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Northeast Occupational Exchange, Inc. 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.
If you have any
questions about this notice, please contact our Privacy Officer:
WHO WILL FOLLOW THIS NOTICE This notice describes Northeast
Occupational Exchange, Inc.’s (NOE) privacy practices for all NOE departments,
including:
·
Any health care
professional authorized to enter information into your record.
·
Any member of a
student or volunteer group NOE allows to work with you while you receive
services.
·
All employees,
staff and other NOE personnel.
OUR
PLEDGE REGARDING MEDICAL INFORMATION
NOE understands
that information about you and your health is personal. We are committed to
protecting your information. We create a record
of the care and services you receive at NOE. We need this record to provide you
with quality care and to comply with certain legal requirements. This notice
applies to all of the records of your care generated by NOE. This notice will
tell you about the ways in which we may use and disclose medical information
about you. We also describe your rights and certain obligations we have
regarding the use and disclosure of your information. State and Federal laws and regulations
protect the confidentiality/privacy of your records at NOE. We are
required by law to:
·
Make sure that we
maintain the privacy of your healthcare information;
·
Give you this
notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to medical
information about you; and
·
Follow the terms
of the Privacy Notice that is currently in effect. HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE MEDICAL
INFORMATION ABOUT YOU NOE uses information about you for purposes
of planning your care and treatment, and other lawful functions of its
practice, including securing payment and other usual health care operations.
These uses are known as ‘Treatment, Payment and Operations’, or TPO. NOE
may share information about you within the agency, on a need to know only basis,
for the purpose of assuring the best possible care. For example, information
sharing may occur among or between clinical staff, our billing department, or
our medical records staff. We may use information to review the quality of our
treatment and services and to evaluate the performance of our staff. All
clinicians at NOE receive clinical supervision and may discuss your treatment
with their supervisor. We may use and disclose information about you so
that the treatment and services you receive at NOE may be billed and payment
collected. Some of your information may be available to persons working on
NOE’s behalf, who are subject to the same rules of confidentiality as NOE with
respect to your information. These uses and disclosures are necessary to
run the agency and make sure our clients receive the best care possible. NOE retains client records in their
original form for a minimum of seven (7) years after the date that a record is
closed and for clients seen as minors, for seven (7) years following the
client’s eighteenth (18th) birthday. Following this time, the
records are destroyed.
When
written authorization to release information about you is required We may request your authorization to use
information for treatment outside the agency or to request information from
another individual or organization to help with your treatment. For example, we
may request to use information about you to coordinate care with another
provider or to explore possible treatment options. We may request to release information about you to a friend or
family member who is involved in your care, or helps pay for your care. In
emergency situations, your consent may be obtained
after the fact. We may request permission to contact you in
an effort to raise money for NOE and its operations. We may request to use and/or disclose information about
you for research purposes. Before we use or disclose information for research,
any such project will have been approved through a research approval process.
We will always ask for your written authorization if the researcher will have
access to any information that reveals who you are, or will be involved in your
care at NOE. Except as described below, we will not
use or disclose your information, except with your written authorization. You
may revoke your authorization at any time by giving NOE your written or verbal notice of revocation. When
we do not require written authorization to release information about you We may disclose information without your
authorization as permitted or required by applicable law, for any of the
following purposes:
·
Information about
you required by federal, state or local law.
·
To
make any required reports of abuse or neglect regarding children or dependent
or incapacitated adults.
·
To
report serious threats of harm to self or others.
·
To comply with
health oversight activities necessary for the government to monitor the health
care system, government programs, and compliance with civil rights laws.
·
To comply with a
court order, government subpoena, or other lawful process: If you are involved
in a lawsuit or a dispute, we may disclose information about you in response to
a court or administrative order. We may also disclose information about you in
response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process by someone
else involved in the dispute, but only if efforts have been made to tell you
about the request or to obtain an order protecting the information requested.
·
To
avert a serious threat to health or safety, such as:
·
Requests from authorized
federal officials for intelligence, counterintelligence, and other national
security activities authorized by law.
·
Requests from authorized
federal officials so they may provide protection to the President, other
authorized persons or foreign heads of state, or conduct special
investigations.
·
If you are an
inmate of a correctional institution or under the custody of a law enforcement
official, we may release information about you to the correctional institution
or law enforcement official. This release would be necessary (1) for the
institution to provide you with health care; (2) to protect your health and
safety or the health and safety of others; or (3) for the safety and security
of the correctional institution.
·
For research
purposes, as combined non-identifiable data.
·
In the event of
your death, to a medical examiner or funeral director as necessary: this may be
necessary to identify a deceased person or determine the cause of death.
·
For worker’s
compensation purposes, programs providing benefits for work-related injuries or
illness.
·
To contact you for
appointment reminders.
·
To provide you
with information about treatment alternatives or other health services.
·
If you are an
organ donor, we may release information to organizations that handle organ
procurement or organ, eye or tissue transplantation or to an organ donation
bank, as necessary to facilitate organ or tissue donation and transplantation.
·
If you are a
member of the armed forces, we may release information about you as required by
military command authorities. We may also release medical information about
foreign military personnel to the appropriate foreign military authority.
·
To comply with
public health statutes and rules regarding
Public Health Risks. For example:
·
to prevent or
control disease;
·
to report
reactions to medications or problems with products;
·
to notify people
of recalls of products they may be using;
·
to notify a person
who may have been exposed to a disease or may be at risk for contracting or
spreading a disease or condition;
·
We may release
information if asked to do so by a law enforcement official:
·
About a death we
believe may be the result of criminal conduct;
·
About criminal
conduct at the agency or directed toward agency staff; and
·
In certain
emergency circumstances to report a crime. YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU Right
to Inspect and Copy.
