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NOTICE
OF PRIVACY PRACTICES AND POLICIES
MEMORIAL HOME
Moundridge, Kansas
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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.
We respect the privacy of your personal health information and are
committed to maintaining our resident's confidentiality. This Notice
applies to all information and records related to your care that Memorial
Home has received or created. It extends to information received or
created by Memorial Home's employees, staff, clergy, volunteers and
physicians. This Notice informs you about the possible uses and disclosures
of your personal health information. It also describes your rights
and our obligations regarding your personal health information.
We are required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act to:
- Maintain the privacy of your protected health information;
- Provide to you this detailed Notice of our legal duties, privacy
practices and policies relating to your personal health information;
- Abide by the terms of the Notice that are currently in effect.
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I. WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION FOR
TREATMENT, PAYMENT AND HEALTH CARE OPERATIONS.
You will be asked to sign an acknowledgement of receipt of this notice
allowing us to use and disclose your personal health information for
purposes of treatment, payment and health care operations. We have
generally described these uses and disclosures below and provide some
examples of the types of uses and disclosures we may make in each
of these categories. The examples provided are not meant to exhaustively
list every possible use and disclosure that may be made.
FOR TREATMENT. We will use and
disclose your personal health information in providing you with
treatment and services. We may disclose your personal health information
to Memorial and non-Memorial personnel who may be involved in your
care, such as physicians, nurses, nurse aides, ambulance personnel,
emergency medical technicians, pharmacists, your designated agent
for health care decisions and therapists. For example, a nurse caring
for you will report any change in your condition to your physician.
Additionally, we may disclose your personal health information to
ambulance personnel, hospital personnel, a pharmacist, psychologist
or psychiatrist that is involved in your care. We also may disclose
personal health information to individuals who will be involved
in your care after you leave Memorial, such as hospitals, ambulance
personnel, emergency medical technicians, physicians, nurses, nurse
aides, therapists and hospital administration officials.
FOR PAYMENT. We may use and disclose your personal health
information so that we can bill and receive payment for the treatment
and services that you receive at Memorial Home. For billing and
payment purposes, we may disclose your personal health information
to your agent for health care decisions, agent for financial decisions,
an insurance or managed care company, Medicare, Medicaid or other
third party payor and their authorized representatives. For example,
we may contact Medicare or your health plan to confirm your coverage
or to request prior approval for a proposed treatment or service.
FOR HEALTH CARE OPERATIONS.We may use and disclose your personal
health information for Memorial Home's operations. These uses and
disclosures are necessary to manage Memorial Home and to monitor
our quality of care. For example, we may use personal health information
to: (1) conduct quality assessment and improvement activities, (2)
review and evaluate the competence or qualifications of health care
professionals, including our staff, (3) evaluate health plan performance,
(4) conduct training programs, (5) train non-health care professionals,
including volunteers, (6) obtain or renew accreditation, certification
or licensing of the facility, (7) conduct or arranging for medical
review, legal services, and audit functions with accountants, (8)
conduct business planning and development, (9) various business
management and general administrative activities.
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II. WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE PERSONAL
HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU FOR OTHER SPECIFIC PURPOSES.
FACILITY DIRECTORY. Unless you
object, we will include certain limited information about you in
our facility directory. This information may include your name,
location in the facility, your general condition and your religious
affiliation. Our directory does not include specific medical information
about you. We may release information in our directory, except your
religious affiliation, to people who ask for you by name. We may
provide the directory information, including your religious affiliation,
to any member of the clergy.
RESIDENT DOOR POSTING. Unless you object, we will place your
name on a placard posted next to your door.
INDIVIDUALS INVOLVED IN YOUR CARE OR PAYMENT FOR YOUR CARE.
Unless you object, we may disclose your personal health information
to a family member or close personal friend, including clergy, who
is involved in your care. This will include, for example, your designated
agent for health care decisionmaking and all incidental disclosures
to family members, friends, and clergy present in your room at the
time of treatment, unless you manifest your objection to disclosure
in their presence.
DISASTER RELIEF. We may disclose your personal health information
to an organization assisting in a disaster relief effort.
AS REQUIRED BY LAW. We will disclose your personal health
information when required by law to do so.
