Scoliosis and Spinal
Surgery
| 244 Westchester Avenue White Plains, NY 10604 Phone - 914 288-0045 Fax - 914 288-0065 |
70 Mill River Street Suite #LL3 Stamford, Ct 06902 Phone- 203 327- 9844 Fax - 203 969-1392 |
Notice of Privacy
Practices
Rudolph
F. Taddonio, M.D., P.C.
244 Westchester Ave, White Plains NY 10604
Suite 316
70 Mill River Street Suite #LL3 Stamford, Ct 06902
Privacy Officer: Julene Valentine
(914) 288-0045 or (203) 327-9844
Effective Date:
April 14, 2003
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.
We understand the importance of privacy, and are
committed to maintaining the confidentiality of your medical information.
We make a record of the medical care we provide, and may receive such
records from others. We use these records to provide or enable other health care
providers to provide quality medical care, to obtain payment for services
provided to you as allowed by your health plan and to enable us to meet our
professional and legal obligations to operate this medical practice properly. We
are required by law to maintain the privacy of protected health information and
to provide individuals with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices
with respect to protected health information. This notice describes how we may
use and disclose your medical information. It also describes your rights and our legal obligations with
respect to your medical information. If
you have any questions about this Notice, please contact our Privacy Officer
listed above.
A.
How this Medical Practice May Use or Disclose Your Health Information
The
law permits us to use or disclose your health information for the following
purposes:
1.
Treatment. We may use
medical information about you to provide your medical care.
We disclose medical information to our employees and others who are
involved in providing the care you need. For
example, we may share your medical information with other physicians or other
health care providers who will provide services, which we do not provide.
We may also share this information with a pharmacist who needs it to
dispense a prescription to you, or a laboratory that performs a test.
2.
Payment. We may
use and disclose medical information about you to obtain payment for the
services we provide. For example,
we may give your health plan the information it requires before it will pay us. We may also disclose information to other health care
providers to assist them in obtaining payment for services they have provided to
you.
3.
Health Care Operations. We
may use and disclose medical information about you to operate this medical
practice. For example, we may use
and disclose this information to review and improve the quality of care we
provide, or the competence and qualifications of our professional staff.
We may also use and disclose this information to request that your health
plan authorize services or referrals. We
may also use and disclose this information as necessary for medical reviews,
legal services and audits, including fraud and abuse detection and compliance
programs and business planning and management.
We may also share your information with other health care providers, a
health care clearinghouse or health plans that have a relationship with you when
they request this information, to help them with their quality assessment and
improvement activities, their efforts to improve health or reduce health care
costs, their review of compliance, qualifications and performance of health care
professionals, their training programs, their accreditation, certification or
licensing activities, or their health care fraud and abuse detection and
compliance efforts.
4.
Business Associates. We
may share your medical information with our "business associates",
such as our billing service that performs administrative services for us.
We have a written contract with each of these business associates that
contains terms requiring them to protect the confidentiality of your medical
information.
5.
Appointment Reminders. We
may use and disclose medical information to contact and remind you about
appointments. If you are not home,
we may leave this information with the person answering the phone or on your
answering machine.
6.
Sign in sheet. We may
ask you to sign in when you arrive at our office.
We may also call out your name when we are ready to see you.
7.
Notification and communication with family.
We may disclose your health information to a family member or a close
friend or other person you identify where relevant to that person’s
involvement in your care or payment for your care.
We may disclose your health information to notify or assist in notifying
a family member, your personal representative or another person responsible for
your care about your location, your general condition or in the event of your
death. In the event of a disaster,
we may disclose information to a relief organization so that they may coordinate
these notification efforts. If you
are able and available to agree or object, we will give you the opportunity to
object prior to making these disclosures, although we may disclose this
information in a disaster even over your objection if we believe it is necessary
to respond to the emergency circumstances.
If you are unable or unavailable to agree or object, our health
professionals will use their best judgment in communicating with your family and
others.
8.
Marketing. We may
contact you to give you information about product or services related to your
treatment, case management or care coordination, or to direct or recommend other
treatments or health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to
you or to provide you with small gifts. We
may also encourage you to purchase a product or service when we see you. We will not use of disclose your medical information for
marketing purposes without your written authorization.
9.
Required by law. As
required by law, we will use and disclose your health information, but we will
limit our use or disclosure to the relevant requirements of the law.
When the law requires us to report abuse, neglect or domestic violence,
or respond to judicial or administrative proceedings, or to law enforcement
officials, we will further comply with the requirement set forth below
concerning those activities.
10.
Public health. We
may, and are sometimes required by law to disclose your health information to
public health authorities for purposes related to:
preventing or controlling disease, injury or disability; reporting child,
elder or dependent adult abuse or neglect; reporting domestic violence;
reporting to the Food and Drug Administration problems with products and
reactions to medications; and reporting disease or infection exposure.
When we report suspected elder or dependent adult abuse or domestic
violence, we will inform you or your personal representative promptly unless in
our best professional judgment, we believe the notification would place you at
risk of serious harm or would require informing a personal representative we
believe is responsible for the abuse or harm.
11.
Health oversight activities.
We may, and are sometimes required by law to disclose your health
information to health oversight agencies during the course of audits,
investigations, inspections, licensure and other proceedings.
12.
Judicial and administrative proceedings.
We may, and are sometimes required by law, to disclose your health
information in the course of any administrative or judicial proceeding to the
extent expressly authorized by a court or administrative order.
We may also disclose information about you in response to a subpoena,
discovery request or other lawful process if reasonable efforts have been made
to notify you of the request and you have not objected, or if your objections
have been resolved by a court or administrative order.
13.
