HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices

HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices

THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.

This Notice of Privacy Practices describes how we may use and disclose your protected health information (PHI) to carry out treatment, payment, or health care operations and for other purposes that are permitted or required by law. It also describes your rights to access and control your protected health information. “Protected health information” or “PHI” is information about you, including demographic information, that may identify you and that relates to your past, present or future physical or mental health or condition and related health care services.

We are required to abide by the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices. We may change the terms of this Notice at any time. A new Notice will be effective for all PHI that we maintain at that time. Upon your request, we will provide you with any revised Notice of Privacy Practices. Paper copies of this Notice will be provided to you upon request even if you have already received a copy of the Notice or have agreed to accept Notice electronically.

Uses and Disclosures of Protected Health Information

Palliative Turns, LLC and Laura Taets may use and disclose your Protected Health Information (“PHI”) without your prior authorization for purposes of providing treatment, obtaining payment for treatment and conducting health care operations. Your PHI may be used or disclosed only for these purposes unless Palliative Turns or Laura Taets has obtained your authorization or the use or disclosure is otherwise permitted by HIPAA Privacy Regulations or State law. Disclosures of your PHI for the purposes described in the Notice may be made in writing, orally or by facsimile. Communications to you may be made by mail, facsimile or by telephone, including voice mail message.

Treatment: We will use and disclose your PHI to provide, coordinate, or manage your health care and any related services. This includes the coordination or management of your health care with a third party. For example, we would disclose your PHI, as necessary, to a pharmacy to fulfill a prescription or to a home health agency that provides care to you. We may also disclose PHI to other physicians who may be treating you or consulting with your physician in your care. In some instances we may also disclose your PHI to an outside treatment provider for the purposes of the treatment activities of the provider.

Payment: Your PHI will be used, as needed, to obtain payment for your health care services. For example, if a hospital admission is recommended, we may need to disclose information to your health insurer to get prior approval for the hospital admission. We may also disclose PHI to your insurance company to determine whether you are eligible for benefits or whether a particular service is covered under your health plan. In order to get payment for your services we may also need to disclose your PHI to your insurance company to demonstrate the medical necessity of the services, or as required by your insurance company for utilization review. We may also disclose patient information to another provider involved in your care for the other provider’s payment activities. We may release information to an outside agency for collection purposes.

Healthcare Operations: We may use or disclose, as needed, your PHI in order to support the business activities of your Palliative Turns and to provide quality care to all patients. These activities include, but are not limited to, quality assessment activities, employee review activities, training programs including those in which students or health care practitioners are learning under supervision; accrediting, certification, licensing, or credentialing activities; review and auditing including compliance reviews, medical reviews, legal services and maintaining compliance programs; business management and general administrative activities. In certain situations we may also disclose PHI to another provider or health plan for their health care operations.

Other Permitted and Required Uses and Disclosures That May Be Made With Your Opportunity to Object: As part of treatment, we may also use and disclose your PHI in the following instances: To remind you of an appointment; To inform you of potential treatments or alternatives; To inform you of health related benefits or services that may be of interest to you.

Other Uses and Disclosures Beyond Treatment, Payment and Operations Permitted Without Authorization or Opportunity to Object

Federal privacy rules allow us to use or disclose your PHI without your permission or authorization for a number of reasons including the following:

When legally required: We will disclose your PHI when we are required to do so by Federal, State or local law.

When there are risks to public health: We may disclose your protected health information for the following public activities and purposes: To prevent, control, or report disease, injury, or disability as permitted by law; To report vital events such as birth or death as permitted or required by law; To conduct public health surveillance, investigations, and interventions as permitted or required by law; To collect or report adverse events and product defects; track FDA-regulated products; and enable product recalls, repairs, or replacements to the FDA and conduct post marketing surveillance; To notify a person who has been exposed to a communicable disease or who may be at risk of contracting or spreading a disease as authorized by law; To report to an employer information about an individual who is a member of the workforce as legally permitted or required

To Report Abuse, Neglect, or Domestic Violence: We may notify government authorities if we believe that a patient is the victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence. It is the responsibility of any/all personnel to alert the proper authorities in the event a minor, elderly, or vulnerable adult patient is identified as a victim of alleged or suspected neglect or abuse including sexual abuse, and to comply with proper procedures for the reporting as required or authorized by law.

To Conduct Health Oversight Activities: We may disclose your PHI to a health oversight agency for activities including audits; civil, administrative, or criminal investigations, proceedings, or actions; inspections; licensure or disciplinary actions; or other activities necessary for appropriate oversight as authorized by law. We will not disclose your health information if you are the subject of an investigation and your health information is not directly related to your receipt of health care or public benefits.

