Privacy Policy
NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
Effective Date: August 24, 2024
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION.
If you have any questions about this notice, please contact the Director of I.T. at 508-771-9599 ext. 120
Duffy Health Center, 94 Main Street, Hyannis, MA 02601.
WHO WILL FOLLOW THIS NOTICE.
This notice describes the information privacy practices followed by our employees, staff, and other personnel.
YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION.
This notice applies to the information and records we have about you, your health, health status, and the health care and services you receive from Duffy Health Center (DHC). Your health information may include information created and received by DHC, may be in the form of written or electronic records or spoken words, and may include information about your health history, health status, symptoms, examinations, test results, diagnoses, treatments, procedures, prescriptions, related billing activity and similar types of health-related information.
Duffy Health Center is committed to safeguarding your privacy and ensuring that your personal information is handled with care and respect. As part of our efforts to provide comprehensive and inclusive care, we collect demographic information including race, ethnicity, preferred language, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability status. This information helps us better understand and meet the diverse needs of our community.
Access to demographic data is restricted to authorized personnel only. Physical safeguards, such as secure filing systems and restricted access areas, are in place to prevent unauthorized access. Our electronic health record (EHR) systems are equipped with robust security measures to protect against unauthorized access, including encryption, user authentication, and audit trails. Demographic information will never be used to discriminate against or stigmatize any individual or group. We will not disclose your demographic information to any third parties without your explicit consent, except as required by law.
We are required by law to give you this notice. It will tell you about the ways in which we may use and disclose health information about you and describes your rights and our obligations regarding the use and disclosure of that information.
HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU.
We may use and disclose health information for the following purposes:
· For Treatment. We may use health information about you to provide you with medical treatment or services. We may disclose health information about you to doctors, nurses, technicians, hospital staff, or other personnel who are involved in taking care of you and your health.
· For example, we may communicate with a doctor caring for you in Cape Cod Hospital who needs to know about your health conditions and treatments.
· Staff in our organization may share information about you and disclose information to people who do not work for DHC in order to coordinate your care, such as phoning in prescriptions to your pharmacy, scheduling lab work, and ordering x-rays. We will request your permission before sharing health information with your family or friends unless you are unable to give permission to such disclosures due to your health condition.
· For Payment. We may use and disclose health information about you so that the treatment and services you receive at DHC may be billed to and payment may be collected from you, an insurance company, or a third party.
· For example, we may need to give your health plan information about a service you received here so your health plan will pay us or reimburse you for the service. We may also tell your health plan about a treatment you are going to receive to obtain prior approval or to determine whether your plan will pay for the treatment. For Health Care Operations. We may use and disclose health information about you to assist DHC organizational functions and make sure that you and our other patients receive quality care.
For example, we may use your health information to evaluate the performance of our staff in caring for you. We may also use health information about all or many of our patients to help us decide what additional services we should offer, how we can become more efficient, or whether certain new treatments are effective. We may also disclose your health information to health plans that provide you with insurance coverage and other health care providers that care for you. Our disclosures of your health information to plans and other providers may be to help these plans and providers improve care, reduce cost, coordinate, and manage health care and services, train staff and comply with the law.
SPECIAL SITUATIONS.
We may use or disclose health information about you for the following purposes, subject to all applicable legal requirements and limitations:
· To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety. We may use and disclose health information about you when necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or the health and safety of the Duffy Health Center facility or staff, the public, or another person.
· Required by Law. We will disclose health information about you when required to do so by federal, state, or local law.
· Research. We may use and disclose health information about you for research projects that are subject to a special approval process. We will ask you for your permission if the researcher will have access to your name, address, or other information that reveals who you are, or will be involved in your care at the office.
· Organ and Tissue Donation. If you are an organ donor, we may release health information to organizations that handle organ procurement or organ, eye, or tissue transplantation or to an organ donation bank, as necessary to facilitate such donation and transplantation.
· Military, Veterans, National Security, and Intelligence. If you are or were a member of the armed forces, or part of the national security or intelligence communities, we may be required by military command or other government authorities to release health information about you. We may also release information about foreign military personnel to the appropriate foreign military authority.
