PRIVACY POLICIES:
It is the policy of our practice that all physicians and staff preserve the integrity and confidentiality of our patients' Protected Health Information (PHI). This policy is to ensure that our practice and its physician and staff have the necessary medical and PHI to provide the highest quality medical care possible while protecting the confidentiality of our patients' PHI to the greatest degree possible. Patients should not be afraid to provide information to our practice and its physician and staff for purposes of treatment, payment and health care operations (TPO). To that end, our practice and staff will:
- Adhere to the standards set forth in the Notice of Privacy Practices
- Collect, use and disclose PHI only in conformance with state and federal laws and current patient covenants and/or authorizations, as appropriate. Our practice will not use or disclose PHI for uses outside of the practice's TPO (Treatment, Payment, Operations), such as marketing, employment, life insurance applications, etc. without an authorization from the patient.
- Use and disclose PHI to remind patients of their appointments unless they instruct us not to recognize that PHI. PHI collected about patients will be accurate, timely, complete, and available when needed. We will implement reasonable measures to protect the integrity of all PHI maintained about patients.
- Recognize that patients have a right to privacy and respect their dignity at all time. We will respect patients' privacy to the extent consistent with providing the highest quality medical care possible.
- Act as responsible information stewards and treat all PHI as sensitive and confidential. Therefore, our practice will treat all PHI data as confidential in accordance with professional ethics, accreditation standards, and legal requirements. We will not disclose PHI data unless patients (or an authorized representative) have properly authorized the release or the release is otherwise authorized by law.
- Recognize that, although our practice "owns" the medical record, patients have a right to inspect and obtain a copy of their PHI. In addition, patients have a right to request an amendment to their medical records if they believe information is inaccurate or incomplete. To that end, or practice will:
- Permit patients access to their medical records when their written requests are approved by our physician.
- If we deny their request, then we must inform the patients that they may request a review of our denial. In such cases, we will have an on-site health care professional review the patients' appeal.
- Provide patients an opportunity to request the correction of inaccurate or incomplete PHI in their medical records in accordance with the law and professional standards.
- Maintain a list of certain disclosures of PHI for purposes other than TPO for each patient and those made pursuant to an authorization as required by HIPAA rules. We will provide this list to patients upon request, so long as their requests are in writing.
- Adhere to any restrictions concerning the use or disclosure of PHI that patients have requested and have been approved by our practice.
Our practice will not tolerate violations of the above policy. Violations of this policy are grounds for disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment and criminal or professional sanctions.
|
|
