Coberly Plastic Surgery & MED SPA
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU, AS THE PATIENT OF THIS PRACTICE MAY BE USE AND DISCLOSED, AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION, THIS IS REQUIRED BY THE PRIVACY REGULATIONS CREATED AS A RESULT OF THE HEALTH INSURANCE PORTABILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 1996 (HIPPA). PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY.
Uses and Disclosures
How we may use and disclose health information about you
Treatment. We may use health information about you to provide you with health care treatment or services. We may disclose health information about you to doctors, nurses, technicians, health students, or other personnel who are involved in taking care of you. They may work at our offices, at the hospital if you are hospitalized under our supervision, or at another doctor’s office, lab, pharmacy, or other health care provider to whom we may refer you for consultation, to take x-rays, to perform lab tests, to have prescriptions filled, or for other treatment purposes. For example, a doctor treating you for a broken leg may need to know if you have diabetes because diabetes may slow the healing process. In addition, the doctor may need to tell the dietitian at the hospital if you have diabetes so that we can arrange for appropriate meals. We may also disclose health information about you to an entity assisting in a disaster relief effort so that your family can be notified about your condition, status and location.
Payment: We may use and disclose health information about you so that the treatment and services you receive from us may be billed to and payment collected from you, an insurance company, or a third party. For example, we may need to give your health plan information about your office visit so you health plan will pay us or reimburse you for the visit. 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 cover the treatment.
Health Care Operations: We may use and disclose health information about you for operations of our health care practice. These uses and disclosures are necessary to run our practice and make sure that all of our patients receive quality care. For example, we may use health information to review our treatment and services and to evaluate the performance of our staff in caring for you. We may also combine health information about many patients to decide what additional services we should offer, what services are needed, whether certain new treatments are effective, or to compare how we are doing with others and to see where we can make improvements. We may remove information that identifies you from this set of health information so others may use it to study health care delivery without learning who our specific patients are.
Other Uses and Disclosures
Required By Law. We will disclose health information about you when required to do so by federal, state or local law. The use or disclosure will be made in compliance with the law and will be limited to the relevant requirements of the law. You will be notified, if required by law, of any such uses or disclosures.
Public Health. 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 public or another person. Any disclosure, however, would only be to someone able to help prevent the threat.
Communicable Diseases. We may disclose your protected health information, if authorized by law, to a person who may have been exposed to a communicable disease or otherwise may be at risk of contracting or spreading the disease or condition.
Health Oversight. We may disclose protected health information to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law, such as audits, investigations, and inspections. Oversight agencies seeking this information include government agencies that oversee the health care system, government benefit programs, other government regulatory programs and civil right laws.
Abuse or Neglect. We may disclose your protected health information to a public health authority that is authorized by law to receive reports of child abuse or neglect. In addition, we may disclose your protected health information if we believe that you have been a victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence to the governmental entity or agency authorized to receive such information. In this case, the disclosure will be made consistent with the requirements of applicable federal and state laws.
Food and Drug Administration. We may disclose your protected health information to a person or company required by the Food and Drug Administration for the purpose of quality, safety , or effectiveness of FDA-regulated products or activities including, to report adverse events, product defects or problems, biologic product deviations, to track products; to enable product recalls; make repairs or replacements, or to conduct post marketing surveillance, as required.
Legal Proceedings. We may disclose protected health information in the course of ay judicial or administrative proceeding, in response to an order of a court or administrative tribunal (to the extent such disclosure is expressively authorized), or in certain conditions in response to a subpoena, discovery request or other lawful purposes.
Military and Veterans. If you are a member of the armed forces or separated/discharged from military services, we may release health information about you as required by military command authorities or the Department of Veterans Affairs as may be applicable. We may also release health information about foreign military personnel to the appropriate foreign military authorities.
Workers’ Compensation. We may release health information about you for workers’ 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 activities We will only make this disclosure if you agree or when required or authorized by law.
Health Oversight Activities. We may disclose health information to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law. These oversight activities include, for example, audits, investigations, inspections and licensure. These activities are necessary for the government 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. We may also disclose health information about you in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process by someone else involved in the dispute, but only if efforts have been made to tell you about the request or to obtain an order protecting the information requested.
Law Enforcement. We may release health information, so long as applicable legal requirements are met, for law enforcement purposes. These law enforcement purposes include (1) legal processes and otherwise required by law, (2) limited information requests for identification and location purposes, (3) pertaining to victims of a crime, (4) suspicion that death has occurred as a result of criminal conduct, (5) in the event that a crime occurs on the premises of our practice, and (6) medical emergency (not on our practices premises) and it is likely that a crime has occurred.
Coroners, Health Examiners and Funeral Directors. We may release health information to a coroner or health examiner. This may be necessary, for example, to identify a deceased person or determine the cause of death. We may also release health information about patients to funeral directors as necessary to carry out their duties.
National Security and Intelligence Activities. We may release health information about you to authorized federal officials for intelligence, counterintelligence, and other national security activities authorized by law.
Protective Services for the President and Others. We may disclose health information about you to authorized federal officials so they may provide protection to the President, other authorized persons or foreign heads of state or conduct special investigations.
Inmates. If you are an inmate of a correctional institution or under the custody of a law enforcement official, we may release health information about you to the correctional institution or law enforcement official. This release would be necessary (1) for the institution to provide you with health care; (2) to protect your health and safety or the health and safety of others; or (3) for the safety and security of the correctional institution.
Your rights regarding health information about you
Right to a Paper Copy of This Notice. You have the right to obtain a paper copy of this notice at any time. However, at the time of first service rendered after April 14, 2003, it is required that you receive a paper copy. To obtain a copy, please request it from Carolyn Dudka, Privacy Official. You may also obtain a copy of this notice either from our website, www.psa-gr.com, or by requesting a copy of this notice be sent through electronic mail to [email protected]. If we know that the electronic message has failed to be delivered, a paper copy of the notice will be provided. Even if you have received a notice electronically, you still retain the right to receive a paper copy upon request. If the first service delivery is delivered electronically, other than by telephone, we provide electronic notice in the same medium, automatically and contemporaneously in response to a first request for service.
Patient’s Rights:
Patients have the right to request a restriction on who we release your information to. We will always disclose the minimum necessary. Patients have the right to restrict or revoke the use or disclosure of health information to carry out treatment, payment, or health care operations.
Access: Patients have the right to request a copy of their protected health information upon written request. The copy will be provided within 15 days of receiving the request at a cost to the patient of $0.25 per page.
Amendment: Patients have the right to ask us to amend their protected health information when that information is inaccurate or incomplete. We will make reasonable efforts to provide the amendment to persons that have been identified as needing it, and to persons that we know might rely on the information to the patient’s detriment.
Disclosure Accounting: Patients have a right to an accounting of the disclosures of their protected health information by Coberly Plastic Surgery and by our business associates for up to 6 years immediately preceding the accounting request.
Confidential Communications Requirements: Patients may request an alternative means or location for receiving communications of protected health information by means other than those that Coberly Plastic Surgery typically employs.
Complaints: Please contact us at 813-448-6550 for information and for making complaints. Patients who feel their privacy with regards to personal or health care information has been compromised may contact our office at 813-448-6550, or the Department of Health and Human Services directly.