HIPAA
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a federal law that provides new privacy protections and new patient rights with regard to the use and disclosure of your Protected Health information (PHI) used for the purpose of treatment, payment, and health care operations, HIPAA requires that we provide you with a “Notice of Policies and Practices to Protect the Privacy of Your Health Information” (the Notice) for use and disclosure of PHI for treatment, payment and health care operations. The Notice, which accompanies these Office Policies, explains HIPAA and its application to your personal health information in greater detail. The law requires that we obtain your signature acknowledging that we have provided you with this information. Although these documents are long and sometimes complex, it is very important that you read them carefully. We are always willing to discuss any question you have about the procedures at any time.
HIPAA provides you with several new or expanded rights with regard to your Clinical Record and disclosures of PHI. These rights include requesting that we amend your record; requesting restrictions on what information from your Clinical Record is disclosed to others; requesting an accounting of most disclosures of PHI that you have neither consented to nor authorized; determining the location to which protected information disclosures are sent; having any complaints you make about our policies and procedures recorded in your records; and the right to a paper copy of these Office Policies, the accompanying Notice of Privacy Practices, and our privacy policies and procedures.