It is our policy that all physicians and staff preserve the integrity and the confidentiality of protected health information (PHI) pertaining to our clients. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that our physicians and staff have the necessary medical and PHI to provide the highest quality medical care possible while protecting the confidentiality of the PHI of our clients to the highest degree possible.
Clients should not be afraid to provide information to our physicians and staff for purposes of treatment, payment and healthcare operations (TPO). To that end, our physicians 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 client covenants and/or authorizations, as appropriate. Our practice and its physicians and staff will not use or disclose PHI for uses outside of practice's TPO, such as marketing, employment, life insurance applications, etc. without an authorization from the client.
-- Use and disclose PHI to remind clients of their appointments unless they instruct us not to.
-- Recognize that PHI collected about clients must be accurate, timely, complete, and available when needed. Our physicians and staff will implement reasonable measures to protect the integrity of all PHI maintained about clients.
- Recognize that clients have a right to privacy.
-- Our physicians and staff respect the client’s individual dignity at all times.
-- Our physicians and staff will respect client’s privacy to the extent consistent with providing the highest quality medical care possible and with the efficient administration of the facility.
-- Act as responsible information stewards and treat all PHI as sensitive and confidential. Consequently, our physicians and staff will - Treat all PHI data as confidential in accordance with professional ethics, accreditation standards, and legal requirements.
- Not disclose PHI data unless the client (or his or her authorized representative) has properly authorized the release or the release is otherwise authorized by law.
-- Recognize that, although our practice "owns" the medical record, the client has a right to inspect and obtain a copy of his/her PHI. In addition, clients have a right to request an amendment to his/her medical record if he/she believe his/her information is inaccurate or incomplete.
- Provide clients an opportunity to request the correction of inaccurate or incomplete PHI in their medical records in accordance with the law and professional standards.
-- All physicians and staff will maintain a list of certain disclosures of PHI for purposes other than TPO for each client and those made pursuant to an authorization as required by HIPAA rules.
We will provide this list to clients upon request, so long as their requests are in writing.
-- All physicians and staff will adhere to any restrictions concerning the use or disclosure of PHI that clients have requested and have been approved by us.
-- All physicians and staff must adhere to this policy. We will not tolerate violations of this policy. Violation of this policy is grounds for disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment and criminal or professional sanctions in accordance with our practice's personnel rules and regulations.
-- We may change this privacy policy in the future.
Any changes will be effective upon the release of a revised privacy policy and will be made available to clients upon request.