PUBLIC HEALTH ACTIVITIES. We may disclose your personal health
information for public health activities. These activities may include,
for example:
- Reporting to a public health or other government authority
for preventing or controlling disease, injury or disability
- Reporting to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concerning
adverse events or problems with products for tracking products
in certain circumstances, to enable product recalls or to comply
with other FDA requirements
- To notify a person who may have been exposed to a communicable
disease or may otherwise be at risk of contracting or spreading
a disease or condition
- For certain purposes involving workplace illness or injuries
REPORTING VICTIMS OF ABUSE, NEGLECT OR EXPLOITATION (ANE).
If we believe that you have been a victim of abuse, neglect or exploitation,
we may use and disclose your personal health information to notify
government authority if required or authorized by law, or if you
agree to the report.
HEALTH OVERSIGHT ACTIVITIES. We may disclose your personal
health information to a health oversight agency for oversight activities
authorized by law. These may include, for example, our annual survey
by the Department of Health and Environment, audits, investigations,
and licensure actions or other legal proceedings. These activities
are necessary for government oversight of the health care system,
government payment or regulatory programs and compliance with civil
rights laws.
JUDICIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDINGS. We may disclose
your personal health information in response to a subpoena, discovery
request, or other lawful process. Efforts will be made to contact
you about the request so that you may obtain an order or agreement
protecting the information.
LAW ENFORCEMENT. We may disclose your personal health information
for certain law enforcement purposes, including:
- As required by law to comply with reporting requirements
- To comply with a court order, warrant, subpoena, summons,
investigative demand or similar process and To identify or locate
a suspect, fugitive, material witness or missing person
- When information is requested about the victim of a crime
if the individual agrees or under other limited circumstances
- To report information about a suspicious death
- To provide information about criminal conduct occurring at
the facility
- To report information in emergency circumstances about a crime;
- Where necessary to identify or apprehend an individual in
relation to a violent crime or an escape from lawful custody.
RESEARCH. We may allow personal health information of patients
from our facility to be used or disclosed for research purposes
provided that the researcher adheres to certain privacy protections.
Your de-identified health information may be used for research purposes
only if the privacy aspects of the research have been reviewed by
the Memorial Health Information Management Office, if the researcher
is collecting information in preparing a research proposal, if the
research occurs after your death, or if you authorize the use of
disclosure.
CORONERS, MEDICAL EXAMINERS, FUNERAL DIRECTORS, ORGAN PROCUREMENT
ORGANIZATIONS. We may release your personal health information
to a coroner, medical examiner, funeral director or, if you are
an organ donor, to an organization involved in the donation of organs
and tissue.
TO AVERT A SERIOUS THREAT TO HEALTH OR SAFETY. We may use
and disclose your personal health information when necessary to
prevent a serious threat to your health or safety of the public
or another person. However, any disclosure would be made only to
someone able to help prevent the threat.
MILITARY AND VETERANS. If you are a member of the armed
forces, we may use and disclose your personal health information
as required by military command authorities. We may also use and
disclose personal health information about foreign military personnel
as required by the appropriate foreign military authority.
WORKER'S COMPENSATION. We may use or disclose your personal
health information to comply with laws or insurance requirements
relating to worker's compensation or similar programs.
FUNDRAISING ACTIVITIES. We may use certain personal health
information to contact you in an effort to raise money for the facility
and its operations. We may disclose personal health information
to a foundation related to the facility so that the foundation may
contact you in raising money for the facility. In doing so, we would
only release contact information, such as your name, address, phone
number and the dates you received treatment or services at Memorial
Home.
APPOINTMENT REMINDERS AND TEST RESULTS. We may use or disclose
personal health information to remind you about an appointment or
to inform you that test results are available.
TREATMENT ALTERNATIVES. We may use or disclose personal
health information to inform you about treatment alternatives that
may be of interest to you.
HEALTH-RELATED BENEFITS AND SERVICES. We may use or disclose
personal health information to inform you about health-related benefits
and services that may be of interest to you.
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III. YOUR AUTHORIZATION IS REQUIRED
FOR OTHER USES OF PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION
We will use and disclose personal health information (other than as
described in this Notice or required by law) only with your written
Authorization. You may revoke your Authorization to use or disclose
personal health information, in writing, at any time. If you revoke
your Authorization, we will no longer use or disclose your personal
health information for the purposes covered by the Authorization,
except where we have already relied on the Authorization.
