NOTICE OF PRIVACY POLICIES
HIPAA, The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, established rights and protections for health care consumers and created responsibilities for healthcare providers.
The HIPAA Privacy Rule of April 14, 2001 requires healthcare providers to implement administrative technical, and physical safeguards to ensure the security of your individually identifiable health information that we collect to conduct our business.
The following is informing you of the implementation of these Privacy Policies at our office.
During your office visit, an electronic record of your session is made in your file. This contains results of your verbal and electronic responses to questions as well as the physical assessment, diagnosis, treatment, recommendations and referrals made by the doctor. Any data collected from other physicians including, but not limited to, correspondences, laboratory and imaging results will also be entered into your electronic file. This information is shared with the staff on an as-needed basis. The information is also made available to our electronic billing staff and when necessary, to your insurance company. We do not share your health information with any family member without your express written consent. We do request the right to call a family member at the number you provided us with for emergencies, should one occur while you are in our care.
HIPAA explicitly allows disclosure of patient health information without consent for the following situations: emergency circumstances; identification of the body of a deceased person or the cause of death; public health needs; research; oversight of the healthcare system; judicial and administrative proceedings; limited law enforcement activities; and activities related to national defense and security.