Patient Education
Patient Privacy
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBED HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY.
Our goal is to take appropriate steps to attempt to safeguard any medical or other persona information that is provided to us. We are required to: (i) maintain the privacy of medical information provided to us; (ii) proved notice of our legal duties and privacy practices; and (iii) abide by the terms of our Notice of Privacy Practices currently in effect.
WHO WILL FOLLOW THIS NOTICE
This notice describes the practices of our employees and staff as well as.
- All of these individuals, entities, sites, and locations will follow the terms of this notice. In addition, these individuals, entities, sites, and locations mayshare medical information with each other for the treatment, payment, or health care operations purposes described in this notice.
INFORMATION COLLECTED ABOUT YOU
In the ordinary course of receiving treatment and health care services from us, you will be providing us with personal information such as:
- Your name, address, and phone number.
- Information relating to your medical history.
- Your insurance information and coverage.
- Information concerning your doctor, nurse, or other medical providers.
In addition, we will gather certain medical information about you and will create a record of the care provided to you. Some information also may be provided to us by other individuals or organizations that are part of your "circle of care" - such as the referring physician, your otherdoctors, your health plan, and close friends or family members.
INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS
You have the right to ask for restrictions on the ways in which we use and disclose your medical information beyond those imposed by law. We will consider your request, but we are not required to accept it.
You have the right to request that you receive communications containing your protected health information from us by alternative means or at alterative locations. For example, youmay ask that we only contact you at home or by mail.
Except under certain circumstances, you have the right to inspect and copy medical and billing records about you. If you ask for copies of this information, we may charge you a fee for copying and mailing.
If you believe that information in your records is incorrect or incomplete, you have the right to ask us to correct the existing information or connect this missing information. Under certaincircumstances, we may deny your request.
You have a right to ask for a list of instances when we have used or disclosed you’re medical information for reasons other than your treatment, payment for services famished to you, ourhealth care operations, or disclosures you give us authorization to make. If you ask for this information from us more than once every twelve months, we may charge you a fee.
You have the right to a copy of this Notice in paper form. You may ask us for a copy at any time.
To exercise any of your rights, please contact us in writing: Privacy officer, Sierra Nevada ENT Associates. P.O. Box 4270, Carson City, Nevada 89702
HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE INFORMATION ABOUT YOU
We may use and disclose personal and identifiable health information about you in different ways. All of the ways in which we may use and disclose information will fall within one ofthe following categories, but not every use or disclosure in a category will be listed.
We may disclose information in response to a warrant, subpoena, or other order of a court or administrative hearing body, and in connection with certain government investigations and
HIPPA law enforcement activities, as the law requires.
We may release personal health information to a coroner or medical examiner to identify a deceased person or determine the cause of death. We also may release personal healthinformation to organ procurement organizations, transplant centers, and eye or tissue banks.
We may release your personal information to workers' compensation or similar programs.
Information about you also will be disclosed when necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or the health and safety of others.
We may use or disclose certain personal health information about your condition and treatment for research purposes where an Institutional Review Board or a similar bodyreferred to as a Privacy Board determines that your privacy interests will be adequatelyprotected in the study. We may also use and disclose your protected health information toprepare or analyze a research protocol and for other research purposes.
If you are a member of the Armed Forces, we may release personal health information about you as required by military command authorities. We also may release personal healthinformation about foreign military personnel to the appropriate foreign military authority.
We may disclose your protected health information for legal or administrative proceedings that involve you. We may release such information upon order of a court or administrativetribunal. We may also release protection health information in the absence of such an order and in response to a discovery or other lawful request, if efforts have been made to not if u youor secure a protective order.
If you are an inmate, we may release protected health information about you to a correctional institution where you are incarcerated or to law enforcement officials.
Finally, we may disclose protected health information for national security and intelligence activities and for the provision of protective services to the President of the United States andother officials or foreign heads of state.
OUR PROFESSIONAL BUSINESS ASSOCIATES
We sometimes work with outside individuals and businesses that help us operate our business successfully. We may disclose your health information to these business associatesso that they can perform the tasks that we hire them to do. Our professional businessassociates must guarantee to us, in writing, that they will respect the confidentiality of your personal and identifiable health information (Business Associate Agreement on file).
INDIVIDUALS INVOLVED IN YOUR CARE OR PAYMENT FORYOUR CARE
We may disclose information to individuals involved in your care or in the payment for your care, but we will obtain your agreement before doing so. This includes people andorganizations that are part of your "circle of care" - such as your spouse, your other doctors,or an aide who may be providing services to you. Although we must be able to speak withyour other physicians or health care providers, you can let us know if we should not speakwith other individuals, such as your spouse or family.
Appointment Reminders: We may use and disclose medical information to contact you as a reminder that you have an appointment or that you should schedule an appointment.
Treatment Alternatives: We may use and disclose your personal health information in order to tell you about or recommend possible treatment options, alterative or health-related services that may be of interest to you.
OTHER USES AND DISCLOSURES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We are required to obtain written authorization from you for any other uses and disclosuresof medical information other than those described above. If you provide us with such permission, you may revoke that permission, in writing, at any time. If you revoke yourpermission, we will no longer use or disclose personal information about you for the reasonscovered by your written authorization. We will be unable to take back any disclosures alreadymade based upon your original permission.
CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE
We reserve the right to make changes to this notice at any time. We reserve the right to make the revised notice effective for personal health information we have about you as well as any information we receive in the future. In the event there is a material change to this Notice, the revised Notice will be posted. In addition, you may request a copy of the revised Notice atany time.
COMPLAINTS / COMMENTS
If you have any complaints concerning our Privacy Policy, you may contact the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services at: 200 Independence Avenue SW, Room
509F, HHH Building, Washington, D.C.2020l (e-mail: ocrmail@hhs.gov). You also may contact us at: Privacy Officer, Siena Nevada ENT Associates, P.O. Box 4270, Carson City Nevada 89702.
To obtain more information concerning this Notice of Privacy Practices, you may contact our Privacy Officer at: Privacy Officer, Sierra Nevada ENT Associates, P.O. Box 4270, Carson City, Nevada 89702.