HIPAA NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
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.
If you have any questions about this notice, please contact:
Inland Imaging Privacy Official
801 S Stevens
Spokane WA 99204
(509) 363-7797
This Notice of Privacy Practices (“Notice”) describes your rights to access and control your protected health information. Please review it carefully.
“PHI” is information about you, including information that may identify you and that relates to your past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition and related to health care services.
We understand that health information about you and your health is personal. We are committed to protecting health information about you.
This Notice applies to all of the records of your care generated by Inland Imaging, whether made by Inland Imaging personnel or by your doctor.
Other doctors may have different policies or notices regarding their use and disclosure of your health information.
1. CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE
We are required by law to abide by the terms of this Notice. We are required by law to keep your PHI private and to provide you with a notice of our legal duties and our privacy practices. We may change the terms of our notice, at any time. We will make any revised Notice of Privacy Practices available, or the Notice is available on our website.
2. HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU
The following categories describe different ways that we use and disclose health information. Not every use or disclosure in a category will be listed separately. However, all of the ways we are permitted to use and disclose information will fall within one of the categories.
► For Treatment:
· We may use health information about you to provide you with medical treatment or services
· We may disclose information about you to doctors, nurses, technicians, or other healthcare personnel who are involved in your care
· We may also contact you regarding treatment alternatives
► For Payment:
· We may use and disclose health information about you so that the treatment and services you receive at Inland Imaging can be billed and payment can be collected from you, an insurance company, or a third party.
► For Health Care Operations:
· We may use and disclose health information about you to assess quality and improve services
· We may also use and disclose information to review the qualifications and performance of our health care providers and to train our staff
· We may use and disclose information to conduct or arrange for medical quality review by your health plan; accounting, legal, risk management, and insurance services; and audit functions, including fraud and abuse detection and compliance programs.
For Appointments: We may call you by name in the waiting room when we are ready to see you. We may contact you, as necessary, to remind you of your appointments by phone or email and
messages left on voicemail, text message, or with family members unless you specifically ask us to communicate with you through a different method.
For Health-Related Benefits and Services: We may also use and disclose your PHI, as necessary, to provide you with information about health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.
Individuals Involved in Your Care or Payment for Your Care: We may release health information about you to a friend or family member who is involved in your medical care. We may also give information to someone who helps pay for your care. We may disclose health information about you to an entity assisting in a disaster relief effort so that your family can be notified about your condition, status or location.
► To Business Associates: We contract with individuals and entities to perform jobs for us or to provide certain types of services that may require them to create, maintain, use, and/or disclose your PHI. We may disclose your PHI to a Business Associate, but only after they agree in writing to safeguard your information. Examples include billing services, accounting services, and information technology services.
► As Required By Law: We will disclose health information about you when required to do so by federal, state or local law.
► For Fundraising: We may disclose your name, address, contact information, age, gender, date of birth, or other PHI to a business associate or related foundation for fundraising.
► For Marketing: We may provide you with general marketing information about our services or give you small promotional gifts when we see you in person without your written authorization.
► To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety: We may use and disclose health information about you when necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or the health and safety of the public or another person. Any disclosure would only be to someone able to help prevent the threat.
3. Other Permitted and Required Uses and Disclosures of PHI That May be Made Without Your Authorization or Opportunity to Object
► Military Activity and National Security: When the appropriate conditions apply, we may use or disclose PHI of individuals who are Armed Forces personnel (1) for activities deemed necessary by appropriate military command authorities; (2) for the purpose of a determination by the Department of Veterans Affairs of your eligibility for benefits; or (3) to foreign military authority if you are a member of that foreign military services. We may also disclose your PHI to authorized federal officials for conducting national security and intelligence activities, including for the provision of protective services to the President or others legally authorized.
► Workers' Compensation: Your PHI may be disclosed by us as authorized to comply with workers’ compensation laws and other similar legally-established programs. We can disclose health information to an employer about light-duty work without any authorization from you. We can disclose health information to an employer without an authorization from you if the information is about a workplace injury or illness, a workplace medical surveillance, or a return-to-work examination.
► Public Health Risks. We may disclose your PHI for public health activities and purposes to a public health authority that is permitted by law to collect or receive the information. The disclosure will be made for the purpose of controlling disease, injury, or disability; to report the abuse or neglect of children, elders or dependent adults; to notify the appropriate government authority if we believe a patient has been the victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence. We may also disclose your PHI, if directed by the public health authority, to a foreign government agency that is collaborating with the public health authority. We may disclose your PHI, if authorized by law, to a person who may have been exposed to a communicable disease or may otherwise be at risk of contracting or spreading the disease or condition.
► Health Oversight Activities. We may disclose your PHI to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law, such as audits, investigations, and inspections. Oversight agencies seeking such information would include government agencies that oversee health care systems, government benefit programs, and government agencies that oversee compliance with civil rights laws.
► Legal Proceedings, Lawsuits, and Disputes. We may disclose your PHI in response to a court or administrative order or in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process to the extent such disclosure is expressly authorized.
► Law Enforcement. We may disclose your PHI for law enforcement purposes when applicable legal requirements are met. These law enforcement purposes include: (1) legal processes, or as otherwise required by law, (2) identification or location of a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person; (3) investigations pertaining to victims of a crime; (4) suspicion that death has occurred as a result of criminal conduct; (5) investigations of a crime that occurred on our premises; and (6) in a medical emergency (not on our premises) in which it is likely that a crime may have been committed.
