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                                                                     Behavioral Health Records

                                                                     Notice of Privacy Practices

THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW YOUR MEDICAL INFORMATION MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY

Introduction: To our clients

This privacy notice tells you how we handle your records. It tells how we use this information here in our office, how we share it with other professionals and organizations, and how you can see it. We want you to know all of this so that you can make the best decisions for yourself and your family. If you have any questions or want to know more about anything in this notice, please ask our compliance officer for more explanations or more details.

What we mean by your medical information

Each time you visit us information is collected about you and your physical and mental health. It may be information about your past, present, or future health or conditions, or the tests and treatment you got from us or from others, or about payment for health care. The information we collect from you is called “PHI,” which stands for “protected health information.” This information goes into your medical records in our office. 

In this office, your PHI is likely to include these kinds of information:

• Your history: Things that happened to you as a child; your school and work experiences; your marriage and other personal history.
• Reasons you came for treatment: Your problems, complaints, symptoms, or needs.
• Diagnoses: These are the medical terms for your problems or symptoms.
• A treatment plan: This is a list of the treatments and other services that we think will best help you.
• Progress notes: Each time you come in, we write down some things about how you are doing, what we notice about you, and what you tell us.
• Records we get from others who treated you or evaluated you.
• Psychological test scores, school records, and other reports.
• Information about medications you took or are taking.
• Legal matters.
• Billing and insurance information

There may also be other kinds of information that go into your health care records here. We use PHI for many purposes. For example, we may use it:

• To plan your care and treatment.
• To decide how well our treatments are working for you.
• When we talk with other health care professionals who are also treating you, such as your family doctor or the professional who referred you to us.
• To show that you actually received services from us, which we billed to you or to your health insurance company.
• For teaching and training other health care professionals.
• For medical or psychological research.
• For public health officials trying to improve health care in this area of the country.
• To improve the way we do our job by measuring the results of our work.

When you understand what is in your record and what it is used for, you can make better decisions about who, when, and why others should have this information.

Although your health care records in our office are our physical property, the information belongs to you. You can read your records, and if you want a copy we can make one for you (but we may charge you for the costs of copying and mailing, if you want it mailed to you). In some very rare situations, you cannot see all of what is in your records. If you find anything in your records that you think is incorrect or believe that something important is missing, you can ask us to amend (add information to) your records, although in some rare situations we don’t have to agree to do that. 

Privacy and the laws about privacy

We are required to tell you about privacy because of a federal law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). HIPAA requires us to keep your PHI private and to give you this notice about our legal duties and our privacy practices. We will obey the rules described in this notice. If we change our privacy practices, they will apply to all the PHI we keep. We will also post the new notice of privacy practices in our office where everyone can see. You or anyone else can also get a copy from our privacy officer at any time. 

How your protected health information can be used and shared

Except in some special circumstances, when we use your PHI in this office or disclose it to others, we share only the minimum necessary PHI needed for those other people to do their jobs. The law gives you rights to know about your PHI, to know how it is used, and to have a say in how it is shared. So we will tell you more about what we do with your information.

Mainly, we will use and disclose your PHI for routine purposes to provide for your care, and we will explain more about these below. For other uses, we must tell you about them and ask you to sign a written authorization form. However, the law also says that there are some uses and disclosures that don’t need your consent or authorization.

1. Uses and disclosures with your consent

After you have read this notice, you will be asked to sign a separate consent form to allow us to use and share your PHI. In almost all cases we intend to use your PHI here or share it with other people or organizations to provide treatment to you, arrange for payment for our services, or some other business functions called “health care operations.”  In other words, we need information about you and your condition to provide care to you. You have to agree to let us collect the information, use it, and share it to care for you properly. Therefore, you must sign the consent form before we begin to treat you. If you do not agree and consent we cannot treat you. 

a. The basic uses and disclosure: For treatment, payment, and health care operations

Next we will tell you more about how your information will be used for treatment, payment, and health

care operations.

For treatment: We use your medical information to provide you with psychological treatments or services. These might include individual, family, or group therapy; psychological, educational, or vocational testing; treatment planning; or measuring the benefits of our services.

We may share your PHI with others who provide treatment to you when you sign a release for us to do so.

For payment: We may use your information to bill you, your insurance, or others, so we can be paid for the treatments we provide to you. We may contact your insurance company to find out exactly what your insurance covers. We may have to tell them about your diagnoses, what treatments you have received, and the changes we expect in your conditions. We will need to tell them about when we met, your progress, and other similar things.

For health care operations: Using or disclosing your PHI for health care operations goes beyond our care and your payment. For example, we may use your PHI to see where we can make improvements in the care and services we provide. We may be required to supply some information to some government health agencies, so they can study disorders and treatment and make plans for services that are needed. If we do, your name and personal information will be removed from what we send.

b. Other uses and disclosures in health care

Appointment reminders. We may use and disclose your PHI to reschedule or remind you of appointments for treatment or other care. If you want us to call or write to you only at your home or your work, or you prefer some other way to reach you, we usually can arrange that. Just tell us.

