Marion Regional Healthcare System Privacy Notice
Effective Date:May 24, 2007
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.
HOW MARION REGIONAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEM (MRHS) MAY USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION
Federal law requires MRHS to maintain the privacy of individually identifiable health information and to provide you with notice of its legal duties and privacy practices with respect to such information. MRHS must abide by the terms and conditions of this Privacy Notice, as MRHS may revise this Privacy Notice from time to time.
The policies outlined in this Notice apply to all of your health information generated by us, whether recorded in your medical record, invoices, payment forms, videotapes or other ways. Similarly, these policies apply to the health information gathered from other Organizations and by any health care professional, employee or volunteer who participates in your care.
HOW MRHS MAY USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION FOR TREATMENT, PAYMENT, AND HEALTHCARE OPERATIONS
In some circumstances we are permitted or required to use or disclose your health information without obtaining your prior authorization and without offering you the opportunity to object. These circumstances include:
1. Uses or disclosures for purposes relating to treatment, payment and health care operations:
a. Treatment: We may use or disclose your health information for the purpose of providing, or allowing others to provide, treatment to you. An example would be if your primary care physician discloses your health information to another doctor for the purpose of a consultation. Also, we may contact you with appointment reminders or information about treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.
b. Payment: We may use and/or disclose your health information for the purpose of allowing us, as well as other entities, to secure payment for the health care services provided to you. For example, we may inform your health insurance company of your diagnosis and treatment in order to assist the insurer in processing our claim for the health care services provided to you.
c. Health Care Operations: We may use and/or disclose your information for the purposes of our day-to-day operations and functions. We may also disclose your information to another covered entity, to allow it to perform its day-to-day functions, but only to the extent that we both have a relationship with you. For example, we may compile your health information, along with that of other patients, in order to allow a team of our health care professionals to review that information and make suggestions concerning how to improve the quality of care provided at this facility. Also, we may contact you as part of our efforts to raise funds for the Organization. All fundraising communications will include information about how you may opt out of future fundraising communications.
HOW MRHS MAY USE OR DISCLOSE YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION WITHOUT YOUR WRITTEN AUTHORIZATION
In addition to treatment, payment and health care operations, and unless this Privacy Notice recites a more stringent restriction, the law permits or requires MRHS to use or disclose individually identifiable health information without your written consent or authorization in certain cases.
The following categories describe the ways that MRHS may use and disclose your health information without your authorization. For each type of use and disclosure, we will explain what we mean and present some examples.
• Required by Law: We may use and disclose your health information when that use or disclosure is required by law. For example, we may disclose medical information to report child abuse or to respond to a court order.
• Public Health: When required by law, we may disclose your health information to public health authorities for reporting communicable diseases, aiding in the prevention or control of certain diseases and reporting problems with products and reactions to medications to the Food and Drug Administration.
• Victims of Abuse, Neglect or Violence: We may disclose your information to a government authority authorized by law to receive reports of abuse, neglect or violence relating to children or the elderly.
• Health Oversight Activities: We may disclose your health information to health agencies authorized by law to conduct audits, investigations, inspections, licensure and other proceedings related to oversight of the health care system.
• Judicial and Administrative Proceedings: We may disclose your health information in the course of an administrative or judicial proceeding in response to a court order. Under most circumstances when the request is made through a subpoena, a discovery request or involves another type of administrative order, your authorization will be obtained before disclosure is permitted.
• Law Enforcement: We may disclose your health information to a law enforcement official for purposes such as identifying or locating a suspect, fugitive, or missing person, or complying with a court order or other law enforcement purposes. Under some limited circumstances we will request your authorization prior to permitting disclosure.
• Coroners and Medical Examiners: We may disclose your health information to coroners and medical examiners. For example, this may be necessary to determine cause of death.
• Cadaveric, Organ, Eye or Tissue Donation: If we are a hospital, we may disclose your health information to organizations involved in procuring organs and tissues for transplantation.
• Research: Under certain circumstances, and only after a special approval process, we may use and disclose your health information to help conduct medical research which may involve an assessment of how well a drug is working to cure a heart disease or whether a certain treatment is working better than another.
• To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety: We may disclose your health information in a very limited manner to appropriate persons to prevent a serious threat to the health or safety of a particular person or the general public. Disclosure is usually limited to law enforcement personnel who are involved in protecting the public safety.
