HIPAA NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
UpdatedDate: 1/1/2023
THIS NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED, DISCLOSED AND SAFEGUARDED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TOTHIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009(HITECH Act) place important restrictions on the sharing of your medical information and provide you with important privacy rights. This Notice of Privacy Practices (the “Notice”) replaces all prior notices provided by us and is effective on the date noted above. This Notice describes our legal obligations and your legal rights regarding your “protected health information”(“PHI”). This Notice describes how your PHI may be used or disclosed to carry out treatment, payment, or health careoperations, or other purposes permitted by law. Generally, PHI includes personal information collected from you or created by us that relates to your past,present, or future physical or mental health or condition; the provision of health care; or the past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care. We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your PHI, provide you with certain rights with respect to your PHI, provide you with a copy of this Notice, and follow the terms of this Notice. We reserve the right to change the terms of this Notice and its practices regarding your PHI. If there is any material change to this Notice,we will provide you with a copy of the revised Notice of Privacy Practices. If you have any questions about this Notice or about our privacy practices, please contact our Privacy Officer, identified below.
Uses and Disclosures for Treatment, Payment, and Operations We may use or disclose your PHI without your express authorization under certain circumstances, which include the following: ForTreatment, to facilitate the provision of treatment andservices to you. ForPayment, to determine your eligibility for treatment or services and to facilitate payment for the treatment or services you receive. For Health Care Operations, uses and disclosures necessary to operate our programs and services. Treatment Alternatives or Health-Related Benefits and Services that might be of interest to you.
Other Uses and Disclosures
To Business Associates to perform various functions on our behalf or to provide certain types of services. A Business Associate will receive, create, maintain, transmit, use, and/or disclose your PHI, but only after they agree in writing with us to implement appropriate safeguards regarding your PHI.
As Required by Law when required to do so by federal,state, or local law.
To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety to you, or thehealth and safety of the public, or another person, limited to someone able to help prevent the threat.
Organ and Tissue Donation, after your death to an organization that handles organ procurement or organ, eye, or tissue transplantation or toan organ donation bank, as necessary to facilitate organ or tissue donation and transplantation.
Military,if you are a member of the armed forces, as required by military command authorities. The Plan Sponsor may also release PHI about foreign military personnel to the appropriate foreign military authority.
Workers' Compensation or similar programs, but only asauthorized by, and to the extent necessary to comply with,laws relating to workers' compensation and similar programs that provide benefits for work-related injuries or illness.
Public Health Risks for public health activities. These activities generally include the following:
to prevent or control disease, injury, or disability.
to report births and deaths.
to report child abuse or neglect or domestic violence, as required or permitted bylaw.
to report reactions to medications or problems with products.
to notify people of recalls of products they may be using.
to notify a person who may have been exposed to a disease or may be at risk for contracting or spreading a disease or condition.
for disaster relief efforts
Health Oversight Activities for activities authorized by law, forexample, audits, investigations, inspections, and licensure.
Law suitsand Disputes in response to a court oradministrative order, including a response to a lawful subpoena, discovery request, or other process by someone involved in a legal dispute, but only if efforts have been made to tell you about the request or to obtain a court or administrative order protecting the information requested.
Law Enforcement if asked to do so by a law-enforcement official: inresponse to a court order, subpoena, warrant, summons, or similar process.toidentify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person.aboutthe victim of a crime if, under certain limited circumstances, the Plan Sponsoris unable to obtain the victim's agreement.abouta death that the Plan Sponsor believes may be the result of criminal conduct;andaboutcriminal conduct.
Coroners, Medical Examiners, and Funeral Directors, for example, toidentify a deceased person or determine the cause of death. The Plan Sponsormay also release medical information about patients to funeral directors, asnecessary to carry out their duties.
National Security and Intelligence Activities, to authorized federal officials for intelligence, counterintelligence, and other national securityactivities authorized by law.
Inmates of a correctional institution or in the custody of a law-enforcement official,to the correctional institution or law-enforcement official if necessary for the institution to provide you with health care; to protect your health andsafety or the health and safety of others; or for the safety and security ofthe correctional institution.