Treatment alternatives. We may use and disclose your PHI to tell you about or recommend possible treatments or alternatives that may be of help to you.

Other benefits and services. We may use and disclose your PHI to tell you about health-related benefits or services that may be of interest to you.

Research. We may use or share your PHI to do research to improve treatments—for example, comparing two treatments for the same disorder, to see which works better or faster or costs less. In all cases, your name, address, and other personal information will be removed from the information given to researchers. If they need to know who you are, we will discuss the research project with you, and we will not send any information unless you sign a special authorization form.

Business associates. We hire other businesses to do some jobs for us. In the law, they are called our “business associates.” Examples include a copy service to make copies of your health records, and a billing service to figure out, print, and mail our bills. These business associates need to receive some of your PHI to do their jobs properly. To protect your privacy, they have agreed in their contract with us to safeguard your information.

2. Uses and disclosures that require your authorization

If we want to use your information for any purpose besides those described above, we need your permission on an authorization form. We don’t expect to need this very often. If you do allow us to use or disclose your PHI, you can cancel that permission in writing at any time. We would then stop using or disclosing your information for that purpose. Of course, we cannot take back any information we have already disclosed or used with your permission.

3. Uses and disclosures that don’t require your consent or authorization

The law lets us use and disclose some of your PHI without your consent or authorization in some cases. Here are some examples of when we might do this.

a. When required by law:  There are some federal, state, or local laws that require us to disclose PHI. We have to report suspected child abuse. If you are involved in a lawsuit or legal proceeding, and we receive a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process, we may have to release some of your PHI. We will only do so after trying to tell you about the request, consulting your lawyer, or trying to get a court order to protect the information they requested.  We have to disclose some information to the government agencies that check on us to see that we are obeying the privacy laws.

b. For law enforcement purposes

We may release medical information if asked to do so by a law enforcement official to investigate a crime or criminal.

c. For public health activities

We may disclose some of your PHI to agencies that investigate diseases or injuries.

d. Relating to decedents

We may disclose PHI to coroners, medical examiners, or funeral directors, and to organizations relating to organ, eye, or tissue donations or transplants. 

e. For specific government functions

We may disclose PHI of military personnel and veterans to government benefit programs relating to eligibility and enrollment. We may disclose your PHI to workers’ compensation and disability programs, to correctional facilities if you are an inmate, or to other government agencies for national security reasons. 

f. To prevent a serious threat to health or safety

If you threaten to harm yourself or others and we come to believe that there is a serious threat to your health or safety, or that of another person or the public, we can disclose some of your PHI. We will only do this to persons who can prevent the danger. Also in cases where there is a belief you are gravely ill and unable to care for yourself and pose a danger to yourself or others.

4. Uses and disclosures where you have an opportunity to object

We can share some information about you with your family or close others. We will only share information with those involved in your care and anyone else you choose, such as close friends or clergy. We will ask you which persons you want us to tell, and what information you want us to tell them about your condition or treatment. You can tell us what you want, and we will honor your wishes as long as it is not against the law.

If it is an emergency, and so we cannot ask if you disagree, we can share information if we believe that it is what you would have wanted and if we believe it will help you if we do share it. If we do share information, in an emergency, we will tell you as soon as we can. If you don’t approve we will stop, as long as it is not against the law.

5. An accounting of disclosures we have made when we disclose your PHI, we may keep some records of whom we sent it to, when we sent it, and what we sent. You can get an accounting (a list) of many of these disclosures.

E. Your rights concerning your health information

1. 1. You can ask us to communicate with you about your health and related issues in a particular way or at a certain place that is more private for you. We will fulfill all reasonable requests.
2. You have the right to ask us to limit what we tell people involved in your care or with payment for your care, such as family members and friends. We don’t have to agree to your request, but if we do agree, we will honor it except when it is against the law, or in an emergency, or when the information is necessary to treat you.
3. You have the right to look at the health information we have about you, such as your medical and billing records. You can get a copy of these records, but we may charge you. 
4. If you believe that the information in your records is incorrect or missing something important, you can ask us to make additions to your records to correct the situation. You have to make this request in writing and send it to our privacy officer. You must also tell us the reasons you want to make the changes.
5. You have the right to a copy of this notice. If we change this notice, we will post the new one in our waiting area, and you can always get a copy from the privacy officer.
6. You have the right to file a complaint if you believe your privacy rights have been violated. You can file a complaint with our privacy officer and with the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. All complaints must be in writing. Filing a complaint will not change the health care we provide to you in any way. You may have other rights that are granted to you by the laws of your state, and these may be the same as or different from the rights described above. We will be happy to discuss these situations with you now or as they arise.

F. If you have questions or problems

If you need more information or have questions about the privacy practices described above, please let me know so that we can discuss it. If you have a problem with how your PHI has been handled, or if you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you have the right to file a complaint with us and with the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. We promise that we will not in any way limit your care here or take any actions against you if you complain. If you have any questions or problems about this notice or our health information privacy policies, please let me know, so that we can discuss it.

The effective date of this notice is 11/1/2018

For more information/question contact our compliance officer Kim Honan at: 1-800-208-7006.