Privacy
Notice of Privacy Practices for
Protected Health Information
This Notice Describes How Medical Information About You May Be Used And Disclosed And How You May Get Access To This Information. Please Review It Carefully!
We Safeguard Information About Your Health and any Personal information we might have:
We collect information from you and store it in a medical record as well as on a computer. Charts are stored in a secure area and available only to designated staff and only for designated reasons. Housekeeping, maintenance and other non-office personnel have no access to the chart area. Service Technicians may have access to the computer, but only for service of computer operations. If, within the scope of their Service Technician duties, it is necessary that protected Patient Information is accessed, the Service Technician will sign a "Business Associate Agreement" which requires their compliance with our Privacy Policy.
Typical uses and disclosures of medical information:
We collect medical information from you. Within our office, we restrict the disclosure of this information to doctors, nurses, technicians, insurance and billing personnel. Outside our office, we restrict the disclosure to those people, entities, and agencies for whom you authorize disclosure such as other healthcare providers (doctors, nurses, extended care facilities), insurance companies, billing agencies, hospitals and surgery sites, or those agencies and entities for whom legal and administrative requirements demand disclosure such as:
- When required by law
- Public health activities (deaths, child abuse, neglect, domestic violence, problems with products, reactions to medications, product recalls, disease/infection exposure, disease/injury/disability control/prevention)
- Health oversight activities (audits, investigations, inspections)
- Judicial and administrative proceedings (court order)
- Appropriate law enforcement requests (to identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person)
- Deceased persons' information to coroners, medical examiners, funeral directors
- Organ and tissue donation
- Research, provided authorization is International Research Bureau-approved or Privacy Board-approved
- Emergencies or to avert serious threat to health or safety
- Specialized government functions (military, inmates)
- Workers' compensation
Because we receive our orders for your telephone monitoring from your following cardiologist or family physician and our testing reports are part of your overall healthcare provided by him/her, we will share our information with the physician who has ordered our services without your specific written authorization. We do have a written order from your physician for the services we provide. Please make note: it is your responsibility to notify us in writing if your physician changes.
We may contact you for appointment schedules and reminders, and we may provide you with information about health-related benefits and services.
Each patient is given a copy of the Privacy Notice and an opportunity to review and understand it.
Patient Privacy Rights
You Have The Right To:
Inspect and copy medical information from your chart. You may submit a written request to our office, pay the copy fee and receive a copy of your record. We must respond within 30 days if the record is readily available and within 60 days if it is not readily available.
Amend medical information in your chart. You may identify inaccurate or incomplete information in your chart. You can do this with a written request to amend your chart directed to our office.* We must respond within 60 days of your request.
Receive an accounting of any disclosures made from your record over the last six years, starting April 14, 2003. You can get this with a written request directed to our office.* We must respond within 60 days of your request.
Request restrictions as to the amount of medical information we disclose. This is limited as noted on the front side of this notice, and your request may not supercede the typical disclosures noted on the front side of this notice. You may revoke or restrict consent.
Request confidential communications. All communications in our office are confidential. You may specifically request that all communications be confidential with a written request directed to our office.
Receive a copy of this notice by copying it or with a written request directed to this office. This notice has been sent to all current patients of Pacemaker Monitoring Center, Inc. and will be given with all new patient packets.
* If you intend to amend your chart or receive an accounting of disclosures, please contact our privacy officer at (800) 399-8622, extension 103, to request the appropriate form for such action.
Our responsibilities under HIPAA:
We are required by Law to maintain the privacy of your personal health information, to provide you notice of our legal duties and privacy practices and adhere to this notice.
We reserve the right to make changes to this notice. We will post a notice if any changes have been made and the effective date of the change. Copies will be made available upon request.
You can complain about our privacy policy or its execution either verbally or in writing to our Privacy Officer at (800) 399-8622, extension 103.
If you get no resolution to your complaint, you can send a written statement to this office or the Secretary of Health and Human Services.