Notice of Privacy Practice
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW CAREFULLY.
THE PRIVACY OF YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION IS IMPORTANT TO US.
Our Legal Duty
our WellNow Medical practice (“we”, “our”, “us”), like all other healthcare providers, is required by applicable federal and state law to maintain the privacy of your health information. We are also required to give you this notice about our privacy practices, our legal duties, and your rights concerning your health information. We must follow the privacy practices that are described in this notice while it is in effect. This notice went into effect January 1, 2012, with the latest revision on September 21, 2016 and will remain in effect until modified or replaced. We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and the terms of this notice at any time, provided such changes are permitted by applicable law. We reserve the right to make the changes in our privacy practices and the new terms of our notice effective for all health information that we maintain, including health information we created or received before we made the changes. Before we make a significant change in our privacy practices, we will change this notice and make the new notice available upon request. You may request a copy of our notice at any time. For more information about our privacy practices, or for additional copies of this notice, please contact us according to the means outlined in this notice.
Patient Rights
Access
You have the right to look at or get copies of your health information, with limited exceptions. You may request that we provide copies in a format other than photocopies. We will use the format you request unless we cannot practicably do so. We may charge a fee for producing medical records and x-rays as allowed by law.
Disclosure Accounting
You have the right to receive a list of instances in which we or our business associates disclosed your health information for purposes, other than treatment, payment, healthcare operations and certain other activities, for the last 6 years, but not before April 14, 2003. If you request this accounting more than once in a 12-month period, we may charge you a reasonable, cost-based fee for responding to these addition request.
Restriction
You have the right to request that we place additional restrictions on our use or disclosure of your health information. We are not required to agree to these additional restrictions, but if we do, we will abide by our agreement (except in an emergency). When you pay in full outside of your insurance plan for services, you may request that we restrict this information and not disclose it to your healthcare plan or insurer.
Breach Notification
We will provide you with notification of a breach of unsecured PHI as required by law.
Alternative Communication
You have the right to request that we communicate with you about your health information by alternative means or to alternative locations. This request must be in writing. Your request must specify the alternative means or location, and provide satisfactory explanation how payments will be handled under the alternative means or location you requested.
Amendment
You have the right to request that we amend your health information. This request must be in writing, and it must explain why the information should be amended. We may deny your request under certain circumstances.
Electronic Notice
If you received this notice on our web site or by electronic mail (e-mail), you are also entitled to receive this notice in written form.
Uses and Disclosures of Health Information
We use and disclose health information about you for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations. For example:
Treatment
We may use or disclose your health information to other healthcare providers providing treatment to you.
Payment
We may use and disclose your healthcare information to obtain payment for services we provide to you.
Healthcare Operations
We may use and disclose your health information in connection with our healthcare operations. Healthcare operations include quality assessment and improvement activities, reviewing the competence or qualifications of healthcare professionals, evaluating practitioner and provider performance, conducting training programs, accreditation certification, licensing, or credentialing activities.
Your Authorization
In addition to our use of your health information, as outlined in this notice, you may give us written authorization to use your health information or to disclose it to anyone for any purpose. If you give us an authorization, you may revoke it in writing at any time. Your revocation will not affect any use or disclosures permitted by your authorization while it was in effect. Unless you give us a written authorization, we cannot use or disclose your health information for any reason except those described in this notice.
To Your Family and Friends
We must disclose your health information to you, as described in the Patient Rights section of this notice. We may disclose your health information to a family member, friend or other person to the extent necessary to help with your healthcare or with your payment for your healthcare, but only if you agree that we may do so.
Persons Involved in Your Care
We may use or disclose health information to notify, or assist in the notification of (including identifying or locating) a family member, your personal representative or another person responsible for your care, of your location, your general condition, or death. If you are present, then prior to use or disclosure of your health information, we will provide you with an opportunity to object to such uses or disclosures. In the event of your incapacity or emergency circumstances, we will disclose health information based on a determination using our professional judgement disclosing only health information that is directly relevant to the person’s involvement in your healthcare.
Marketing Health-Related Services
We may use your information internally to offer goods and services we believe may be of interest to you. We may use your information to contact you to inquire or survey about the patient experience at the location(s) visited and the prospect of future services or improvements needed to continue as your services provider. We may also create and aggregate patient information that is not personally identifiable to understand more about the common traits and interest of our patients. We may utilize one or more third-party service providers to send email or other communications to you on our behalf, including patient satisfaction surveys. These service providers are prohibited from using your email address or other contact information for any purpose other than to send communications on our behalf. It is our intention to only send email communications that would be useful to you and that you would want to receive. When you provide us with your email address as a part of the registration or appointment setting process, we will place you on our list of patients to receive informational and promotional emails. Each time you receive a promotional email, you will be provided the choice to “opt-out” of future emails by following the instructions provided.
Accrediting/Regulatory Bodies
We are surveyed by organizations who may have access to your protected health information to ensure that we are providing quality services.
Military and Veterans
If you are a member of the armed forces, we may disclose health information about you as required by the military command authorities.
Medical Examiner/Funeral Director
We can share health information with a coroner, medical examiner, or funeral director when an individual dies.
Worker’s Compensation and Law Enforcement
We can use or share health information about you for worker’s compensation claims and for law enforcement purposes or with a law enforcement official.
Fund Raising
We will not use your health information for fundraising activities without your written consent.
Required by Law
We may use or disclose your health information when we are required to do so by law.
Abuse or Neglect
We may disclose your health information to appropriate authorities if we reasonably believe that you are a possible victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence or the possible victim of other crimes. We may disclose your health information to the extent necessary to avert a serious threat to your health or safety or the health or safety of others.
National Security
We may disclose to military authorities the health information of Armed Forces personnel under certain circumstances. We may disclose, to authorize federal officials, health information required for lawful intelligence, counterintelligence, and other national security activities. We may disclose to correctional institutions or law enforcement officials having full custody of protected health information of inmates or patients under certain circumstances.
Appointment Reminders
We may use or disclose your health information to provide you with appointment reminders (such as voicemail messages, postcards, or letters).
Cookies
Our website utilizes “cookie” technology. “Cookies” are encrypted strings of text that a website stores on a user’s computer. Our website uses cookies throughout the online process to keep together information entered on multiple pages. For example, cookies enable our website to “remember” information provided to us. In addition, cookies are used to:
Measure usage of various pages on our website to help us make our information more pertinent to your needs and easy for you to access.
Provide functionality such as online appointing, bill paying and other functionality that we believe would be of interest and value to you.
The two types of cookies that we use are referred to as “session” cookies and “persistent” cookies. Session cookies are temporary and are automatically deleted once you leave our website. Persistent cookies remain on your computer hard drive until you delete them. We do not use cookies to gather any personally identifiable information about you apart from what you voluntarily provide us in your dealings with us. Our cookies do not corrupt or damage your computer, programs or computer files. You may set your browser to block cookies.
Questions and Concerns
If you would like additional information about our privacy practices or have questions, WellNow Medical’s HIPAA Privacy Officer may be reached at 315-454-6000 x 202614
If you are concerned that we may have violated your privacy rights, or if you disagree with a decision we made about access to your health information or our handling of your response to a request you made to amend or restrict the use or disclosure of your health information, or to have us communicate with you by alternative means or at alternative locations, you may send you concerns to WellNow Urgent Care, Attn: HIPAA Privacy Officer, 281 Sanders Creek Parkway, East Syracuse, NY 13057. You also may submit written concerns to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. We will provide you with the address to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services upon request.
We support your right to maintain the privacy of your health information. We will not retaliate in any way if you choose to file a complaint with us or with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