• Specialized Government Functions: Under certain and very limited circumstances, we may disclose your health care information for military, national security, or law enforcement custodial situations.
• Workers Compensation: Both state and federal law allow the disclosure of your health care information that is reasonably related to a worker’s compensation injury to be disclosed without your authorization. These programs may provide benefits for work related injuries or illness.
• Health Information: We may use or disclose your health information to provide information to you about treatment alternatives or other health related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.
We may also use or disclose your health information in the following circumstances. However, except in emergency situations, we will inform you of our intended action prior to making any such uses and disclosures and will, at that time, offer you the opportunity to object.
• Directories: We will maintain a directory of hospital patients that includes your name and location within the facility. The directory will also include your religious designation and information about your condition in general terms that will not communicate specific medical information about you. Except for your religion, we will disclose this information to any person who asks for you by name. We will disclose all directory information to members of the clergy.
• Notifications: We may disclose to your relatives or close personal friends any health information that is directly related to that person’s involvement in the provision of, or payment for, your care. We may also use and disclose your health information for the purpose of locating and notifying your relatives or close personal friends of your location, general condition or death, and to Organizations that are involved in those tasks during disaster situations.
STATE LAW – MORE STRINGENT PROTECTION FOR YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION
In certain cases, South Carolina law provides more stringent privacy protections of your health information than this Privacy Notice recites above. Specifically, for the following categories.
HIV or Hepatitis B Infection: If you are a patient with HIV or Hepatitis B infection, your attending physician may inform a lay healthcare giver who is or soon will be providing health care to you regarding your HIV or Hepatitis B infection. However, your physician must notify you before and after the disclosure is made and must provide you with the name of the person to whom the physician will disclose this information.
Prescription Drugs: With respect to your prescription drug information, MRHS will not transfer or receive your information without your written release, except when the transfer or receipt involves:
• The lawful transmission of a prescription drug order in accordance with all state and federal laws pertaining to the practice of pharmacy;
• Information necessary to effect the recall of a defective drug or device or other information necessary to protect the health and welfare of an individual or the public generally;
• Other state or federal laws, court order, or subpoena, or regulation including, but not limited to, accreditation or licensure requirements that mandate release or transfer of information;
• Information that an institutional review board uses to monitor clinical research;
• Information which does not identify you by name, or that is encoded in a manner that information identifying you by name or address is not generally obtainable, and that MRHS uses for epidemiological studies, research, statistical analysis, medical outcomes, or pharmacoeconomic research; and
• Information that MRHS may reveal to a party who, on your behalf, obtains a dispensed prescription from a pharmacy. When you receive this Privacy Notice and sign the authorization form, you are agreeing that a practitioner may disclose your confidential information for purposes of payment, treatment or healthcare operations. If the practitioner discloses information for any purpose other than payment, treatment or health care operation, you must sign a different permission form.
Community Residential Care Facility: If you are a resident at a community residential care facility, the residential care facility will not make available your resident record to anyone without your permission. Exception: The residential care facility may disclose your confidential information for purposes of payment, treatment or health care operations. If the residential care facility discloses information for any purpose other than payment, treatment or health care operations, you must sign a different permission form. However, please note that a community residential care facility may reveal the information without your written consent if both South Carolina law and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 allow disclosure of this information.
Neonatal Testing: For patients receiving neonatal testing to detect inborn metabolic errors and hemoglobin apathies, MRHS may release information about such testing only to the parents of the child, the child’s physician and the child (when 18 years of age or older.)
NOTE: Reference in this Privacy notice to health care professionals include only those professionals that MRHS employs.
NO OTHER USES OR DISCLOSURES WITHOUT YOUR WRITTEN AUTHORIZATION
Except as described above, disclosures of your health information will be made only with your written authorization. You may revoke your authorization at any time, in writing, unless we have taken action in reliance upon your prior authorization, or if you signed the authorization as a condition of obtaining insurance coverage.
YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION RIGHTS
1. To Request Restrictions: You have the right to request restrictions on the use and disclosure of your health information for treatment, payment or health care operations purposes or notification purposes. We are not required to agree to your request. A request not to receive any information and any request that may interfere with the ability to obtain payment for the services provided to you will be denied, unless appropriate information about how payment will be handled is provided. We retain the right to contact you at any known address in order to obtain payment for the services provided. If we do agree to a restriction, we will abide by that restriction unless you are in need of emergency treatment and the restricted information is needed to provide that emergency treatment. To request a restriction, submit a written request to the Contact listed on the final page of this Notice.
