Hearts at Home, a Briggs Healthcare company, is dedicated to maintaining the privacy of your health information. In conducting our business, we will create records regarding you and the services we provide to you. These records are our property. However, we are required by law:
- To maintain the confidentiality of your health information.
- To provide you with this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices concerning your health information.
- To follow the terms of our notice of privacy practices in effect at the time.
- To summarize, this notice provides you with the following important information:
- How we may use and disclose your health information.
- Your privacy rights concerning your health information.
- Our obligations concerning the use and disclosure of your health information.
Information Collection, Use, and Sharing
We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to/collect information that you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contact with you. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone.
We will use your information to respond to you regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as necessary to fulfill your requests.
Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about specials, new products or services, or changes to this privacy policy.
How We Use or Disclose Your Health Information – Without separate authorization:
- Services – Hearts at Home will use health information about you to provide you with home care services. For example, information may be shared with members of our staff, your doctors, or health care facilities.
- Payment – Hearts at Home is normally required to disclose your health information to: obtain prior approval from an insurer before providing services to you; bill and collect payment for the services we provided to you.
- Operations – Hearts at Home may use or disclose your health information for quality improvement, staff evaluation, or other operational purposes. Your name and address may be used to send out satisfaction surveys, or we may call you to remind you that our staff will be visiting you. We have business associates such as accountants, consultants and attorneys that provide some services for us. We have a written contract with them that requires them to protect the privacy of your health information. Government surveyors may also have access to your health information when they are evaluating the quality of our services.
- Health Related Benefits, Services and Treatment Alternatives – Hearts at Home may use and disclose health information about you to contact you about other health related benefits, services or treatments that may be available to you. If you do not want to receive these communications, please notify Hearts at Home in writing.
- Individuals Involved in Your Care – Hearts at Home may disclose health information about you to a family member, other relative, close friend or any other person identified by you if they are involved in your care or payments related to your care. We may disclose health information about you if they need to be notified of your location, general condition or death. Please advise us if there is someone living in your home, a close friend or a caregiver that you do not want us to share information with, or if you do not want us to leave any messages on your telephone answering machine.
- Uses or Disclosures that Are Required or Permitted by Law – Hearts at Home may use or disclose health information about you as necessary as required by law and for the following reasons: disaster relief efforts; public health activities to report, prevent or control diseases; research under certain limited circumstances; reporting of abuse, neglect or domestic violence; health oversight agencies, to Food and Drug Administration to monitor drugs/devices; to the police or law enforcement officials as required by law or in compliance with a court order or other process authorized by law, to units of the government with special functions, such as the U.S. Military or the U.S. Dept. of State, and to prevent a threat to public health or safety, funeral directors, coroners and medical examiners; organ donation; Workers’ Compensation to provide benefits for work-related injuries or illnesses.
- Response to Your Inquiries and Information Requests – Hearts at Home may use non-medical information you provide to us, such as address, phone number, and email address to respond to your information requests, to gather demographic information, to obtain website statistics, to provide you with updates related to our service offerings. Hearts at Home will not share or disclose this information for other purposes. Any changes to this policy will be posted promptly and conspicuously on our website.
Your Rights Regarding Your Identifiable Health Information
You have the following rights regarding the identifiable health information that we maintain about you:
- Confidential Communication. You have the right to request that our organization communicate with you about your health related issues in a particular manner or at a certain location. For instance, you may ask that we contact you at home, rather than at work. You must specify the requested method of contact or the location where you wish to be contacted. Our organization will accommodate reasonable requests. You do not need to give a reason for your request.
- Requesting Restrictions. You have the right to request a restriction in our use or disclosure of your identifiable health information for treatment, payment or health care operations. Additionally, you have the right to request that we limit our disclosure of your identifiable health information to individuals involved in your care or the payment for your care, such as family members and friends. We are not required to agree to your request; however, if we do agree, we are bound by our agreement except when otherwise required by law, in emergencies or when the information is necessary to treat you. Your request must describe in a clear and concise fashion: (a) the information you wish restricted; (b) whether you are requesting to limit our practice’s use, disclosure or both; and (c) to whom you want the limits to apply.
- Inspection and Copies. You have the right to inspect and obtain a copy of the identifiable health information that may be used to make decisions about you, including patient medical records and billing records but not including psychotherapy notes. Our organization may charge a fee for the costs of copying, mailing, labor and supplies associated with your request. Our organization may deny your request to inspect and/or copy in certain limited circumstances; however, you may request a review of our denial. Another licensed health care professional chosen by us will conduct reviews.
- Amendment. You may ask us to amend your health information if you believe it is incorrect or incomplete, and you may request an amendment for as long as the information is kept by or for our organization. You must provide us with a reason that supports your request for amendment. Our organization will deny your request if you fail to submit your request (and the reason supporting your request) in writing. Also, we may deny your request if you ask us to amend information that is: (a) accurate and complete; (b) not part of the identifiable health information which you would be permitted to inspect and copy; or (d) not created by our organization, unless the individual or entity that created the information is not available to amend the information.
- Accounting of Disclosures. All of our clients have the right to request an “accounting of disclosures.” An “accounting of disclosures” is a list of certain disclosures our organization has made of your identifiable health information. All requests for an “accounting of disclosures” must state a time period, which may not be longer than six years. The first list you request within a 12-month period is free of charge, but our organization may charge you for additional lists within the same 12-month period. Our organization will notify you of the costs involved with additional requests and you may withdraw your request before you incur any costs.
- Right to File a Complaint. If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with our organization or with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. All complaints must be submitted in writing. You will not be penalized for filing a complaint.
- Right to Provide an Authorization for Other Uses and Disclosures. Our organization will obtain your written authorization for uses and disclosures that are not identified by this notice or permitted by applicable law. Any authorization you provide to us regarding the use and disclosure of your identifiable health information may be revoked at any time in writing. After you revoke your authorization, we will no longer use or disclose your identifiable health information for the reasons described in the authorization. Please note, we are required to retain records of your care.
Links
This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of any other site that collects personally identifiable information.
Your Access to and Control over Information
You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time. You can do the following at any time by contacting us via the email address or phone number given on our website:
- See what data we have about you, if any.
- Change/correct any data we have about you.
- Have us delete any data we have about you.
- Express any concern you have about our use of your data.
Security
We take precautions to protect your information. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, billing or customer service) are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers/servers in which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.
Updates
Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time and all updates will be posted on this page.