Notice of Privacy Practices
ENGLISH
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THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
Walton County Fire Rescue (“WCFR”) is required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) to maintain the privacy of your protected health information (“PHI”). We are also required by law to provide you with the attached detailed Notice of Privacy Practices (“Notice”) explaining our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your PHI.
Uses and Disclosures for Treatment, Payment or
Healthcare Operations
WCFR may use or disclose your PHI without your authorization, for the following purposes:
Treatment
We can use your PHI for treatment provided to you by us and other medical personnel (including doctors and nurses who give orders to allow us to provide treatment to you). For example, we may share PHI via radio or telephone to the hospital or dispatch center as well as provide the hospital with a copy of the record we create in the course of providing you with treatment and transport.
Payment
We may use and disclose your PHI to get reimbursed for the services that we provide to you. This includes
such things as submitting bills to insurance companies (either directly or through a third-party billing company), managing billed claims and collecting outstanding accounts. We may also disclose PHI to another healthcare provider or entity for the payment activities of the provider or entity that receives the PHI (such as your hospital).
Healthcare Operations
We may use or disclose your PHI for things such as quality assurance activities, licensing, and training programs to ensure that our personnel meet our standards of care and follow established policies and procedures, obtaining legal and financial services, conducting business planning, processing grievances and complaints, creating reports that do not individually identify you for data collection purposes. We may also disclose your PHI to another healthcare provider (such as the hospital to which you are transported) for the healthcare operations activities of the entity that receives the information as long as the entity receiving the information has or has had a relationship with you and the PHI pertains to that relationship.
Other Uses and Disclosure of Your PHI We Can Make Without Authorization
WCFR is also permitted to use or disclose your PHI without your written authorization in the following situations:
- For healthcare fraud and abuse detection or for activities related to compliance with the law;
- To a family member, other relative, or close personal friend or other individual involved in your care;
- To a public health authority in certain situations (such as reporting a birth, death or disease, as required by law), as part of a public health investigation, to report child or adult abuse, neglect or domestic violence, to report adverse events such as product defects, or to notify a person about exposure to a possible communicable disease, as required by law;
- For health oversight activities including audits or other actions undertaken by the government (or their contractors) by law to oversee the healthcare system;
- For judicial and administrative proceedings, as required by a court or administrative order, or in some cases in response to a subpoena or other legal process;
- For law enforcement activities in limited situations;
- To avert a serious threat to the health and safety of a person or the public at large;
- For workers’ compensation purposes in compliance with workers’ compensation laws;
- To coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors for identifying a deceased person, determining cause of death, or carrying on their duties as authorized by law;
- If you are an organ donor, we may release health information to organizations that handle organ procurement or organ and as necessary to facilitate organ donation and transplantation.
Uses and Disclosures of Your PHI That Require Your
Written Authorization
Any other use or disclosure of PHI, other than those listed above, will generally only be made with your written authorization. You make revoke this authorization at any time by contacting us. The law specifically requires that we obtain your written authorization before using or disclosing your: (a) psychotherapy notes, other than for the purpose of carrying out our own treatment, payment or health care operations purposes, (b) PHI for marketing when we receive payment to make a marketing communication; or (c) PHI when engaging in a sale of your PHI.
Your Rights Regarding Your PHI
As a patient, you have a number of rights with respect to your PHI, including:
Right to access your PHI
You have the right to inspect and/or obtain a paper or electronic copy of most of the PHI that we collect and maintain about you. You also have the right to request that we transmit your PHI to a third party. We ask patients to make access requests in writing by contacting our HIPAA Compliance Officer.
Right to request an amendment of your PHI
You have the right to ask us to amend PHI that we maintain about you. Requests for amendments to your PHI should be made in writing and you should contact our HIPAA Compliance Officer if you wish to make a request for amendment.
Right to request an accounting of certain disclosures of your PHI
You may request an accounting of certain disclosures of your PHI. WCFR will provide an accounting of those disclosures that we are required to account for under HIPAA. If you wish to request an accounting of disclosures of your PHI, you should contact, our HIPAA Compliance Officer and make a request in writing.
Right to request restrictions on uses and disclosures of your PHI
You have the right to request that we restrict how we use and disclose your PHI for treatment, payment or healthcare operations purposes, or to restrict the information that we can provide to family, friends and other individuals involved in your healthcare. However, we are only required to abide by a requested restriction under limited circumstances, and it is generally our policy that we do not agree to any restrictions unless required by law to do so. If you wish to request a restriction on the use or disclosure of your PHI, you should contact our HIPAA Compliance Officer and make a request in writing.
Right to notice of a breach of unsecured PHI
If we discover that there has been a breach of your unsecured PHI, we will notify you about that breach by first-class mail dispatched to the most recent address that we have on file. If you prefer to be notified about breaches by electronic mail, please contact our HIPAA Compliance Officer.
Right to request confidential communications
You have the right to request that we send your PHI to an alternate location (e.g., somewhere other than your home address) or in a specific manner (e.g., by email rather than regular mail). If you wish to request that we communicate PHI to a specific location or in a specific format, you should contact our HIPAA Compliance Officer and make a request in writing.
Internet, Email and the Right to Obtain Copy of
Paper Notice
A complete copy of this Notice is prominently posted on our web site at www.WaltonSO.org you may download an electronic copy for your records. You can also request that we provide our Notice of Privacy Practices to you electronically instead of on paper. You may always request a paper copy of our Notice.
