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How can the Health Department use my health information?

The following categories describe different ways that we are permitted to use and disclose health information without a specific authorization from you. If you desire to restrict our use of your health information for any of these purposes, you need to submit a request for restrictions.

For Treatment
We may use information about you to provide you with medical treatment or services. We may disclose health information about you to nurses, technicians or other personnel who are involved in taking care of you at the DONIPHAN CO. HEALTH DEPT. / HOME HEALTH AGENCY.
Different departments of the DONIPHAN CO. HEALTH DEPT. / HOME HEALTH AGENCY also may share health information about you in order to coordinate the different things you need, such as prescriptions, lab work and x-rays.

We also may disclose health information about you to people outside the DONIPHAN CO. HEALTH DEPT. / HOME HEALTH AGENCY who may be involved in your medical care after you leave the DONIPHAN CO. HEALTH DEPT. / HOME HEALTH, such as family members, friends or others we use to provide services that are part of your care. We will give you an opportunity, however, to restrict such communications.

We may disclose health information about you to other health care providers who request such information for purposes of providing medical treatment to you.

For Payment
We may use and disclose health information about you so that the treatment and services you receive at the DONIPHAN CO. HEALTH DEPT. / HOME HEALTH AGENCY may be billed to and payment may be collected from you, an insurance company or other third party. For example, we may need to give your health plan information about treatment you received so your health plan will pay us or reimburse you for the treatment. We may also tell your health plan about a treatment you are going to receive to obtain prior approval or to determine whether your plan will cover the treatment.

We also may provide information about you to other health care providers to assist them in obtaining payment for treatment and service provided to you by that provider. We may also provide information to a health plan for purposes of arranging payment for treatment and services provided to you.

For Health Care Operations

We may use and disclose health information about you for our internal operations. These uses and disclosures are necessary to run the DONIPHAN CO. HEALTH DEPT. / HOME HEALTH AGENCY and make sure that all of our patients receive quality care. For example, we may use health information to review our treatment and services and to evaluate the performance of our staff in caring for you. We may also combine health information about many patients to decide what additional services we should offer, what services are not needed and whether certain new treatments are effective. We may also disclose information to doctors, nurses, technicians, medical students and other personnel for review and learning purposes. We may also combine the health information we have with health information from other health care providers to compare how we are doing and see where we can make improvements in the care and services we offer. We may remove information that identifies you from this set of health information so others may use it to study health care and health care delivery without learning who the specific patients are.

We may disclose health information about you to another health care provider or health plan with which you also have had a relationship for purposes of that provider’s or plan’s internal operations.

Appointment Reminders

We may use and disclose health information to contact you as a reminder that you have an appointment for treatment or medical care at the DONIPHAN CO HEALTH DEPT. / HOME HEALTH AGENCY. Unless you direct us to do otherwise, we may leave messages on your telephone answering machine identifying the DONIPHAN CO. HEALTH DEPT. / HOME HEALTH AGENCY and asking for you to return our call. Unless we are specifically instructed by you otherwise in a particular circumstance, we will not disclose any health information to any person other than you who answers your phone except to leave a message for you to return the call.

Surveys

We may use and disclose health information to contact you to assess your satisfaction with our services.

Treatment Alternatives

We may use and disclose health information to tell you about or recommend possible treatment options or alternatives that may be of interest to you.

Health-Related Benefits and Services

We may use and disclose health information to tell you about health-related benefits or services that may be of interest to you, or to provide you with promotional gifts of nominal value.

Fund Raising Activities

We may use health information about you to contact you in an effort to raise money for the DONIPHAN CO. HEALTH DEPT. / HOME HEALTH AGENCY and its operations. We may disclose health information to a foundation related to the DONIPHAN CO. HEALTH DEPT. / HOME HEALTH AGENCY so the foundation may contact you in raising money for the DONIPHAN CO. HEALTH DEPT. / HOME HEALTH AGENCY. We only would release contact information, such as your name, address, phone number and the dates you received treatment or services at the DONIPHAN CO. HEALTH DEPT. / HOME HEALTH AGENCY. If you do not want the DONIPHAN CO. HEALTH DEPT. / HOME HEALTH AGENCY to contact you for fund raising efforts, you must notify the DONIPHAN CO. HEALTH DEPT. / HOME HEALTH AGENCY.

Business Associates

There are some services provided in our organization through contracts or arrangements with business associates. For example, we may contract with a copy service to make copies of your health record. When these services are contracted, we may disclose your health information to our business associate so they can perform the job we’ve asked them to do. To protect your health information, however, we require our business associates to appropriately safeguard your information.

