PRIVACY POLICY:


The following describes the manner in which we will use and disclose your Personal Health Information:

1.We may collect and share appropriate information about you to  document the medical necessity of the equipment, supplies, or services we are providing. Examples include diagnosis, prescription, referral, and physician or health care information.

2. We may share appropriate information about you to bill and collect payment for the services we provide, including insurance companies and third parties, which includes family members or other financially responsible parties. Examples include insurance coverage and eligibility verification.





3.We may use and disclose information to monitor and operate our business. Examples include satisfaction surveys, reports provided to federal, state, or local authorities (as required by law), or to remind you of equipment, supplies, insurance processing or service needs.
4. We may release appropriate information about you to family or friends that are helping you with the financial responsibilities incurred while receiving equipment, supplies, or services. Examples include family members accompanying you to help with your care.

5. We may use and disclose information about you to respond to a court or legal authoritative body that legally requests information about you. Examples include providing documents for legal subpoenas or discovery of proceedings.



The following describes your rights to the information we maintain about you:



Additional Practices on Hippa Privacy Act




You have the right to direct the use of your Personal Health Information (PHI) at any of our locations.

  1. You have the right to terminate or revise your authorizations or consents that pertain to our use of your PHI, and have those terminations or revisions affect any NEW equipment, supply, or service provisions. We are NOT required to accept your terms. If we do accept your restrictions, we will honor your specification except where prohibited by law. All requests must be in written form.
  2. You have the right to request a copy of your PHI as long as any federal, state, or local law does not prohibit it. This request must be in writing. There is a charge for copying, producing, and delivering your information.
  3. You have the right to request, in writing, a revision to your Personal Health Information (PHI). Revision requests will be evaluated on an individual basis and amended if appropriate. At no time will a revision be made that will erroneously record the PHI stored by Astar Healthcare. Your written request must detail the requested revision and the reasons for the modification. If no explanation is provided, no revision will be made. If we deny your request for amendment, you have the right to file a statement of disagreement.
  4. You have the right to request an accounting of non-routine disclosures we have made of your PHI. You can receive one free accounting information per written request. The written request must include full name, address, phone number,printed name and  signature of the individual requesting the personal information. 
  5. You have the right to file a complaint about our use of your Personal Health Information with us or with the Secretary of Health and Human Services
  7. Authorized Uses and Disclosure 
  8. Authorization. A covered entity must obtain the individual’s written authorization for any use or disclosure of protected health information that is not for treatment, payment or health care operations or otherwise permitted or required by the Privacy Rule.44 A covered entity may not condition treatment, payment, enrollment, or benefits eligibility on an individual granting an authorization, except in limited circumstances.45
  9. An authorization must be written in specific terms. It may allow use and disclosure of protected health information by the covered entity seeking the authorization, or by a third party. Examples of disclosures that would require an individual’s authorization include disclosures to a life insurer for coverage purposes, disclosures to an employer of the results of a pre-employment physical or lab test, or disclosures to a pharmaceutical firm for their own marketing purposes.
  10. All authorizations must be in plain language, and contain specific information regarding the information to be disclosed or used, the person(s) disclosing and receiving the information, expiration, right to revoke in writing, and other data. The Privacy Rule contains transition provisions applicable to authorizations and other express legal permissions obtained prior to April 14, 2003.46
  11. Psychotherapy Notes47. A covered entity must obtain an individual’s authorization to use or disclose psychotherapy notes with the following exceptions48:
  12. The covered entity who originated the notes may use them for treatment.
  13. A covered entity may use or disclose, without an individual’s authorization, the psychotherapy notes, for its own training, and to defend itself in legal proceedings brought by the individual, for HHS to investigate or determine the covered entity’s compliance with the Privacy Rules, to avert a serious and imminent threat to public health or safety, to a health oversight agency for lawful oversight of the originator of the psychotherapy notes, for the lawful activities of a coroner or medical examiner or as required by law.
  14. Marketing. Marketing is any communication about a product or service that encourages recipients to purchase or use the product or service.49 The Privacy Rule carves out the following health-related activities from this definition of marketing:
  15. Communications to describe health-related products or services, or payment for them, provided by or included in a benefit plan of the covered entity making the communication;
  16. Communications about participating providers in a provider or health plan network, replacement of or enhancements to a health plan, and health-related products or services available only to a health plan’s enrollees that add value to, but are not part of, the benefits plan;
  17. Communications for treatment of the individual; and
  18. Communications for case management or care coordination for the individual, or to direct or recommend alternative treatments, therapies, health care providers, or care settings to the individual.

  19. Marketing also is an arrangement between a covered entity and any other entity whereby the covered entity discloses protected health information, in exchange for direct or indirect remuneration, for the other entity to communicate about its own products or services encouraging the use or purchase of those products or services. A covered entity must obtain an authorization to use or disclose protected health information for marketing, except for face-to-face marketing communications between a covered entity and an individual, and for a covered entity’s provision of promotional gifts of nominal value. No authorization is needed, however, to make a communication that falls within one of the exceptions to the marketing definition. An authorization for marketing that involves the covered entity’s receipt of direct or indirect remuneration from a third party must reveal that fact.