 |
Sacramento Center for Hematology & Medical Oncology, Inc. Notice of Privacy Practices Effective April 23, 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. Our Promise To You, Our Patients Your information is important and confidential. Our ethics and policies require that your information be held in strict confidence. Introduction We maintain protocols to ensure the security and confidentiality of your personal information. We have physical security in our buildings, passwords to protect databases, compliance audits, and virus/intrusion detection software. Within our practice, access to your information is limited to those who need it to perform their jobs. At the offices of Sacramento Center for Hematology & Medical Oncology, we are committed to treating and using protected health information about you responsibly. This Notice of Privacy Policies describes the personal information we collect, and how and when we use or disclose that information. It also describes your rights as they relate to your protected health information, This Notice is effective April 14, 2003, and applies to all protected health information as defined by federal regulations. Understanding Your Health Record Each time you visit Sacramento Center for Hematology & Medical Oncology, a record of your visit is made. Typically, this record contains your symptoms, examination and test results, diagnoses, treatment and a plan for future care or treatment. This information, often referred to as your health or medical record, serves as a:
Understanding what is in your record and how your health information is used helps you to: ensure its accuracy; better understand who, what, when, where and why others may access your health information; and make more informed decisions when authorizing disclosure to others. Your Health Information Rights Although your health record is the physical property of Sacramento Center for Hematology & Medical Oncology, the information belongs to you. You have the right to:
Our Responsibilities Our practice is required to:
We reserve the right to change our practices and to make the new provisions effective for all protected health information we maintain. We will keep a posted copy of the most current notice in our facility containing the effective date in the top, right-hand corner. In addition, each time you visit our facility for treatment, you may obtain a copy of the current notice in effect upon request. We will not use or disclose your health information in a manner other than described in the section regarding Examples Of Disclosures For Treatment, Payment, and Health Operations, without your written authorization, which you may revoke as provided by 45 CFR l64.508(b)(5), except to the extent that action has already been taken. For More Information Or To Report A Problem If you have questions and would like additional information, you may contact our practice's Privacy Officer at (916) 454-6700. If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you can either file a complaint with our Privacy Officer, or with the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (OCR). There will be no retaliation for filing a complaint with either our practice or the OCR. The address for the OCR regional office for California is as follows: Office for Civil Rights U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 50 United Nations Plaza - Room 322 San Francisco, CA 94102 Examples of Disclosures For Treatment, Payment, and Health Operations We will use your health information for treatment. We may provide medical information about you to health care providers, our practice personnel, or third parties who are involved in the provision, management, or coordination of your care. For example: Information obtained by a nurse, physician, or other member of your health care team will be recorded in your record and used to determine the course of treatment that should work best for you. Your medical information will be shared among health care professionals involved in your care. We will also provide your other physician(s) or subsequent health care provider(s) (when applicable) with copies of various reports that should assist them in treating you. We will use your health information for payment. We may disclose your information so that we can collect or make payment for the health care services you receive. For example: If you participate in a health insurance plan, we will disclose necessary information to that plan to obtain payment for your care. We will use your health information for regular health operations. We may disclose your heath information for our routine operations. These uses are necessary for certain administrative, financial, legal and quality improvement activities that are necessary to run our practice and support core functions. For example: Members of the quality improvement team may use information in your health record to assess the care and outcomes in your case and others like it. This information will then be used in an effort to continually improve the quality and effectiveness of the healthcare and service we provide and to reduce health care costs.
For all non-routine operations, we will obtain your written authorization before disclosing your personal information. In addition, we take great care to safeguard your information in every way that we can to minimize any accidental disclosures. |
 A MEMBER OF THE US ONCOLOGY NETWORK |
| Copyright © 2008 Sacramento Center for Hematology and Medical Oncology, Inc., All rights reserved. |