You have the
right to inspect and receive a copy of
information that may be used to make decisions about your care. Usually, this
includes treatment and billing records, but does not include psychotherapy
notes or information compiled in reasonable anticipation of use in a criminal,
civil or administrative proceeding. If you choose to review your NOE record,
you must do so in the presence of a NOE clinician. To inspect and copy information that may be
used to make decisions about you, you must submit your request in writing to
your NOE provider. If you request a copy of the information, we may
charge a fee for the costs of copying, mailing or other supplies associated
with your request. We may deny your request to inspect and copy in certain very
limited circumstances. If you are denied access to information, you may request
that the denial be reviewed. Another licensed health care professional chosen
by the agency will review your request and the denial. The person conducting
the review will not be the person who denied your request. NOE will comply with
the outcome of the review. Right
to Amend. If you feel that
information we have about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask us to
amend the information. You have the right to request an amendment for as long
as the information is kept by or for NOE. To request an amendment, your request must
be made in writing and submitted to your NOE provider. In addition,
you must provide a reason that supports your request. NOE will respond to your
request within 60 days. Your request and NOE’s response will become part of
your NOE record. We may deny your request for an amendment
if it is not in writing or does not include a reason to support the request. In
addition, we may deny your request if you ask us to amend information that:
· Was not
created by us, unless the person or entity that created the information is no
longer available to make the amendment;
· Is not part
of the medical information kept by or for the agency;
· Is not part
of the information which you would be permitted to inspect and copy; or
· Is accurate
and complete. If we deny your request, you
have the right to submit a letter of disagreement. If you do not submit a
letter of disagreement, you have the right to ask that your original request
for amendment and our denial be provided with any future disclosures of the
information that you wanted changed.
Right
to an Accounting of Disclosures.
You have the right to request an “accounting of disclosures.” This is a list of
the disclosures we made of information about you, other than the disclosures
for which you gave written authorization or which were used by the agency for
treatment, payment, or operations. To request this list or accounting of
disclosures, you must submit your request in writing to your NOE provider. Your
request must state a time period that may not be longer than six years and may
not include dates before The first list you request within a
12-month period will be free. For additional lists, we may charge you for the
costs of providing the list. We will notify you of the cost involved and you
may choose to withdraw or modify your request at that time before any costs are
incurred. Right to Request Restrictions. You have the right to request a restriction or
limitation on the information we use or disclose about you for treatment,
payment or health care operations. You also have the right to request a
limitation on the information we disclose about you to someone who is involved
in your care or the payment for your care, like a family member or friend. For
example, you could ask that we not use or disclose information about a
psychiatric evaluation you had. We are not required to agree to such a
request.
If we do agree, we will
comply with your request unless the information is needed to provide you
emergency treatment, comply with a court order, report abuse or neglect of a
child or adult, or otherwise required by state or federal law. To request restrictions, you must make your
request in writing at the time of intake to NOE services or to your NOE provider. In your
request, you must tell us (1) what information you want to limit; (2) whether
you want to limit our use, disclosure or both; and (3) to whom you want the
limits to apply; for example, disclosures to your spouse. There are certain circumstances under which
an approved restriction may be terminated: (1) You agree or request in writing
that the restriction be terminated; (2) You verbally agree or make the request
and we document your verbal request in your record; and (3) NOE informs you
that it is terminating the restriction with respect to information that it
creates or receives from that date forward.
Right
to Request Confidential Communications. You have the right to request that we communicate with you about
confidential matters in a certain way or at a certain location. For example,
you can ask that we only contact you at work or by mail. To request confidential
communications, you must make your request in writing either during intake to
NOE services or to your NOE provider.
We will not ask you the reason for your request. We will accommodate all
reasonable requests. Your request must specify how or where you wish to be
contacted.
Right
to a Paper Copy of This Notice. You have the right to a paper copy of
this notice. You may ask us to give you a copy of this notice at any time. Even
if you have agreed to receive this notice electronically, you are still
entitled to a paper copy of this notice.
You
may obtain a copy of this notice at our website, www.noemaine.org.
To obtain a paper copy of this notice, inquire at the reception desk. CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE
Northeast Occupational Exchange, Inc. reserves the right to change this notice and to make
the revised or amended notice effective for information we already have about
you as well as any information we receive in the future. We will post a copy of
the current notice on our website and in all NOE sites. The notice will contain
on the first page, in the top right-hand corner, the effective date. COMPLAINTS If you believe your privacy rights have
been violated, you may file a complaint with NOE or with the Secretary of the
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). To file a complaint with NOE, contact our Privacy Officer. All
complaints must be submitted in writing. To contact HHS: The Toll Free: 1-877-696-6775 You will not be penalized for filing a complaint. OTHER USES OF MEDICAL INFORMATION Other uses and disclosures of medical
information not covered by this notice or the laws that apply to us will be
made only with your written authorization. If you provide us authorization to
use or disclose medical information about you, you may revoke that
authorization, verbally or in writing, at any time. If you revoke your
authorization, we will no longer use or disclose medical information about you
for the reasons covered by your written authorization. You understand that we
are unable to take back any disclosures we have already made in reliance upon
your authorization, and that we are required to retain our records of the care
that we provided to you.
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