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IV. YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING YOUR PERSONAL
HEALTH INFORMATION
You have the following rights regarding your personal health information
at Memorial Home:
RIGHT TO REQUEST RESTRICTIONS.
You have the right to request restrictions on our use or disclosure
of your personal health information for treatment, payment or the
health care operation of Memorial Home. You also have the right
to restrict the personal health information we disclose about you
to a family member, friend, designated agent for health care decision
making or other person who is involved in your care or the payment
for your care.
We are required to agree to your requested restrictions, unless
you are being transferred to another health care institution, the
release of records is required by law, or the release of information
is needed to provide emergency treatment.
RIGHT TO ACCESS TO PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION. Your have
the right to request, either orally or in writing, your medical
or billing records or other written information that may be used
to make decisions about your care. We must allow you to inspect
your records within 24 hours of your request. If you request copies
of the records, we must provide you with copies within 2 days of
the request. We may charge a reasonable fee for our costs in copying,
mailing or delivering your requested information.
We may deny your request to inspect or receive copies in certain
limited circumstances. If you are denied access to personal health
information, in some cases you will have a right to request review
of the denial. This review would be performed by a licensed health
care professional designated by Memorial Home who did not participate
in the decision to deny.
RIGHT TO REQUEST AMENDMENT. You have the right to request
that Memorial Home amend any personal health information maintained
by us for as long as the information is kept by us. Your request
must be made in writing and must state the reason for the requested
amendment.
We may deny your request for amendment if the information:
- Was not created by Memorial Home, unless the originator of
the information is no longer available to act on your request;
- Is not part of the personal health information maintained
by or for Memorial Home;
- Is not part of the information to which you have a right of
access; or
- Is already accurate and complete as determined by Memorial
Home.
If we deny your request for amendment, we will give you a written
denial including the reasons for the denial and the right to submit
a written statement disagreeing with the denial.
RIGHT TO AN ACCOUNTING OF DISCLOSURES. You have the right
to request an "accounting" of our disclosures of your personal health
information. This is a listing of certain disclosures of your personal
health information made by the facility or by others on your behalf,
but does not include disclosures for treatment, payment, health
care operations or certain other exceptions.
To request an accounting of disclosures, you must submit a request
in writing, stating a time period beginning after April 13, 2003,
that is within five years from the date of your request. An accounting
will include, if requested: the disclosure date; the name of the
person or entity that received the information (and address, if
known); a brief description of the information disclosed; a brief
statement of the purpose of the disclosure or a copy of the authorization
or request; or certain summary information concerning multiple similar
disclosures. The first accounting provided within a 12-month period
will be free; for further requests, a fee will be charged. No accounting
provided will include a listing of incidental disclosures of your
personal health information.
RIGHT TO A PAPER COPY OF THIS NOTICE. You have the right
to obtain a paper copy of this Notice, even if you have agreed to
receive this Notice electronically. You may request a copy of this
Notice at any time. It is also posted in the Main Entrance airlock
and at other appropriate locations.
RIGHT TO REQUEST CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS. You have the
right to request that we communicate with you concerning personal
health matters in a certain manner or at a certain location. For
example - you can request that we contact you only at a certain
phone number. We will accommodate your reasonable requests.
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V. COMPLAINTS
If you believe that your privacy rights have been violated, you may
file a complaint with the facility or with the Office of Civil Rights
in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. To file a complaint
with the facility, contact: Linda Smith, HIPAA Privacy Officer, at
(620) 345-2901. We will not retaliate against you if you file a complaint.
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VI. CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE
We will promptly revise and distribute this Notice whenever there
is a material change to the uses or disclosures, your individual rights,
our legal duties, or other privacy practices stated in this Notice.
We reserve the right to change this Notice and to make the revised
or new Notice provisions effective for personal health information
already received and maintained by the facility as well as for all
personal health information we receive in the future. We will post
a copy of the current Notice at the main nurses station. In addition,
we will provide a copy of the revised Notice to all residents by mailing
the Notice with the next monthly billing statement.
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VII. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
If you have any questions about this Notice or would like further
information concerning your privacy rights, please contact Linda Smith,
HIPAA Privacy Officer, at (620) 345-2901.
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