► Coroners, Medical Examiners, Funeral Directors, and Organ Donation: We may disclose your PHI to a coroner or medical examiner for identification purposes, for determining cause of death, or for the coroner or medical examiner to perform other duties authorized by law. We may also disclose PHI to a funeral director, as authorized by law, in order to permit the funeral director to carry out their duties. PHI may be used and disclosed for cadaveric organ, eye, or tissue donation purposes.
► Research: Under certain circumstances, we may use and disclose PHI about you for research purposes. For example, a research project may involve comparing the health and recovery of all patients who receive one medication to those who received another, for the same condition. All research projects, however, are subject to a special approval process. This process evaluates a proposed research project and its use of PHI, trying to balance the research needs with patients' need for privacy of their PHI. Before we use or disclose PHI for research, the project will have been approved through this research approval process, but we may, however, disclose PHI about you to people preparing to conduct a research project, for example, to help them look for patients with specific medical needs, so long as the information they review does not leave Inland Imaging. We will ask for your specific permission if the researcher will have access to your name, address or other information that reveals who you are, or will be involved in your care at Inland Imaging.
► Inmates: If you are an inmate of a correctional institution or under the custody of a law enforcement official, we may disclose your PHI to the correctional institution or law enforcement official. This release would be necessary (1) for the institution to provide you with health care; (2) to protect your health and safety or that of others; or (3) for the safety and security of the correctional institution.
4. YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION
The health and billing records we create and maintain are the property of Inland Imaging. The PHI in it however, generally belongs to you. You have a right to:
Receive, read, and ask questions about this Notice
Request and receive a paper copy of this Notice
Access copies of your PHI in a form and format requested by you, and that your request for access can be fulfilled by either hard copy, electronic or to a personal health app by submitting your request in writing to our Medical Records Department. (We may deny your request to inspect and copy only in certain very limited circumstances. If you are denied access to protected health information, you may request that the denial be reviewed. Another licensed health care professional chosen by Inland Imaging will review your request and the denial. The person conducting the review will not be the person who denied your request. We will comply with the outcome of the review).
Ask us to change your health information that is inaccurate or incomplete. We will not remove or change information in your record, only amend what is inaccurate or incomplete.
Opt-out of receiving fundraising communications
► Right to an Accounting of Certain Disclosures: You have the right to request an "accounting of disclosures.” An accounting of disclosures is a listing of the disclosures we have made of your health information, except as it was used for treatment, payment, or health care operations. It also excludes disclosures we may have made to you, to family members or friends involved in your care, or for notification purposes.
To request this list or accounting of disclosures, you must submit your request in writing to the Privacy Officer identified at the beginning of this Notice. Your request must state a time period which may not be longer than six. The first list you request within a 12 month period will be free. For additional lists, we may charge you for the costs of providing the list. We will notify you of the cost involved and you may choose to withdraw or modify your request before any costs are incurred.
► Right to Request Restrictions: You have the right to request a restriction or limitation on the PHI we use or disclose about you for treatment, payment or health care operations. You may request that any part of your PHI not be disclosed to family members or friends who may be involved in your care or for notification purposes as described in this Notice.
We are not required to agree to a restriction that you may request. If we believe it is in your best interest to permit use and disclosure of your PHI, or if the information is needed to provide you with emergency treatment, use and disclosure will not be restricted.
To request restrictions, you must make your request in writing to the Privacy Officer identified at the beginning of this Notice of Privacy Practices. In your request, you must tell us: (1) what information you want to limit; (2) whether you want to limit our use, our disclosure, or both; and (3) specifically, to whom you want the restriction to apply.
► Right to Request Restriction of Disclosure for services for which you have paid out-of-pocket: You have the right to request PHI to a health plan if the disclosure is for payment or health care operations and pertains to a health care service for which you have paid out-of-pocket in full at the time of service.
· To request restrictions, you must make your request known at the time you schedule your services, or no later than when you arrive for services. The service must be paid in full prior to the service being provided. Payment can be made by you, a family member, or another person who is paying on your behalf.
► Right to be Notified in the Event of a Breach of Unsecured PHI. You have the right to be notified in the event of a breach of your PHI.
· A “Breach” is the unauthorized acquisition, access, use, or disclosure of PHI which compromises the security or privacy of such information. It is not considered a “breach” if it can be shown that there is a low probability that your PHI has been compromised.
· We will use the current industry standards of risk assessment to investigate every instance of a possible breach, including (1) what PHI is involved, (2) who used the PHI or to whom the disclosure was made, (3) whether the PHI was actually acquired or viewed; and (4) the extent to which the risk to the PHI has been reduced.
► Uses and disclosures that require your authorization:
· You may revoke such authorization at any time. Your revocation does not affect information that has already been released. It also does not affect any action taken before we receive the revocation. Sometimes, you cannot cancel an authorization, if its purpose was to obtain insurance.
· Psychotherapy Notes: if we record or maintain psychotherapy notes, we must obtain your authorization for most uses and disclosures of such notes
· Marketing Communications: we must obtain your authorization to use or disclose your information for marketing purposes, other than for face-to-face communications with our, promotional gifts of nominal value, and communications with you related to currently prescribed drugs, such as refill reminders.
· Sale of Health Information: disclosures that constitute a sale of your health information require your authorization.
· Other uses: Other uses not described in this Notice will be made only with your written authorization.
5. PRIVACY COMPLAINTS
If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with Inland Imaging or with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. To file a complaint with Inland Imaging, contact the Privacy Officer identified at the beginning of this Notice of Privacy Practices. All complaints must be submitted in writing. You will not be penalized for filing a concern.