This Notice is provided to you pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accessibility Act of 1996 and its implementation regulations (“HIPAA”). It is designed to tell you how we may, under federal law, use or disclose your Health Information. It has been updated to the HITECH Omnibus Rule requirements.
I. Your Rights.
You have the right to request restrictions on the uses and disclosures of your Health Information. However, we are not required to comply with all requests. You are allowed to restrict transmittal of health care charges to your insurance carrier if you pay for those services, in full, by other means.
You have the right to receive your Health Information through confidential means and in a manner that is reasonably convenient for you and us.
You have the right to inspect and copy your Health Information. You may request your records in digital format and have your records sent digitally to another provider with written authorization.
You have a right to request that we amend your Health Information that is incorrect or incomplete. We are not required to change your Health Information and will provide you with information about our denial and how you can disagree with the denial.
You have a right to receive an accounting of disclosures of your Health Information made by us, except that we do not have to account for disclosures: authorized by you; made for treatment, payment, health care operations; provided to you; provided in response to an Authorization; made in order to notify and communicate with approved family members; and/or for certain government functions, to name a few.
You have been provided with a paper copy of this Notice of Privacy Practices. If you would like to have a more detailed explanation of these rights or if you would like to exercise one or more of these rights, please contact our HIPAA Compliance Officer at 813-684-3707.
II. Disclosing Your Health Information without Obtaining Your Prior Authorization:
We may provide your Health Information to other health care professionals — including doctors, nurses and technicians — for purposes of providing treatment to you.
Our billing department may access your information — and send relevant parts to insurance companies to allow us to be paid for the services we render to you.
We may access or send your information to our attorneys or accountants in the event we need the information in order to address one of our own business functions. Our attorneys and accountants are required to maintain confidentiality when they receive patient information.
III. We May Also Use or Disclose Your Health Information Under Certain Circumstances without Obtaining Your Prior Authorization.
However, in general, we will attempt to ensure that you have been made aware of the use or disclosure of your Health Information prior to providing it to another person. Some instances where we may need to disclose information include but are not limited to:
IV. For All Other Circumstances
We May Only Use or Disclose Your Health Information After You Have Signed an Authorization. If you authorize us to use or disclose your Health Information for another purpose, you may revoke your authorization in writing at any time.
V. You Should Be Advised that We May Also Use or Disclose Your Health Information for the Following Purposes:
VI. Our Duties.
We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your Health Information and to provide you with a copy of this Notice. We are also required to abide by the terms of this Notice. We reserve the right to amend this Notice at any time in the future and to make the new Notice provisions applicable to all your Health Information — even if it was created prior to the change in the Notice. If any such amendment is made that materially changes this Notice, we will send you another copy.
Complaints to our Practice and the Government:
You may make complaints to our HIPAA Privacy Officer or the Security of the Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”) if you believe your rights have been violated. We will review all complaints in a professional manner and keep you informed of your rights as our patient. We promise not to retaliate against you for any complaint you make about our privacy practices.
Contact Information:
You may contact us about our privacy practices or file a complaint by calling
our Privacy Officer: 813-684-3707 Ext 134.
You may contact the DHHS at: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
200 Independence Avenue, S. W., Washington, D.C. 20201,
and Telephone: 202-619-0257 Toll Free: 1-877-696-6775