Revisions to the Notice
WCFR is required to abide by the terms of the version of this Notice currently in effect. However, WCFR reserves the right to change the terms of this Notice at any time, and the changes will be effective immediately and will apply to all PHI that we maintain. Any material changes to the Notice will be promptly posted in our facilities and on our web site, if we maintain one. You can get a copy of the latest version of this Notice by contacting our HIPAA Compliance Officer.
Your Legal Rights and Complaints
You also have the right to complain to us, or to the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, if you believe that your privacy rights have been violated. You will not be retaliated against in any way for filing a complaint with us or to the government.
HIPAA Compliance Officer
If you have any questions or if you wish to file a complaint or exercise any rights listed in this Notice, please contact our HIPAA Compliance Officer.
Español
Aviso de Prácticas de Privacidad
IMPORTANTE / ATENCIÓN:
ESTE AVISO DESCRIBE CÓMO SE PUEDE UTILIZAR Y DIVULGAR LA INFORMACIÓN MÉDICA SOBRE USTED Y CÓMO USTED
PUEDE ACCEDER A ESTA INFORMACIÓN. POR FAVOR REVISE CUIDADOSAMENTE.
La Ley de Responsabilidad y Portabilidad del Seguro de Salud (“HIPAA”) exige que el Departamento de Bomberos del Condado de Walton (“WCFR”) mantenga la privacidad de su información de salud protegida (“ISP”). La ley también nos exige que le proporcionemos el Aviso detallado de prácticas de privacidad (“Aviso”) que explica nuestras obligaciones legales y prácticas de privacidad con respecto a su ISP.
Usos y Divulgaciones para Tratamiento, Pago o
Operaciones de Salud
WCFR puede usar o divulgar su ISPI sin su autorización, para los siguientes propósitos:
Tratamiento
Podemos usar su ISP para el tratamiento que le brindamos nosotros y otro personal médico (incluidos médicos y enfermeras que nos dan órdenes para permitirnos brindarle tratamiento). Por ejemplo, podemos compartir su ISP por radio o teléfono con el hospital o centro de despacho, así como proporcionarle al hospital una copia del registro que creamos en el curso de brindarle tratamiento y transporte.
Pago
Podemos usar y divulgar su PHI para obtener un reembolso por los servicios que le brindamos. Esto incluye tales como enviar facturas a compañías de seguros (ya sea directamente o a través de una compañía de facturación externa), administrar reclamos facturados y cobrar cuentas pendientes. También podemos divulgar su ISP a otro proveedor o entidad de atención médica para las actividades de pago del proveedor o entidad que recibe la ISP (como su hospital).
Operaciones de Salud
Podemos usar o divulgar su PHI para cosas como actividades de garantía de calidad, licencias y programas de capacitación para asegurar que nuestro personal cumpla con nuestros estándares de atención y siga las políticas y procedimientos establecidos, obteniendo servicios legales y financieros, llevando a cabo la planificación comercial, procesando reclamos y quejas, creando informes que no lo identifican individualmente para fines de recopilación de datos. También podemos divulgar su PHI a otro proveedor de atención médica (como el hospital al que lo transportan) para las actividades de operaciones de atención médica de la entidad que recibe la información siempre que la entidad que recibe la información tenga o haya tenido una relación con usted y la ISP se relacione con esa relación.
Otros Usos y Divulgación de su ISP que Podemos Hacer Sin Autorización
WCFR también puede usar o divulgar su ISP sin su autorización por escrito en las siguientes situaciones:
- Para detección de fraude y abuso en la atención médica o para actividades relacionadas con el cumplimiento de la ley;
- A un miembro de la familia, otro pariente o amigo personal cercano u otra persona involucrada en su cuidado;
- A una autoridad de salud pública en ciertas situaciones (como informar un nacimiento, muerte o enfermedad, según lo exige la ley), como parte de una investigación de salud pública, para informar abuso, negligencia o violencia doméstica de niños o adultos, para informar eventos adversos como como defectos del producto, o para notificar a una persona sobre la exposición a una posible enfermedad transmisible, según lo exige la ley;
- Para actividades de supervisión de la salud, incluidas auditorías u otras acciones emprendidas por el gobierno (o sus contratistas) por ley para supervisar el sistema de salud;
- Para procedimientos judiciales y administrativos, según lo requiera una orden judicial o administrativa, o en algunos casos en respuesta a una citación u otro proceso legal;
- Para actividades de aplicación de la ley en situaciones limitadas;
- Para evitar una amenaza grave para la salud y la seguridad de una persona o del público en general;
- Para fines de compensación de trabajadores de conformidad con las leyes de compensación de trabajadores;
- A médicos forenses, examinadores médicos y directores de funerarias por identificar a una persona fallecida, determinar la causa de la muerte o cumplir con sus obligaciones según lo autoriza la ley;
- Si usted es un donante de órganos, podemos divulgar información de salud a organizaciones que manejan la obtención de órganos u órganos y, según sea necesario, para facilitar la donación y el trasplante de órganos.
Usos y Divulgaciones de su ISP que Requieren Su
Autorización Escrita
Cualquier otro uso o divulgación de PHI, que no sean los enumerados anteriormente, generalmente solo se realizará con su autorización por escrito. Puede revocar esta autorización en cualquier momento poniéndose en contacto con nosotros. La ley requiere específicamente que obtengamos su autorización por escrito antes de usar o divulgar sus: (a) notas de psicoterapia, que no sean con el propósito de llevar a cabo nuestro propio tratamiento, pago u operaciones de atención médica, (b) ISP para marketing cuando recibimos el pago para hacer una comunicación de marketing; o (c) ISP cuando realiza una venta de su ISP.