Research,to researchers when the individual identifiers have been removed; or when aninstitutional review board or privacy board has reviewed the research proposaland established protocols to ensure the privacy of the requested information and approves the research.
Other Disclosures with Your Authorization Only Wemay disclose your PHI to:
Personal Representatives authorized by you, or to an individual designated as your personal representative, or attorney-in-fact. You must provide a written notice/authorization and supporting documents such as a powe rof attorney. We do not have to disclose information to a personalrepresentative if we have a reasonable belief that you have been, or may be,subjected to domestic violence, abuse, or neglect by such person; or treating such person as your personal representative could endanger you; or in the exercise of professional judgment, it is not in your best interest to treat the person as your personal representative.
Comply with your Authorization. Other uses or disclosures ofyour PHI not described above will only be made with your written authorization,including use or disclosure of psychotherapy notes. Further, we will not use or disclose your PHI for marketing; or sell your PHI, unless you provide written authorization. You may revoke written authorizations at any time, so long as the revocation isin writing. Once we receive your written revocation, it will only be effective for future uses and disclosures. It will not be effective for any information that may have been used or disclosed in reliance upon the written authorizationand prior to receiving your written revocation.
Privacy Rights
Right to Inspect and Copy. You have the right to inspect and copy certain PHI that may be used to make decisions about you. If the information you request is maintained electronically, and you request an electronic copy, we will provide a copy in the electronic form and format you request, if the information can be readily produced in that form and format; if the information cannot be readily produced in that form and format, we will work with you to come to an agreement on formand format or provide you with a paper copy. To inspect and copy your PHI, you must submit your request in writing to the Privacy Officer identified below. We may charge a reasonable fee for the costs of copying, mailing, or other supplies associated with your request. We may deny your request to inspect and copy in certain very limited circumstances. If you are denied access to your medical information, you may request that the denial be reviewed by submitting a written request to the PrivacyOfficer identified below.
Right to Amend. If you feel that your PHI 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 or for us. To request an amendment, your request must be made in writing and submitted to the Privacy Officer identified below. In addition, you must provide a reason that supports your request. We may deny your request for an amendment if it is not in writing or does not include a reason to support the request. In addition, we may deny your request if it:
is not part of the medical information kept by or for us.
was not created by us, unless the person or entity that created the information isno longer available to make the amendment.
is not part of the information that you would be permitted to inspect and copy; or isalready accurate and complete.
Ifyour request is denied, you have the right to file a statement of disagreementwith us and any future disclosures of the disputed information will include your statement.
Right to an Accounting of Disclosures. You have the right to request an "accounting" of certain disclosures of your PHI. The accounting will not include
(1) disclosures for purposes of treatment, payment,or health care operations.
(2) disclosures made to you;
(3) disclosures made pursuant to your authorization;
(4) disclosures made to friends or family iny our presence or because of an emergency;
(5) disclosures for national security purposes; and
(6) disclosures incidental to otherwise permissible disclosures. To request this list or accounting of disclosures, you must submit your requestin writing to the Privacy Officer identified below. Your request must state the time period you want the accounting to cover, which may not be longer than six years before the date of the request. Your request should indicate in what form you want the list (for example, paper or electronic). The first list you request within a 12-month period will be provided free of charge. For additional lists, we may charge you for the costs of providing the list. We will notify you of the cost involved and you may choose to withdraw or modify your request at that time before any costs are incurred.
Right to Request Restrictions or limitation on your PHI that we use or disclose for treatment, payment, or health care operations. You also have the right to request a limit on your PHI that is disclosed to someone who is involved in your care or the payment for your care, such as a family member or friend. Except as provided in the next paragraph, we are not required to agree to your request. However, we will comply with any restriction requestif (1) except as otherwise required by law, the disclosure is to a health planfor purposes of carrying out payment or health care operations (and is not forpurposes of carrying out treatment); and (2) the PHI pertains solely to ahealth care item or service for which the health care provider involved has been paid in full by you or another person. To request restrictions, you must make your request in writing to the Privacy Officer identified below. In your request, you must state (1) what information you want to limit; (2) whether you want to limit our use, disclosure, or both; and (3) to whom you want the limits to apply - for example, disclosures to your spouse. If we honor the request, it will stay in place until you revoke it or we notify you.