In Connection with Judicial and Administrative Proceedings. We may disclose your PHI in the course of any judicial or administrative proceeding in response to an order of a court or administrative tribunal as expressly authorized by such order or in response to a subpoena if you have been notified of the request for information.

For Law Enforcement Purposes: We may disclose your PHI to law enforcement officials for law enforcement purposes as follows: As required by law for reporting of a gunshot wound or life threatening injury indicating an act of violence; Pursuant to court order, court-ordered warrant, subpoena, summons or similar process; For the purpose of identifying or locating a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person; Under certain limited circumstances, when you are the victim of a crime; To law enforcement official if Palliative Turns has a suspicion that your death was the result of criminal conduct; In an emergency in order to report a crime; In the event a minor, elderly, or vulnerable adult patient is identified as a victim of alleged or suspected neglect or abuse including sexual abuse

To Coroners, Funeral Directors, and for Organ Donation: We may disclose your PHI to a coroner or medical examiner for identification purposes, to determine cause of death, or for the coroner or medical examiner to perform other duties authorized by law. We may also disclose PHI to a funeral director, as authorized by law, in order to permit the funeral director to carry out his or her duties. We may disclose such information in reasonable anticipation of death. PHI may be used and disclosed for cadaveric organ, eye, or tissue donation purposes.

For Research Purposes: We may use or disclose your PHI for research without your authorization in limited circumstances only if the use or disclosure for research has been approved by an institutional review board or privacy board that has reviewed the research proposal and research protocols and decided that your information is necessary to the research and the privacy of your information will be protected.

In the Event of a Serious Threat to Health or Safety: We may, consistent with applicable law and ethical standards of conduct, use or disclose your PHI if we believe, in good faith, that such use or disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to your health or safety or to the health and safety of the public.

For Specified Government Functions, Military Activity and National Security: In certain circumstances, the Federal regulations authorize Palliative Turns to use or disclose your PHI to facilitate specified government functions relating to military and veteran’s activities, national security and intelligence activities, protective services for the President and others, medical suitability determinations, correctional institutions, and law enforcement custodial situations. When the appropriate conditions apply, we may use or disclose PHI of individuals who are Armed Forces personnel: (i) for activities deemed necessary by appropriate military command authorities; (ii) for the purpose of a determination by the Department of Veterans Affairs; or (iii) to foreign military authority if you are a member of the foreign military services.

For Worker's Compensation: We may release your PHI to comply with worker's compensation laws or similar programs.

Uses and Disclosures Permitted Without Authorization, but with Opportunity to Object

We may disclose your PHI to your family member(s) or a close personal friend if it is directly relevant to the person’s involvement in your care or payment related to your care. We can also disclose your information in connection with trying to locate or notify family member(s) or others involved in your care concerning your location, condition, or death. You may object to these disclosures. If you do not object to these disclosures or we can infer from the circumstances that you do not object or we determine, in the exercise of our professional judgment, that it is in your best interests for us to make disclosure of information that is directly relevant to the person’s involvement with your care, we may disclose your protected health information as described. In this case, only the PHI that is relevant to your health care will be disclosed. We may use or disclose PHI to notify or assist in notifying a family member, personal representative or any other person that is responsible for the care of your location, general condition or death. Finally, we may use or disclose your PHI to an authorized public or private entity to assist in disaster relief efforts and to coordinate uses and disclosures to family or other individuals involved in your health care.

Emergencies: We may use or disclose your PHI in an emergency treatment situation. If this happens, we will try to obtain your consent as soon as reasonably practicable after the delivery of treatment. If your healthcare provider or another healthcare provider in our agency is required by law to treat you and the healthcare provider has attempted to obtain your consent but is unable to obtain your consent, he or she may still use or disclose your PHI to treat you.

Uses and Disclosures Which You Authorize

Other than as stated above, we will not disclose your health information other than with your written authorization. You may revoke your authorization in writing at any time except to the extent that we have taken action in reliance upon the authorization.

