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PATIENT RIGHTS AND CONFIDENTIALITY
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.
Texas A&M University Student Health
Services is required by law to maintain the privacy of certain
confidential health information known as Protected Health Information, or
PHI, and to provide you with a Notice of our legal duties and privacy
practices with respect to your PHI. We are required to abide by the terms
of this version of this notice, most currently in effect.
USES AND DISCLOSURES OF PROTECTED HEALTH
INFORMATION (PHI)
Texas A&M University Student Health
Services may use PHI for the purposes of treatment, payment, and health
care operations, in most cases without your written permission. Examples
of our use of your PHI for these purposes are:
For Treatment –
This includes such things as verbal and
written information that we obtain about you and use pertaining to your
medical condition and treatment provided to you by us and other medical
personnel including doctors who give orders to allow us to provide
treatment to you. It also includes information we give to other healthcare
personnel to whom we transfer your care and treatment, which includes
transfer of PHI via radio or telephone to the hospital or dispatch center
as well as providing the hospital with a copy of the written record we
create in the course of providing you with treatment and transport.
For Payment –
This includes any activities we must
undertake in order to get reimbursed for the services we provide to you,
including such things as organizing your PHI and submitting bills to
insurance companies (either directly or through a third party billing
company) management of billed claims for services rendered, medical
necessity determinations and reviews, utilization review, and the
collection of outstanding accounts.
For Health Care Operations –
This includes quality assurance
activities, licensing, and training programs to ensure that our personnel
meet our standards of care and follow established policies and procedures,
obtaining legal and financial services, conducting business planning,
processing grievances and complaints, and creating reports that do not
individually identify you for data collection purposes.
OTHER PERMITTED USES AND DISCLOSURES OF
PHI
Other ways in which Texas A&M University
EMS is permitted to use and/or disclose your PHI are:
As Required by Law -
We may use or disclose your PHI to the
extent that federal, state, or local law requires the use or disclosure.
When used in this Notice, "required by law" is defined as it is in the
HIPAA Privacy Regulations.
For Public Health Activities –
We may use or disclose your PHI for public
health activities that are permitted or required by law. For example, we
may use or disclose information to a public health authority authorized to
receive reports of child abuse or neglect.
For Health Oversight Activities –
We may disclose your PHI to a health
oversight agency for activities authorized by law, such as audits,
investigations, inspections, licensure or disciplinary actions, civil,
administrative, or criminal proceedings or other activities. Oversight
agencies seeking this information include government agencies that oversee
(1) the healthcare system, (2) government benefit programs, (3) other
government regulatory programs, and (4) compliance with civil rights laws.
Reporting Abuse or Neglect –
We may disclose your PHI to a government
authority that is authorized by law to receive reports of abuse, neglect,
or domestic violence. Additionally, as required by law, we may disclose to
a government entity authorized to receive such information, if we believe
that you have been a victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence.
Legal Proceedings –
We may disclose your PHI (1) in the course
of any judicial or administrative proceeding (2) in the response to an
order of a court or administrative tribunal to the extent such disclosure
is expressly authorized (3) in response to a subpoena, a discovery
request, or other lawful process, once we have met all administrative
requirements of the HIPAA Privacy Regulations.
Law Enforcement –
Under certain conditions, we also disclose
your PHI to law enforcement officials. Some of the reasons for such a
disclosure may include, but not limited to: (1) it is required by law or
some other legal process (2) it is necessary to locate or identify a
suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person (3) it is necessary
to provide evidence of a crime that occurred on our premises.
For Research –
We may disclose your PHI to researchers
when an institutional review board or privacy board has (1) reviewed the
research proposal and established protocols to ensure the privacy of the
information and (2) approved the researched.
Coroners, Medical Examiners, Funeral
Directors, and Organ Donation –
We may disclose PHI to a coroner or
medical examiner for purposes of identifying a deceased person,
determining a cause of death, or for the coroner or medical examiner to
perform other duties authorized by law. We may also disclose, as
authorized by law, information to funeral directors so that they may carry
out their duties. Further, we may disclose PHI to organizations that
handle organ, eye, or tissue donation and transportation.
To Prevent a Serious Threat to Health or
Safety – Consistent with
federal and state laws, we may disclose your PHI if we believe that the
disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat
to health or safety of a person or the public. We may also disclose PHI if
it is necessary for law enforcement authorities to identify or apprehend
an individual.
Military Activity and National Security,
Protective Services – Under
certain conditions, we may disclose your PHI if you are, or were, Armed
Forces personnel for activities deemed necessary by appropriate military
command authorities. If you are a member of foreign military service, we
may disclose your information to the foreign military authority. We also
may disclose your PHI to authorized federal officials for conducting
national security and intelligence activities, and for the protection of
the President, other authorized persons, or heads of state.
