease
- Helping with product recalls
- Reporting adverse reactions to medications
- Reporting suspected abuse, neglect, or domestic violence
- Preventing or reducing a serious threat to anyone’s health or safety
- Do research
- We can use or share your information for health research.
- Comply with the law
- We will share information about you if state or federal laws require it, including with the Department of Health and Human Services if it wants to see that we’re complying with federal privacy law.
- Respond to organ and tissue donation requests
- We can share health information about you with organ procurement organizations.
- Work with a medical examiner or funeral director
- We can share health information with a coroner, medical examiner, or funeral director when an individual dies.
- Address workers’ compensation, law enforcement, and other government requests
- We can use or share health information about you:
- For workers’ compensation claims
- For law enforcement purposes or with a law enforcement official
- With health oversight agencies for activities authorized by law
- For special government functions such as military, national security, and presidential protective services
- Respond to lawsuits and legal actions
- We can share health information about you in response to a court or administrative order, or in response to a subpoena.
Our Responsibilities
- We are required by law to maintain the privacy and security of your protected health information.
- We will let you know promptly if a breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your information.
- We must follow the duties and privacy practices described in this notice and give you a copy of it.
- We will not use or share your information other than as described here unless you tell us we can in writing. If you tell us we can, you may change your mind at any time. Let us know in writing if you change your mind.
- Patients utilizing our SMS communications expressly acknowledge that SMS may not be secure communications and may result in the disclosure of PHI. SMP will use reasonable efforts to limit any PHI contained in SMS messages, but SMP shall not be responsible for the misuse of PHI that is properly sent to patients via SMS technology. Patients may opt out of SMS communications at any time.
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Changes to the Terms of this Notice
We can change the terms of this notice, and the changes will apply to all the
information we have about you. The new notice will be available upon request,
in our office, and on our web site.
Effective Date November 25, 2019