Privacy Policy - HIPAA Agreement
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAYBE USED AND DISCLOSED BY GETONLINEDOCTOR AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
April 14, 2003
1. Purpose of this Notice. We consider any information that concerns your health, health care or payment for that care to be confidential and protected information. This Notice describes our privacy practices, specifically how we use and disclose your medical information and what rights you have with respect to this information. This information includes your name, address, and other identifying data, and information on your health or the health services that have been or may be furnished to you. We require all of our employees, staff, volunteers and independent contractors to comply with these privacy practices.
We are required by federal law to obtain an acknowledgment from you that you received this Notice.
Please feel free to contact us, to discuss, or request any additional information regarding any of our privacy practice or this notice.
2. The Use and Disclosure of Medical Information for Treatment, Payment and Health Care Operations. By law we are allowed to use and disclose your medical information for most purposes related to your medical treatment ("Treatment"), the payment for your medical treatment ("Payment"), and our health care operations or the operations of other covered entities to whom we disclose your medical information ("Operations").
Treatment means the provision, coordination or management of health care and related services by or involving one or more health care providers, such as the coordination of consultations and referrals. For example, we can share most medical information regarding your health condition with another provider as part of a consultation. We may also contact you to remind you to make or that you already made an appointment; to notify you regarding treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.
Please note that by law, certain medical information, such as psychotherapy notes, generally may not be used or shared even when it is related to your treatment, unless we obtain an Authorization from you to use or release that information.
Payment means activities related to obtaining reimbursement from HMOs, insurers or other payers for services provided to you. Payment can also cover activities to determine your eligibility for services with your insurer, coordination of benefits with other insurers, billing, claims management, collection, medical necessity review activities, utilization review activities, and disclosure to consumer reporting agencies. For example, we can disclose to your health plan medical information that is required by the plan to determine whether the services we have provided to you are medically necessary. We can also disclose to your health plan a list of the services that you obtained from us so that we can be paid by the health plan for providing the services to you.
Operations cover a range of activities that are necessary for the business of health care providers, payers or clearinghouses (i.e., entities performing certain billing or payment functions). They may be performed by our employees or, in some cases, by third-party contractors. These operations include: quality assessment and improvement activities; peer review; credentialing and licensing; training programs; legal and financial services; business planning and development; management activities related to privacy practices; customer services; internal grievances; creating de-identified information for data aggregation or other purposes; fundraising; certain marketing activities; and due diligence activities. For example, we evaluate practitioner performance to ensure that they meet our quality standards. Engaging counsel to defend us in a legal action is another activity that is considered health care operations.
3. Authorizations for Other Uses and Disclosures of Your Medical Information. Unless a use or disclosure is permitted for treatment, payment or operations purposes under Section 2 of this Notice, or is permitted or required under Section 4 or 5 of this Notice, we must obtain a signed Authorization from you to use or disclose your medical information. We may also require an Authorization when using or disclosing certain highly protected information, such as substance abuse information. An Authorization is a written permission that specifically identifies the information that we will use or disclose, and when and how we will use or disclose it. You may revoke an Authorization at any time except to the extent that we have already used or disclosed your information in reliance on your Authorization.
4. Use and Disclosure of Medical Information Without Your Consent or Authorization If You Don’t Object Verbally. Under certain circumstances, we may use or disclose your medical information without an Authorization or other written permission from you if we give you the opportunity to agree or object verbally. These circumstances are as follows:
5. Use and Disclosure of Medical Information Without Your Consent or Opportunity to Agree or Object Verbally. In the following situations, we are permitted under law to use or disclose your medical information without obtaining your consent or authorization or allowing you to agree or object.
i. to report a birth, death, disease or injury, as required by law;ii. as part of a public health investigation;iii. to report child or adult abuse or neglect, or domestic violence, as authorized by law;iv. to report adverse events (such as product defects), to track products or assist in product recalls or repairs or replacements, or to conduct post marketing surveillance, as required by the Food and Drug Administration;v. to notify a person about exposure to a possible communicable disease, as required by law; andvi. to your employer if, we are conducting an evaluation relating to the medical surveillance of the employer’s workplace or to evaluate whether you have a work related injury and only to the extent that the disclosure concerns such surveillance or injury.
i. Armed Forces. We may disclose your medical information if you are a member of the Armed Forces, as deemed necessary by military command authorities, and if you are foreign military personnel, to your appropriate authority.ii. National Security and Intelligence. We may disclose your medical information to authorized federal officials for lawful intelligence, counterintelligence, and other national security activities, and for protective services to the President and other heads of state or authorized persons.iii. Correctional Institutions. If you are an inmate, we may disclose your medical information to correctional institutions or law enforcement personnel having lawful custody of you for administration and maintenance of the safety, security and good order of the correctional institution; of identification necessary to provide health care to you, or to protect you, other inmates, employees and officers of the institution, individuals participating in your transportation, or law enforcement at the institution.iv. Other Government Agencies. We may disclose your medical information to other government entities that administer public benefits to populations similar to the population that we serve, if necessary to coordinate the functions of the programs.
6. Individual Rights. You have the following rights with respect to your medical information:
Under no circumstances will we take any retaliation against you for filing a complaint.
7. Our Duties. We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your medical information and to provide you with this Notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your medical information. We must comply with the Notice currently in effect.
We reserve the right to revise this Notice and will revise the Notice if we materially change any use, disclosure, individual right or legal duty or other privacy practice stated in this Notice.
Contact Get Online Doctor:
support@getonlinedoctor.com
1-727-447-3497