Law enforcement. We
may, and are sometimes required by law, to disclose your health information to a
law enforcement official for purposes such as identifying of locating a suspect,
fugitive, material witness or missing person, complying with a court order,
warrant, grand jury subpoena and other law enforcement purposes.
14.
Coroners. We may, and
are often required by law, to disclose your health information to coroners in
connection with their investigations of deaths.
15.
Organ or tissue donation. We
may disclose your health information to organizations involved in procuring,
banking or transplanting organs and tissues.
16.
To avert a serious threat to health or safety.
We may, and are sometimes required by law, to disclose your health
information to appropriate persons in order to prevent or lessen a serious and
imminent threat to the health or safety of a particular person or the general
public.
17.
Specialized government functions.
We may disclose your health information for military or national security
purposes or to correctional institutions or law enforcement officers that have
you in their lawful custody.
18.
Worker’s compensation. We
may disclose your health information as necessary to comply with worker’s
compensation laws. For example, to the extent your care is covered by workers'
compensation, we will make periodic reports to your employer about your
condition. We are also required by
law to report cases of occupational injury or occupational illness to the
employer or workers' compensation insurer.
19.
Change of Ownership. In
the event that this medical practice is sold or merged with another
organization, your health information/record may be transferred the new owner,
although you will maintain the right to request that copies of your health
information be transferred to another physician or medical group.
20.
Research. We may
disclose your health information to researchers conducting research with respect
to which your written authorization is not required as approved by an
Institutional Review Board or privacy board, in compliance with governing law.]
B.
When This Medical Practice May Not Use or Disclose Your Health
Information
Except as described in
this Notice of Privacy Practices, this medical practice will not use or disclose
health information, which identifies you without your written authorization.
If you do authorize this medical practice to use or disclose your health
information for another purpose, you may revoke your authorization in writing at
any time, except to the extent that we have already taken action in
reliance on the authorization.
C.
Your Health Information Rights
1.
Right to Request Special Privacy Protections.
You have the right to request restrictions on certain uses and
disclosures of your health information, by submitting a written request
specifying what information you want to limit and what limitations on our use or
disclosure of that information you wish to have imposed.
We reserve the right to accept or reject your request, and will notify
you of our decision.
2.
Right to Request Confidential Communications.
You have the right to request that you receive your health information in
a specific way or at a specific location. For
example, you may ask that we send information to a particular e-mail account or
to your work address. We will
comply with all reasonable requests submitted in writing which specify how or
where you wish to receive these communications.
3.
Right to Inspect and Copy. You
have the right to inspect and copy your health information, with limited
exceptions. To access your medical
information, you must submit a written request detailing what information you
want access to and whether you want to inspect it or get a copy of it.
We will charge a reasonable fee, as allowed by Connecticut law. We may deny your request under limited circumstances.
4.
Right to Amend or Supplement.
You have a right to request that we amend your health information that
you believe is incorrect or incomplete. You
must make a request to amend in writing, and include the reasons you believe the
information is inaccurate or incomplete. We
are not required to change your health information, and will provide you with
information about this medical practice's denial and how you can disagree with
the denial. We may deny your
request if we do not have the information, if we did not create the information
(unless the person or entity that created the information is no longer available
to make the amendment), if you would not be permitted to inspect or copy the
information at issue, or if the information is accurate and complete as is.
5.
Right to an Accounting of Disclosures.
You have a right to receive an accounting of disclosures of your health
information made by this medical practice, except that this medical practice
does not have to account for the disclosures provided to you or pursuant to your
written authorization, or as described in paragraphs 1 (treatment), 2 (payment),
3 (health care operations), 7 (notification and communication with family) and
17 (certain government functions) of Section A of this Notice of Privacy
Practices or disclosures of data which exclude direct patient identifiers for
purposes of research or public health or disclosures which are incident to a use
or disclosure otherwise permitted or authorized by law, or the disclosures to a
health oversight agency or law enforcement official to the extent this medical
practice has received notice from that agency or official that providing this
accounting would be reasonably likely to impede their activities and certain
other disclosures.
6.
Right to Receive a Notice of Privacy Practices. You have a right
to receive a paper copy of this Notice of Privacy Practices, even if you have
previously requested its receipt by e-mail.
If you would
like to have a more detailed explanation of these rights or if you would like to
exercise one or more of these rights, contact our Privacy Officer listed at the
top of this Notice of Privacy Practices.
D.
Special Rules Regarding Disclosure of Psychiatric, Substance Abuse and
HIV-Related Information
Under
Connecticut or federal law, additional restrictions may apply to disclosures of
health information that relates to care for psychiatric conditions, substance
abuse or HIV-related testing and treatment.
This information may not be disclosed without your specific written
permission, except as may be specifically required or permitted by Connecticut
or federal law. The following are
examples of disclosures that may be made without your specific written
permission:
E.
Changes to this Notice of Privacy Practices
We reserve the right to amend this Notice of Privacy Practices at any time in the future. Until such amendment is made, we are required by law to comply with this Notice. After an amendment is made, the revised Notice of Privacy Protections will apply to all protected health information that we maintain, regardless of when it was created or received. We will keep a copy of the current notice posted in our reception area, and provide you with a copy upon request. We will also post the A summary of the current notice on our website.
F.
Complaints
Complaints
about this Notice of Privacy Practices or how this medical practice handles your
health information should be directed to our Privacy Officer listed at the top
of this Notice of Privacy Practices.
You may also
submit a complaint to:
Department of Health and Human Services
Office of Civil Rights
Hubert H. Humphrey Bldg.
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Room 509F HHH Building
Washington, DC 20201
You
will not be penalized for filing a complaint.