Henderson & Walton Women's Center - Privacy Notice - Henderson & Walton Women's Center

Privacy Notice

This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to your information. Please review it carefully.

Understanding Your Health Record/Information

Each time you visit a hospital, physician, or other healthcare provider, a record of your visit is made. Typically, this record contains your symptoms, examination and test results, diagnoses, treatment, and a plan for future care or treatment. This information, often referred to as your health or medical record, serves as a:

- Basis for planning your care and treatment
- Means of communication among the many health professionals who contribute to your care
- Legal document describing the care you received
- Means by which you or a third-party payer can verify that services billed were actually provided
- A tool in educating health professionals
- A source of data for medical research
- A source of information for public health officials charged with improving the health of the nation
- A source of data for facility planning and marketing
- A tool with which we can assess and continually work to improve the care we render and the outcomes we achieve
Understanding what is in your record and how your health information is used helps you to:
- Ensure its accuracy
- Better understand who, what, when, where, and why others may access your health information
- Make more informed decisions when authorizing disclosure to others

Your Health Information Rights

Although your health record is the physical property of the healthcare practitioner or facility that compiled it, the information belongs to you. You have the right to:

- Request a restriction on certain uses and disclosures of your information as provided by 45 CFR 164.522 (We are not required to agree to your request)
- Obtain a paper copy of this Notice upon request
- Inspect and obtain a copy of your health record as provided by 45 CFR 164.524
- Amend your health record as provided in 45 CFR 164.528
- Obtain an accounting of disclosures of your health information as provided in 45 CFR 164.528
- Request communications of your health information by alternative means or alternative locations
- Revoke your authorization to use or disclose health information except to the extent that action has already been taken in reliance on your authorization
- You have a right to restrict the disclosure of information regarding services for which you have paid in full or on an out of pocket basis. This information can be released only upon your written authorization.
- You have the right to be notified of any breach of your unsecured healthcare information
Our Responsibilities

This organization is required to:
- Maintain the privacy of your health information
- Provide you with a notice as to our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to information we collect and maintain about you
- Abide by the terms of this notice
- Notify you if we are unable to agree to a requested restriction
- Accommodate reasonable requests you may have to communicate health by alternative means or at alternative locations

We reserve the right to change this notice and to make the new provisions effective for all protected health information we maintain. Should our notice change, we will post of copy in all patient waiting rooms and have it available on our website for your review. We will not use or disclose your health information except as described in this notice unless you give us written authorization to do so.

Examples of Disclosures for Treatment, Payment and Healthcare Operations

We will use your health information for treatment.
For example: Information obtained by a nurse, physician, or other member of your healthcare team will be recorded in your record and used to determine the course of treatment that should work best for you. Your physician will document in your record his or her expectations of the members of your healthcare team. Members of your healthcare team will then record the actions they took and their observations. In that way, the physician will know how you are responding to treatment. We will also provide your physician or a subsequent healthcare provider with copies of various reports that should assist him or her in your treatment.

We will use your health information for payment.
For example: Henderson and Walton may release medical information about you to an insurance company or other company that might be involved with the payment of your medical bills. The information on or accompanying the bill may include information that identifies you, as well as your diagnosis, procedures, and supplies used.

We will use your health information for regular healthcare operations.
For example: Physicians or medical staff, may use your information in your health record to look at the quality of care given in our office in your case and others like it. This information will be used in an effort to continually improve the quality and effectiveness of the healthcare and service we provide.

Business Associates: There are some services provided in our organization through contacts with business associates. Examples include transcription service, a copy service we use when making copies of your health record. When these services are contracted, we may disclose your health information to our business associate so that they can perform the job we have asked them to do and bill you or third-party payer for services rendered. To protect your health information, however, we require the business associate to appropriately safeguard your information.

Patient Directory: Unless you notify us that you object, we may include certain limited information about you in the Hospital patient directory while you are a patient at the Hospital. This information may include your name, location in the Hospital, general condition, and your religious affiliation. This information may be provided to members of the clergy and, except for religious affiliation, to other people who ask for you by name.

Notification: We may use or disclose information to notify or assist in notifying a family member, personal representative, or another person responsible for your care, your location and general conditions.

Communication with family: Health professionals, using their best judgment, may disclose to a family member, other relative, close personal friend or any other person you identify, health information relevant to that person’s involvement in your care or payment related to your care. Henderson and Walton may also communicate health information to a Language Intrepreter and/or Interpreter for the hearing and sight impaired as a means of ensuring quality care for these patients.

Fundraising Activities: Individuals have the right to “opt” out of fundraising communications. If you do not want to be contacted regarding fundraising efforts, please notify our office in writing so that we may be informed of your decision.

Research: We may disclose infoomation to researchers when their research has been approved by an institutional review board that has reviewed the research proposal and established protocols to ensure the privacy of your health information. Before any information is given to a researcher that can be used to identify an individual, that individual will be given the opportunity to “opt” out of such activities and will only be done with your written authorization.

Marketing: We may contact you to provide appointment reminders or information about treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.

Uses and Disclosures of medical information that require written patient authorization:
- Psychotherapy notes
- Disclosures of protected health information that constitute a “sale”
- Marketing and Research

Organ and Tissue Donation: If you are an organ donor, we may release medical information to organizations that handle organ procurement as necessary to facilitate organ/tissue donation and transplantation.

Military and Veterans: If you are a member of the armed forces, we may release medical information about you as required by military command authorities.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA): We may disclose to the FDA health information relative to adverse events with respect to food, supplements, product and product defects, or post marketing surveillance information to enable product recalls, repairs, or replacement.

Worker compensation: We may disclose health information to the extent authorized by and to the extent necessary to comply with laws relating to workers compensation or similar programs established by law.

Public Health: As required by law, we may disclose your health information to public health or legal authorities charged with preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability.

Correctional institution: Should you be an inmate of a correctional institution, we may disclose to the institution or agents there of health information necessary for your health and the health and safety of other individuals.

Law enforcement: We may release medical information if asked to do so by a law enforcement official for the following reasons:
*In response to a court order, subpoena, warrant, summons or similar process
*To identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person
*About a death we believe that may be the result of criminal conduct
*About criminal conduct at the hospital
*In emergency circumstances to report a crime or an identifiable threat to a third party.
*National Security and intelligence activities in conjunction and cooperation with protective services and/or federal officials
* We will disclose medical information about you when required to do so by federal, state or local law

OTHER USES OF MEDICAL INFORMATION

If there are any other uses and disclosures of medical information not covered by this notice or the laws that apply to us will be made only with your written authorization. If you provide us permission to use or disclose medical information about you, you may revoke that permission, in writing, at any time. If you revoke authorization, we will no longer use or disclose medical information about you for the reasons covered by your written authorization. Please understand that we are unable to take any back disclosures that have already been made with your permission, and that we are required to retain our records of the care that was provided to you.

For More Information or to Report a Problem

If you have questions and would like additional information, you may contact the practice’s Privacy Officer @ (205) 930-1800.

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you can file a complaint with the practice’s Privacy Officer, or with the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. There will be no retaliation for filing a complaint with either the Privacy Officer or the Office for Civil Rights. The address for the OCR is listed below:

Office for Civil Rights
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Room 509F, HHH Building
Washington, D.C. 20201

Effective Date: August 15th , 2013