HIPAA Notice of Privacy

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.

 

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal law designed to protect your privacy whenever your health care providers have to discuss your case, or send information about you to different offices. We have to keep a file to record our consult - but we promise that the private, protected health information in it will be kept confidential.

Health care providers can freely share all the details of your personal health information for purposes of “treatment, payment and health care operations.” That means we can talk to you about your situation, and discuss it with your other health care providers. If you are referred to other specialists, we can send the information on to them. We can also share information with your health insurance company if they need it.

The law also requires us to share your information under other, very precise situations: for example, if a subpoena has been served on this office, to turn over medical records or a federal agency is investigating a complaint that we have not been protecting your privacy.

Any other time we share your personal health information, it has to be with your specific authorization: you have to okay it, in writing, first. When you do give us permission to turn over information about you, we can give out only the minimum amount of information needed to get the job done.

Under HIPAA, we can call or write you to remind you to come back for an appointment, or to tell you how you can get a product or service that might interest you and your family.

You have four rights under HIPAA:

1. Access (you can ask to see all the protected health information (PHI) we have about you);
2. Amendment (you can ask to have changes made to files to amend inaccurate PHI);
3. Disclosure Accounting (you can ask to whom we have given your PHI) and
4. Restriction Request (you can put limits on the use and sharing of your PHI).

 

Our duty under to HIPAA is to give you this notice, so you understand we have promised to keep your private health information confidential. If we change this notice in the future, we’ll give you a new copy.

Kristyn Leonard, CLC is the owner and Privacy Officer of Columbia Lactation Care LLC. I can answer your questions or concerns about how we protect your privacy.

You can complain if you think your privacy hasn’t been protected and we have a duty to attempt to address the situation. We can’t penalize you for making a complaint. If we don’t address your complaint adequately, you can go to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the federal Health and Human Services Dept., to ask that a formal investigation be made. You can get more information about filing a complaint by calling (toll free) 1-800-368-1019.

 

Privacy in Communication

You may initiate communication in the following ways: secure message, phone call, text, e-mail, or Facebook message. For privacy and continuity of care purposes we prefer to use the secure messaging feature provided by our patient portal, but welcome communication from you in any form. We will always do our best to maintain your privacy; by choosing the communication method you are accepting the risk of loss of privacy inherent in the form chosen.

 

 

Updated: September 20, 2018