Individuals Involved In Your Care or Payment For Your Care

We may release health information about you to a friend or family member who is involved in your medical care. We may also give information to someone who helps pay for your care. In addition, we may disclose health information about you to an organization assisting in a disaster relief effort so that your family can be notified about your condition, status and location.

Research

Under certain circumstances, we may use and disclose health information about you for research purposes. For example, a research project may involve comparing the health and recovery of all patients who received one medication to those who received another, for the same condition. All research projects, however, are subject to a special approval process. This process evaluates a proposed research project and its use of health information, trying to balance the research needs with patients’ need for privacy of their health information. Before we use or disclose health information for research, the project will have been approved through this research approval process, but we may, however, disclose health information about you to people preparing to conduct a research project, for example, to help them look for patients with specific medical needs, so long as the health information they review does not leave the DONIPHAN CO HEALTH DEPT. / HOME HEALTH AGENCY. We will almost always ask for your specific permission if the researcher will have access to your name, address or other information that reveals who you are, or will be involved in your care at the DONIPHAN CO. HEALTH DEPT. / HOME HEALTH AGENCY.

As Required By Law

We will disclose health information about you when required to do so by federal, state or local law.

To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety
We may use and disclose health information about you when necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or the health and safety of the public. Any disclosure, however, would only be to someone able to help prevent the threat.

Organ and Tissue Donation

If you are an organ donor, we may use or disclose health information to organizations that handle organ procurement or organ, eye or tissue transplantation or to an organ donation bank, as necessary to facilitate organ or tissue donation and transplantation.

Military and Veterans

If you are a member of the armed forces, we may release health information about you as required by military command authorities. We may also release health information about foreign military personnel to the appropriate foreign military authority.

Employers

We may release health information about you to your employer if we provide health care services to you at the request of your employer, and the health care services are provided either to conduct an evaluation relating to medical surveillance of the workplace or to evaluate whether you have a work-related illness or injury. In such circumstances, we will give you written notice of such release of information to your employer. Any other disclosures to your employer will be made only if you execute a specific authorization for the release of that information to your employer.

Workers’ Compensation

We may release health information about you for workers’ compensation or similar programs. These programs provide benefits for work-related injuries or illness.

Public Health Risks

We may disclose health information about you for public health activities. These activities generally include the following:

  1. prevent or control disease, injury or disability
  2. report births and deaths
  3. report child abuse or neglect
  4. report reactions to medications or problems with products
  5. notify people of recalls of products they may be using
  6. notify a person who may have been exposed to a disease or may be at risk for contracting or spreading a disease or conditions
  7. notify the appropriate government authority if we believe a patient has been the victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence
  8. We will only make this disclosure if you agree or when required or authorized by law.

Health Oversight Activities

We may disclose health information to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law. These oversight activities include, for example, audits, investigations, inspections and licensure. These activities are necessary for the government to monitor the health care system, government programs and compliance with civil rights laws.

Lawsuits and Disputes

If you are involved in a lawsuit or a dispute, we may disclose health information about you in response to a court or administrative order. We may also disclose health information about you in response to a subpoena, discovery request or other lawful process by someone else involved in the dispute, but only if efforts have been made to tell you about the request or to obtain an order protecting the information requested.

Law Enforcement

We may release health information if asked to do so by a law enforcement official:

  1. In response to a court order, subpoena, warrant, summons or similar process
  2. To identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness or missing  person
  3. About the victim of a crime if, under certain limited circumstances, we are unable to obtain the person’s agreement
  4. About a death we believe may be the result of criminal conduct
  5. About criminal conduct at the DONIPHAN CO. HEALTH DEPT. /  HOME HEALTH AGENCY
  6. In emergency circumstances to report a crime; the location of the crime or victims; or identity, description of location of the person who  committed the crime

Coroners, Medical Examiners and Funeral Directors

We may release health information to a coroner or medical examiner. This may be necessary, for example, to identify a deceased person or determine the cause of death. We may also release health information about patients of the DONIPHAN CO. HEALTH DEPT. / HOME HEALTH AGENCY to funeral directors as necessary for them to carry out their duties.

National Security and Intelligence Activities

We may release health information about you to authorized federal officials for intelligence, counterintelligence and other national security activities authorized by law.

Protective Services for the President and Others

We may disclose health information about you to authorized federal officials so they may provide protection to the President, other authorized persons, foreign heads of state or conduct special investigations.

Inmates / Persons In Custody

If you are an inmate of a correctional institution or under the custody of a law enforcement official, we may release health information about you to the correctional institution or law enforcement official.
This release would be necessary:

  1. For the institution to provide you with health care
  2. To protect your health and safety or the health and safety of others
  3. For the safety and security of the correctional institution