FAMILY PHYSICIANS OF SO. NEVADA
NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
This notice describes how health 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 the Facility Privacy Official by dialing the Office and asking for Medical Records. 775-751-6111.
Each time you visit a physician, hospital, surgery center or any other health care provider, a record of your visit is made. Typically, this record contains your symptoms, examination and test results, diagnoses, treatment a plain for future care or treatment and billing related information. This notice applies to all of the records of your care generated by the facility, whether made by facility personnel, agents of the facility, or your personal doctor. Your personal practitioner may have different policies or notices regarding the practitioner’s use and disclosure of your health information created in the doctor’s office or clinic.
Our Responsibilities:
We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your health information and provide you a description of our privacy practices. We will abide by the terms of this notice.
Uses
and Disclosures:
How we may use and disclose Health Information about you.
The following categories, describe examples of the way we use and disclose health information.
For Treatment: We may use health information about you to provide you treatment or services. We may disclose health information about you to other doctors, nurses, technicians, medical students, hospitals, or surgery center personnel who are involved in taking care of you in their facility. For example: a physician treating you for a broken leg may need to know if you have diabetes; because diabetes may slow your healing process. Different departments of the surgery center also may share health information about you in order to coordinate the different things that you may need, such as prescriptions, lab work, x-rays, referrals etc.
We may also provide to your referred physician or other healthcare facility any reports that will assist them in giving you your care, treatment, surgery etc.
For Payment: We may use and disclose health information about your treatment and services to bill and collect payment from you, your insurance company or third party payer. For example: we may need to give your insurance company information about your care so they will pay us or reimburse you for the treatment. We may also tell your health plan about treatment you are going to receive to determine whether your plan will cover it.
For Health Care Operations: Members of our medical staff may use information in your health
record to assess the care and outcomes in your case and others like it.
The results will then be used to continually improve the quality of
care for all patients we care for. For example: we may combine health information
about many patients to evaluate the need for new services or treatments.
We may disclose information to other doctors, nurses, or medical facilities
for educational purposes. We may combine health information we have with
that of other facilities to see where we can make improvements. We may remove information that identifies
you from this set of health information to protect your privacy.
We may also use and disclose health information:
When disclosing information, primary appointment reminders and billing/collections efforts, we may leave messages on your answering machine or voice mail.
Business Associates: There are some services provided in from our office through business associates. Examples: Might be radiology services, and laboratory testing. In using these services are used we may disclose your health information to them, so they can perform the tests or procedures we have asked them to do and bill you, your insurance company or a third-party payer for those services rendered. To protect your health information, however, we require the business associate to appropriately safeguard your information.
Individuals Involved in Your Care: We do not release health information about you to friend or family member even though they may be involved with your care, unless you have given us permission in writing to do so.
Future Communications: We may communicate to you via mail, telephone calls or other means regarding health related information.
Organized Health Care Arrangement: This office and its medical staff members have organized and are presenting this document to you as a joint notice. Information will be shared as necessary to carry out your treatment, payment and other health care operations. Physicians and caregivers may have access to protected health information in their offices to assist in reviewing past treatment as it may affect treatment at this time.
Affiliated Covered Entity: Protected health information will be made available to facility personnel at local affiliated facilities as necessary to carry out treatment, payment and health care operations. Caregivers at other facilities may have access to protected health information at their locations to assist in reviewing past treatment information as it may affect treatment at this time. Please contact the Privacy Official (Medical Records) for further information on the specific sites included in this affiliated covered entity.
As Required by Law: We may also use and disclose health information for the following types of entities, including but not limited to:
Law Enforcement or Legal Proceedings: We may disclose health information for law enforcement purposes as required by law or in response to a valid subpoena.
Specific State Requirements: Many states have requirements for reporting including population-based activities relating to improving health or reducing healthcare costs. Some states have separate privacy laws that may apply additional legal requirements. If the state privacy laws are more stringent that federal privacy laws, the state law preempts the federal law.
Although your health record is the physical property of this office you have the Right to:
· Inspect and copy: You have the right to inspect and obtain a copy of the health information that may be used to make decisions about your care. Usually, this includes medical and billing records, but does not include psychotherapy notes. We may deny your request to inspect and copy in certain very limited circumstances. If you are denied access to health information, you may request that the denial be reviewed. Another health care professional will review your request and a decision will be made.
· Amend: If you feel that health information we have about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask us to amend the information. You have the right to request an amendment for as long as the information is kept by this office. We may deny your request for an amendment and if this occurs, you will be notified of the reason for the denial.
· Request Restrictions: you have the right to request a restriction or limitation on the health information we use to disclose about you for treatment, payment or other healthcare operations. You also have the right to request a limit on the health information we disclose about you to someone who is involved in your care or the payment for your care, like a family member or friend. For example: you could ask that we not disclose information about a specific surgery you had, or medication you may have taken. We are not required to agree to your request. If we do agree, we will comply with your request unless the information is needed to provide you with emergency treatment.
· Request Confidential Communications: You have the right to request that we communicate with you about medical matters in a certain way or at a certain location. For example: you can ask that we contact you at work instead of your home. The office will grant reasonable requests for confidential communications at alternative locations and/or via alternative means only if the request is submitted in writing and the written request includes a mailing address where the individual will receive bills for services rendered by this office and related correspondence regarding payment for services. Please realize, we reserve the right to contact you by other means and at other locations if you fail to respond to any communication from us that requires a response. We will notify you in accordance with your original request prior to attempting to contact you by other means or at another location.
· A Copy of This Notice: You have the right to a paper copy of this notice. You may ask us to give you a copy of this notice at any time.
We reserve the right to change this notice. The revised
or changed notice will be effective for information we already have about
you as well as any future information. A
change notice will be posted in the waiting area of this office and include
the effective date.
If you believe your privacy rights have been violated,
you may file a complaint with this office and have the issue resolved.
You may also file a complaint with the Secretary of the Department
of Health and Human Services. All complaints should be submitted in writing.
There is NO penalty for filing a complaint.
Any other use of your health information will not be disclosed without your written permission. You may revoke this permission at any time in writing. You understand you may not revoke any previous disclosures for information that has already been obtained by this office.
A printable copy of this statement
is located on the "Download forms" page of our web site.