The Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) requires
all health care records and other individually identifiable health
information used or disclosed to us in any form, whether electronically,
on paper, or orally, be kept confidential. This federal law gives you,
the client or parent/guardian, significant new rights to understand and
control how health information is used. HIPAA provides penalties for
covered entities that misuses personal health information. As required
by HIPAA, we have prepared this explanation of how we are required to
maintain the privacy of your health information and how we may use and
disclose your health information.
This Notice is
effective as of April 14, 2003 and we are required to abide by the terms
of the Notice of Privacy Practices currently in effect. We reserve the
right to change the terms of our Notice of Privacy Practices and to make
the new notice provision effective for all protected health information
that we maintain. Revisions to our Notice of Privacy Practices will be
posted on the effective date and you may request a written copy of the
Revised Notice from this office.
Sharing Personal
Information
Without specific
written authorization, we are permitted to use and disclose your child’s
health care records for the purposes of treatment, payment and health
care operations:
·
Treatment
means providing, coordinating, or managing health care and related
services by one or more health care provides at this agency. Examples
of treatment would include discussions among a therapist, case manager
and psychiatrist to coordinate treatment for your child or to remind you
of an appointment (by phone or mail).
·
Payment
means such activities as obtaining reimbursement for services,
confirming coverage, billing or collection activities and utilization
review. An example of payment would be billing your insurance plan or
Medicaid for agency services.
·
Health Care Operations
include the business aspects of running the agency, such as conducting
quality assessment and improvement activities, auditing functions, and
customer service. An example would include inspection of our records by
both the Council on Accreditation and the Portage County Mental Health &
Recovery Board to be sure that we are complying with state and federal
standards.
There are also
limited situations when we are
permitted or required to disclose personal information without your
signed authorization. These situations are:
·
To reduce or prevent a
serious threat to public health and safety;
·
For health oversight
activities such as investigations, audits, and inspections;
Any other uses and
disclosures will be made only with your written authorization. You may
revoke such authorization in writing and we are required to honor and
abide by that written request, except to the extent that we have already
taken actions relying on your authorization.
Client Rights
You have certain
rights in regards to your child’s protected health information, which
you can exercise by presenting a written request to our Privacy Officer
located at the agency.
·
The right to request to
receive confidential communications of protected health information from
us by alternative means or at alternative locations, such as only
contacting you at your home about appointments.
·
You have the right to
request a restriction or limitation on the health information we use or
disclose about your child for payment or health care operations. We
will consider all requests for restrictions carefully but are not
required to agree to any requested restrictions.*
·
The right to access,
inspect and copy your child’s protected health information.
Under certain circumstances, we may not
share information, for example, if the information is the subject of a
lawsuit or legal claim or if release of mental health information may
present a danger to you or someone else. Fees may apply to copied
information and are as follows: $1 per page for the first ten pages, 50
cents per page for pages 11 to 50, and 20 cents per page for pages in
excess of 50, plus $15 for records search.* We require a minimum of a 14
day notice to process open records and a 30 day notice for closed
records.
·
The right to request an
amendment to your child’s protected health information.
You must give the reasons for wanting the
change in writing.*
We will add your amendment to
the case record but will not necessarily change what we have documented.
·
The right to receive an
accounting of disclosures of protected health information outside of
treatment, payment and health care operations.
Under certain circumstances, we may not
share information that we collected, for example, if the information is
the subject of a lawsuit or legal claim or if release of the information
may present a danger to you or someone else.
Your request must state the period of
time desired for the accounting, which must be within the six years
prior to your request. The first accounting is free but a fee will apply
if more than one request is made in a 12-month period.*
·
The right to obtain a
paper copy of this notice from us upon request.
Requests marked
with a star (*) must be made in writing. Contact the Children’s
Advantage Privacy Officer with your request.
COMPLAINTS
If you have a
complaint about our Privacy policies and procedures or you believe your
privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with the
agency Privacy Officer or with the Secretary of the Department of Health
and Human Services. We will investigate all complaints and will not
retaliate against you for filing a complaint.
Children’s
Advantage Privacy Officer
Francine
Packard, MS., Ed., PCC-S, LICDC, Clinical Director
520 North Chestnut
Street
Ravenna, OH 44266
330-296-5552