· Workers’ Compensation. We may release health information about you for worker’s compensation or similar programs. These programs provide benefits for work-related injuries or illness.
· Public Health Risks. We may disclose health information about you for public health reasons to prevent or control disease, injury or disability, or report births, deaths, suspected abuse or neglect, non-accidental physical injuries, reactions to medications or problems with products.
· Health Oversight Activities. We may disclose health information to a health oversight agency for audits, investigations, inspections, or licensing purposes. These disclosures may be necessary for certain state and federal agencies to monitor the health care system, government programs, and compliance with civil rights laws.
· Lawsuits and Disputes. If you are involved in a lawsuit or a dispute, we may disclose health information about you in response to a court or administrative order. Subject to all applicable legal requirements, we may also disclose health information about you in response to a subpoena.
· Law Enforcement. We may release health information if asked to do so by a law enforcement official in response to a court order, subpoena, warrant, summons, or similar process, subject to all applicable legal requirements.
· Coroners, Medical Examiners and Funeral Directors. We may release health information to a coroner or medical examiner. This may be necessary, for example, to identify a deceased person or determine the cause of death.
· Information Not Personally Identifiable. We may use or disclose health information about you in a way that does not personally identify you or reveal who you are.
· Family and Friends. We may disclose health information about you to your family members or friends if we obtain your verbal agreement to do so, or if we give you an opportunity to object to such a disclosure and you do not raise an objection. We may also disclose health information to your family or friends if we can infer from the circumstances, based on our professional judgment, that you would not object. For example, we may assume you agree to our disclosure of your personal health information to your spouse when you bring your spouse with you into the exam room or the hospital during treatment or while treatment is discussed.
In situations where you are not capable of giving consent (because you are not present or due to your incapacity or medical emergency), we may, using our professional judgment, determine that a disclosure to your family member or friend is in your best interest. In that situation, we will disclose only health information relevant to the person’s involvement in your care. For example, we may use our professional judgment and experience to make reasonable inferences that it is in your best interest to allow another person to act on your behalf to pick up, for example, filled prescriptions, medical supplies, or X-rays.
OTHER USES AND DISCLOSURES OF HEALTH INFORMATION.
We will not use or disclose your health information for any purpose other than those identified in the previous sections without your specific, written Authorization. Examples of disclosures requiring your authorization include disclosures to your partner, your spouse, your children, and your legal counsel.
We also will not use or disclose your health information for the following purposes without your specific, written Authorization:
· For Our Marketing Purposes. This does not include face-to-face communication about products or services that may be of benefit to you and about prescriptions you have already been prescribed.
· For The Purpose of Selling Your Health Information. We may receive payment for sharing your information for, as an example, public health purposes, research, and releases to you or others you authorize a release to as long as payment is reasonable and related to the cost of providing your health information.
· Any Disclosure of Your Psychotherapy Notes. These are the notes that your behavioral health provider maintains that record your appointments with your provider. These notesare stored separately from your medical record. I
If you give us Authorization to use or disclose health information about you, you may revoke that Authorization, in writing, at any time. If you revoke your Authorization, we will no longer use or disclose information about you for the reasons covered by your written Authorization, but we cannot take back any uses or disclosures already made with your permission.
We may need specific, written authorization from you to disclose certain types of specially protected information such as psychotherapy notes, HIV, substance abuse, mental health, and genetic testing information for purposes such as treatment, payment, and healthcare operations. Duffy Health Center is subject to the Code of Federal Regulations Title 42 Part 2 (’42 CFR Part 2’), which prohibits the disclosure of any information that identifies you as a person in alcohol or drug treatment without receiving your specific consent.
USES AND DISCLOSURES THAT REQUIRE US TO GIVE YOU AN OPPORTUNITY TO OBJECT.
We may disclose your Protected Health Information to disaster relief organizations that seek your Protected Health Information to coordinate your care or notify family and friends of your location or condition in a disaster. We will provide you with an opportunity to agree or object to such a disclosure whenever we can do so.
YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU.