2. To Limit Communications: You have the right to receive confidential communications about your own health information by alternative means or at alternative locations. This means that you may, for example, designate that we contact you only via e-mail, or at work rather than home. To request communications via alternative means, or at alternative locations, you must submit a written request to the Contact listed on the final page of this Notice. All reasonable requests will be granted.
3. To Access and Copy Health Information: You have the right to inspect and copy any health information about you other than psychotherapy notes, information compiled in anticipation of or for use in civil, criminal or administrative proceedings, or certain information that is governed by the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act. To arrange for access to your records, or to receive a copy of your records, you should submit a written request to the Contact listed on the last page of this Notice. If you request copies, you will be charged our regular fee for copying and mailing the requested information.
Despite your general right to access your Protected Health Information, access may be denied in some limited circumstances. For example, access may be denied if you are an inmate at a correctional institution or if you are a participant in a research program that is still in progress. Access may be denied if the federal Privacy Act applies. Access to information that was obtained from someone other than a health care provider under a promise of confidentiality can be denied if allowing you access would reasonably be likely to reveal the source of the information. The decision to deny access under these circumstances is final and not subject to review.
In addition, access may be denied if (i) access to the information in question is reasonably likely to endanger the life and physical safety of you or anyone else, (ii) the information makes reference to another person and your access would reasonably be likely to cause harm to that person, or (iii) you are the personal representative of another individual and a licensed health care professional determines that your access to the information would cause substantial harm to the patient or another individual. If access is denied for these reasons, you have the right to have the decision reviewed by a health care professional who did not participate in the original decision. If access is ultimately denied, the reasons for that denial will be provided to you in writing.
4. To Request Amendment: You may request that your health information be amended. Your request may be denied if the information in question: was not created by us (unless you show that the original source of the information is no longer available to seek amendment from), is not part of our records, is not the type of information that would be available to you for inspection or copying (for example, psychotherapy notes), or is accurate and complete. If your request to amend your health information is denied, you may submit a written statement disagreeing with the denial, which we will keep on file and distribute with all future disclosures of the information to which it relates. Requests to amend health information must be submitted in writing to the Contact listed on the final page of this Notice.
5. To an Accounting of Disclosures: You have the right to an accounting of any disclosures of your health information made during the six-year period preceding the date of your request. However, the following disclosures will not be accounted for: (i) disclosures made for the purpose of carrying out treatment, payment or health care operations, (ii) disclosures made to you, (iii) disclosures of information maintained in our patient directory, or disclosures made to persons involved in your care, or for the purpose of directory, or disclosures made to persons involved in your care, or for the purpose of notifying your family or friends about your whereabouts, (iv) disclosures for national security or intelligence purposes, (v) disclosures to correctional institutions or law enforcement officials who had you in custody at the time of disclosure, (vi) disclosures that occurred prior to April 14, 2003, (vii) disclosures made pursuant to an authorization signed by you, (viii) disclosures that are part of a limited data set, (ix) disclosures that are incidental to another permissible use or disclosure, or (x) disclosures made to a health oversight agency or law enforcement official, but only if the agency or official asks us not to account to you for such disclosures and only for the limited period of time covered by that request. The accounting will include the date of each disclosure, the name of the entity or person who received the information and that person’s address (if known), and a brief description of the information disclosed and the purpose of the disclosure. To request an accounting of disclosures, submit a written request to the Contact listed on the final page of this Notice.
6. To Obtain a Paper Copy of this Notice: You have the right to obtain a paper copy of this Notice upon request. The Privacy Notice will also be available on MRHS’s web site, www.marioncountymedical.com.
7. For More Information or to Report a Complaint: If you have questions and would like additional information, you may contact the Compliance Officer at (843) 431-2410. If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you can file a complaint with the Compliance Officer or with the Secretary of Health and Human Services. There will be no retaliation for filing a complaint.
AMENDMENTS
Marion Regional Healthcare System reserves the right to amend the terms of this Privacy Notice at any time and to apply the revised Privacy Notice to all individually identifiable health information that it maintains. If MRHS amends this Privacy Notice, you will be provided with a revised copy at your next visit to MRHS, or upon request.
This Privacy Notice Revision is effective on May 24, 2007.
If you received care prior to 5/24/07 please click here to review the previous Privacy Notice.
