Our practice is committed to maintaining the privacy of your Protected Health Information (PHI), while providing efficient, high quality medical care.  In accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) you will receive a summary copy of this notice at your first office visit after April 14, 2003. This explains:

    In keeping with normally accepted medical business practices we may use and disclose your PHI for treatment, payment, and health care operations (TPO) without your permission. Examples of when information would be disclosed would be if your primary care physician wanted exam results, or if a pharmacist called about medicine you were on. If an optician or contact lens technician requested PHI about a lens prescription this would be disclosed. PHI such as your diagnosis would also be disclosed for billing purposes. Generally only the appropriate information that is necessary to accomplish the task is disclosed. Professional judgment will determine the amount of information to be released. This minimum necessary standard is not intended to impede the provision of quality healthcare.  Consequently the disclosures of PHI between providers for treatment purposes are explicitly exempt from the minimum disclosure standard.

     PHI can also be disclosed without your permission for certain Public Health purposes, such as reporting suspected child abuse or reporting a medication or device problem. Please see our Authorized and Non-Authorized Disclosure Policy for additional information. 

    Should a physician routinely request your health care records in a situation which has no urgency we have as a matter of routine asked you to sign a Request for Information form, and it will be our policy to continue this practice.  As is also our current policy, PHI is not disclosed for non-medical purposes.  For instance, if a contact lens manufacturer wanted a list of patients for marketing purposes this would not be provided. HIPAA allows for these non-authorized disclosures, however only when the patient has given specific permission and the limits of the disclosure are clearly defined.

   You have the right to inspect and  receive a copy of your PHI. You can also request to amend and restrict access to your PHI. You have the right to an accounting of the disclosures of PHI for other than TPO. You have the right to complain about alleged violation to Dr. Elliott (This practice’s privacy officer as defined by the HIPAA regulations) and/or to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

    If you have questions about our policies please ask for clarification or assistance. The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights has a handbook on HIPAA: Medical Privacy - National Standards to Protect the Privacy of Personal Health Information.   It is written in layman's terms, and each section of the privacy regulations is organized into a Background, How the Rule Works, and FAQs section.

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This page was last updated on 4/10/03