Inmates –
If you are an inmate of a correctional
institution, we may disclose your PHI to the correctional institution or
to a law enforcement official for (1) the institution to provide health
care to you (2) your health and safety and the health and safety of
others, or (3) the safety and security of the correctional institution.
Worker's Compensation –
We may disclose your PHI to comply with
worker's compensation laws and other similar programs that provide
benefits for work related injuries or illnesses.
Others Involved in Your Health Care –
Unless you object in writing we
may disclose your PHI to a friend or family member that you have
identified as being involved with your health care. We also may disclose
your information to an entity assisting in a disaster relief effort so
that your family can be notified about your condition, status, and
location. If you are not present or able to agree to these disclosures of
your PHI, then we may, using our professional judgment, determine whether
the disclosure is in your best interest.
REQUIRED DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PHI
The following is a description of the
disclosures that we are required by law to make.
Disclosures to the Secretary of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services –
We are required to disclose your PHI when
the Secretary is investigating or determining our compliance with HIPAA
Privacy Regulations.
Disclosure to You –
We are required to disclose to you most of
your PHI in a "designated record set" when you request access to this
information. Generally a "designated record set" contains medical and
billing records as well as other records that are used to make decisions
about your health care benefits. We are also required to provide, upon
your request, an accounting of most disclosures of your PHI that are for
reasons other than treatment, payment, and health care operations.
OTHER USES AND DISCLOSURES OF YOUR
PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION
Other uses and disclosures of your PHI
that are not described above will be made only with your written
authorization. If you provide us with such an authorization, you may
revoke the authorization in writing, and this revocation will be effective
for future disclosures of PHI. However, the revocation will not be
effective for information that we have used or disclosed relying on the
authorization.
YOUR RIGHTS
The following is a description of your rights with respect to your
protected health information.
Right to
Request a Restriction
– You have the right to request a restriction on the PHI we use or
disclose about you for treatment, payment or health care operations. We
are not required to agree to any restriction that you may request. If we
do agree to the restriction, we will comply with the restriction unless
the information is needed to provide emergency treatment to you.
Right to Request Confidential
Communications -
If you believe that a disclosure of all or
part of your PHI may endanger you, you may request that we communicate
with you regarding your information in an alternative manner or at an
alternative location. For example, you may request that we contact you
only at your work.
Right to
Inspect and Copy
- You have the
right to inspect and copy your PHI that is contained in the "designated
record set." However, you may not inspect or copy psychotherapy notes or
certain other information. We may deny your request to inspect and copy
your PHI in certain limited circumstances. If you are denied access to
your information, you may request that the denial be reviewed. A licensed
health care professional chosen by us will review your request and the
denial. The person performing the review will not be the same one who
denied your initial request. Under certain conditions our denial will not
be reviewable. If this event occurs, we will inform you in our denial that
the decision is not reviewable.
Right to
Request Amendment -
If you believe that your PHI is incorrect or incomplete, you may request
that we amend your information. In certain cases, we may deny your request
for amendment. If we deny your request, you have the right to file a
statement of disagreement with us. This statement will be linked with the
disputed information and all future disclosures of the disputed
information will include your statement of disagreement.
Right of
Accounting –
You have a
right to an accounting of most disclosures of your PHI that are for
reasons other than treatment, payment, or health care operations. An
accounting will include the date(s) of disclosure, to whom we made the
disclosure, a brief description of the information disclosed, and the
purpose of the disclosure. Your request may be for disclosures made up to
six years before the date of your request, but in no event, for
disclosures made before April 14, 2003.
Right to a
Paper Copy of This Notice
– You have the right to a paper copy of this Notice, even if you have
agreed to accept this notice electronically.
COMPLAINTS
You also have
the right to complain to us, or to the Secretary of the United States
Department of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights
have been violated. You will not be retaliated against in any way for
filing a complaint with us or to the government. Should you have any
questions, comments, or complaints you may direct all inquiries to the
Director.
Texas A&M
University Student Health Services reserves the right to change the terms
of this Notice at any time, and the changes will be effective immediately
and will apply to all protected health information that we maintain. Any
material changes to the Notice will be promptly posted in our facilities
and posted on our web site, if we maintain one. You can get a copy of the
latest version of this notice by contacting the Director as listed.
If you have any
questions or if you wish to file a complaint or exercise any rights listed
in this Notice, please contact: Dr. Linda Lekawski, Director, Texas A&M
University Student Health Services, A.P. Beutel Health Center, 1264 TAMU,
College Station TX 77843 or by phone at (979) 458-8300.
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