Your Rights

You have the following rights regarding your health information:

The Right to Inspect and Copy Your Protected Health Information: You may inspect and obtain a copy of your PHI that is contained in a designated record set for as long as we maintain the protected health information. A “designated record set” contains medical and billing records and any other records that are used to make decisions about you. Under Federal law, however, you may not inspect or copy the following records: psychotherapy notes; information compiled in reasonable anticipation of, or for use in, a civil, criminal, or administrative action or proceeding; and PHI that is subject to a law that prohibits access to PHI. Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to have a decision to deny access reviewed. We may deny your request to inspect or copy your PHI if, in our professional judgment, we determine that the access requested is likely to endanger your life or safety or that of another person, or that it is likely to cause substantial harm to another person referenced within the information. You have the right to request a review of this decision. To inspect or copy your medical information, you must submit a written request to the Palliative Turns, LLC or Laura Taets and direct the correspondence to the Privacy Contact (Laura Taets, 606 Post Rd East Ste 568, Westport, CT 06880, 203-690-2132). If you request a copy of your information, we may charge you a fee for the costs of copying, mailing, or other costs incurred by us in complying with your request. Please contact our Privacy Officer (Laura Taets) if you have questions about access to your medical record.

The Right to Request a Restriction on Uses and Disclosures of Your Protected Health Information: You may ask us, in writing, not to use or disclose certain parts of your PHI for the purposes of treatment, payment, or health care operations. You may also request, in writing, that we not disclose your health information to family members or friends who may be involved in your care or for notification purposes as described in this Notice of Privacy Practices. Your request must state the specific restriction requested and to whom you want the restriction to apply. Palliative Turns or Laura Taets are not required to agree to a restriction that you may request. We will notify you in writing if we deny your request for a facility directory, disclosures to friends or family members involved in your care, or certain other disclosures we are permitted to make without your authorization. The request for an accounting must be made, in writing a restriction. You may request, in writing, a restriction by contacting the Privacy Contact (Laura Taets) at Palliative Turns, LLC. The request should specify the time period sought for the accounting. We are not required to provide an accounting for disclosures that take place prior to April 14, 2003. Accounting requests may not be made for periods of time in excess of six years. We will provide the first accounting you request during any 12-month period without charge. Subsequent accounting requests may be subject to a reasonable cost-based fee.

The Right to Request to Receive Confidential Communications from Us by Alternative Means or at an Alternative Location: You have the right to request that we communicate with you in certain ways. We will accommodate reasonable requests. We may condition this accommodation by asking you for information as to how payment will be handled or specification of an alternative address or other method of contact. We will not require you to provide an explanation for your request. Requests must be made, in writing, to the Privacy Contact (Laura Taets) at Palliative Turns.

The Right to Request Amendment of Your Protected Health Information: You may request an amendment of protected health information about you in a designated record set for as long as we maintain this information. If you believe that there is a mistake or missing information in our record of your PHI, you may request, in writing, that we correct or add to the record. In this written request, you must also provide a reason to support the requested amendment. We will respond within 60 days of receiving your request. We may deny the request if we determine that the PHI is: correct and complete; not created by us and/or not part of our records, or not permitted to be disclosed. Any denial will state the reasons for denial and explain your rights to have the request and denial, along with any statement in response that you provide, appended to your protected health information. If we approve the request for amendment, we will change the PHI and so inform you. Requests for amendment must be directed to the Privacy Contact (Laura Taets) at Palliative Turns.

The Right to Receive an Accounting: You have the right to request, in writing, an accounting of certain disclosures of your PHI made by Palliative Turns. This right applies to disclosures for purposes other than treatment, payment, or health care operations as described in this Notice of Privacy Practices. We are also not required to account for disclosures that you requested, disclosures that you agreed to by signing an authorization form, disclosures

The Right to Obtain a Paper Copy of This Notice: Upon request, we will provide a separate paper copy of this notice even if you have already received a copy of the notice or have agreed to accept this notice electronically.

Our Duties

Palliative Turns is required by law to maintain the privacy of your PHI and to provide you with this Notice of our duties and privacy practices. We are required to abide by terms of this Notice as may be amended from time to time. We reserve the right to change the terms of this Notice and to make the new Notice provisions effective for all protected health information that we maintain. If Palliative Turns changes its Notice, we will provide a copy of the revised Notice at your next session.

Complaints

You have the right to express complaints to Palliative Turns and to the Secretary of Health and Human Services if you believe that your privacy rights have been violated. You may complain to Palliative Turns by contacting, in writing, the Privacy Contact at Palliative Turns (Laura Taets). We encourage you to express any concerns you may have regarding the privacy of your information. You will not be retaliated against in any way for filing a complaint.

If you have any objections to this form, please speak with our Privacy Officer (Laura Taets) in person or at 203-690-2132

Questions or Suggestions

If you have questions or concerns about our collection, use, or disclosure of your PHI, please contact us: 203-690-2132

Effective Date • This Notice is effective December 1, 2022