You have the following rights regarding health information we maintain about you:
· Right to Obtain a Copy. You have the right to inspect and copy your health information, such as medical and billing records, that we keep and use to make decisions about your care. You must submit a written request to Medical Records in order to inspect and/or copy records of your health information. If you request a copy of the information, we may charge a fee for the costs of copying, mailing or other associated supplies. We will notify you of the cost involved and you may choose to withdraw or modify your request at that time before any costs are incurred. A modified request may include requesting a summary of your medical record. If you request to view a copy of your health information, we will not charge you for inspecting your health information.
We may deny your request to inspect and/or copy your record or parts of your record in certain limited circumstances. If you are denied copies of or access to, health information that we keep about you, you may ask that our denial be reviewed. If the law gives you a right to have our denial reviewed, we will select a licensed health care professional to review your request and our denial. The person conducting the review will not be the person who denied your request, and we will comply with the outcome of the review.
Right to Amend. If you believe health information, we have about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask us to amend the information. You can request an amendment if the information is kept by DHC.
To request an amendment, complete and submit a medical record amendment/correction form.
We may deny your request for an amendment if your request is not in writing or does not include a reason to support the request. In addition, we may deny or partially deny your request if you ask us to amend information that:
· We did not create, unless the person or entity that created the information is no longer available to make the amendment.
· Is not part of the health information that we keep;
· You would not be permitted to inspect and copy; or
· Is accurate and complete.
If we deny or partially deny your request for amendment, you have the right to submit a rebuttal and request the rebuttal be made a part of your medical record. Your rebuttal must be 10 pages or less, and we have the right to file a rebuttal responding to your medical record. You also have the right to request that all documents associated with the amendment request (including rebuttal) be transmitted to any other party any time that portion of the medical record is disclosed.
· Right to an Accounting of Disclosures. You have the right to request an “accounting of disclosures.” This is a list of the disclosures we made of medical information about you for purposes other than treatment, payment, health care operations, when specifically authorized by you and a limited number of special circumstances involving national security, correctional institutions, and law enforcement.
To obtain this list, you must submit your request in writing to the CEO. It must state a time period, which may not be longer than six years. Your request should indicate in what form you want the list (for example, on paper, electronically.) The first list you request within a 12-month period will be free. For additional lists, we may charge you for the costs of providing the list. We will notify you of the cost involved and you may choose to withdraw or modify your request at that time before any costs are incurred.
· Right to Request Restrictions. You have the right to request a restriction or limitation on the health information we use or disclose about you for treatment, payment, or health care operations. You also have the right to request a limit on the health information we disclose about you to someone who is involved in your care or the payment for it, like a family member or friend. For example, you could ask that we not use or disclose information about a surgery you had.
We are not required to agree to your request. If we do agree, we will comply with your request unless the information is needed to provide you with emergency treatment, or we are required by law to use or disclose the information.
We are required to agree to your request if you pay for treatment, services, supplies, and prescriptions “out of pocket” and you request the information not be communicated to your health plan for payment or health care operations purposes.
There may be instances where we are required to release this information if required by law.
To request restrictions, you may complete and submit the Request for Restriction on Use/Disclosure of Medical Information to the CEO.
· Right to Request Confidential Communications. You have the right to request that we communicate with you about medical matters in a certain way or at a certain location. For example, you can ask that we only contact you at work or by mail.
· Right to a Paper Copy of This Notice. You have the right to a paper copy of this notice.
You may ask us to give you a copy of this notice at any time. Even if you have agreed to receive it electronically, you are still entitled to a paper copy. You may also find a copy of this Notice on our website.
CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE.
We reserve the right to change this notice and make it effective for medical information we already have about you and any information we receive in the future. We will post the current notice at our location(s) with its effective date in the top right-hand corner. You are entitled to a copy of the notice currently in effect.
We will inform you of any significant changes to this Notice. This may be through our newsletter, a sign prominently posted at our location(s), a notice posted on our website or other means of communication.
BREACH OF HEALTH INFORMATION. We will inform you if there is a breach of your unsecured health information.
COMPLAINTS. If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with our office or with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services at:
Office for Civil Rights Region I
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Government Center
J.F. Kennedy Federal Building – Room 1875
Boston, MA 02203
To file a complaint with DHC, contact:
CEO
94 Main Street
Hyannis, MA 02601
508-771-7517, ext. 101
You will not be penalized for filing a complaint.