Right to Request Confidential Communications about medical matters in a certain way or at a certain location. For example, you can ask that we only contact you at work or by mail. Your request must be made in writing to the Privacy Officer identified below and specify how or where you wish to be contacted. We will accommodate all reasonable requests.
Right to Be Notified of a Breach in the event that we (or aBusiness Associate) discover a breach of unsecured PHI.
Right to a Paper Copy of This Notice You may request a paper copy of this notice at any time from the Privacy Officer identified below, even if you have agreed to receive this notice electronically.
SMS Terms and Conditions
Policy
How We Share Your Information (Mobile Phone Numbers).
Your phone number will not be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes under any circumstance.
Type of Information Collected: We only collect personal information that is voluntarily provided, such as name, email Address or phone Number. We do not collect cookies, browsing history, location data, or any other personal information beyond what is necessary for communication purposes. Consent is obtained verbally by asking if the recipient agrees to receive conversational SMS messages from Hamaspik of Rockland County, Inc.,
Utilization of Collected Information: The collected information is used solely for the purpose of providing services,sending updates, notifications, responding to inquiries, and service-related communications.
Opt-In Consent to Mobile Messaging: By submitting your phone number, you are authorizing Hamaspik of Rockland County to send informational text messages, multimedia messages, and/or telephone calls using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice to the phone number you have provided. Standard message and data rates may apply, depending on your carrier’s pricing plan. These fees may vary if the message is sent domestically or internationally.
Opt-out of Text Message Communications: You may unsubscribe or opt-out from receiving future automated communications from Hamaspik of Rockland County at any time. If you wish to stop receiving text messages from us, reply STOP, QUIT, CANCEL, OPT-OUT, or UNSUBSCRIBE to any automatic text message sent from us.
Terms and Conditions
SMS Consent Communication: The information (Phone Numbers) obtained as part of the SMS consent process will not be shared with third parties for marketing purposes.
Types of SMS Communications: If you have consented to receive text messages from Hamaspik of Rockland County, Inc., you may receive messages related to the following:
Conversations
Follow-up messages
Reminders
Example:"Hello, this is a friendly reminder that your time sheets need to be submitted today in order for it to get processed in time for payroll. You can reply STOP to opt out of SMS messaging from Hamaspik of Rockland at any time.
Message Frequency: Message frequency may vary depending on the type of communication. For example, you may receive up to 3 SMS messages per week related to your [services/billing, etc.]
Example:"Message frequency may vary. You may receive up to 3 SMS messages per week regarding your appointments or account status."
Potential Fees for SMS Messaging: Please note that standard message and data rates may apply, depending on your carrier’s pricing plan. These fees may vary if the message is sent domestically or internationally.
Opt-In Method: You may opt-in to receive SMS messages from Hamaspik of Rockland County in the following
ways: Verbally, during a conversation Completing the SMS Terms and Conditions
Opt-Out Method: You can opt out of receiving SMS messages at anytime. To do so, simply reply "STOP" to any SMS message you receive.Alternatively, you can contact us directly to request removal from our messaging list.
Help: If you are experiencing any issues, you can reply with the keyword HELP.
Additional Options: If you do not wish to receive SMS messages, you can choose not to check the SMS consent box on our forms or let us know verbally.
Standard Messaging Disclosures:
Message and data rates may apply.
You can opt-out at any time by texting "STOP."
For assistance, text "HELP" or visit our Privacy Policy and [Terms and Conditions].
Message frequency may vary
Complaints
If you believe that your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint by mailing or delivering it to our Privacy Officer at the address below:
Name: Aaron Rubinstein. Title: Privacy Officer; Company: Hamaspik of Rockland County, Inc. Address: 58 Rt. 59 Suite # 1, Monsey NY 10952; Phone: 845-503-0225
You may also complain to the Secretary of Health and Human Services by writing to the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue, SW, Room 509 F, Washington, DC, 20201; by calling 1-800-368-1019; or by sending an email to OCRprivacy@hhs.gov. All complaints must be submitted in writing. You will not be penalized, or in any other way retaliated against, for filing a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights or with us.