Notice of Privacy Practices

Treat you

• We can use your health information and share it with other professionals who are treating you. With your consent, your health information will be entered into an electronic health record system established by Jackson Community Medical Record, LLC (JCMR), and may be shared with other providers who use the system and treat you for treatment, payment or health care operations, and as described in the provider’s Notice of Privacy Practices.
  
  

Example: A doctor treating you for an injury asks another doctor about your overall health condition.

Run our organization

• We can use and share your health information to run our practice, improve your care, and contact you when necessary. We may share your health information with third-party business associates who perform services on our behalf, including JCMR, consultants, accountants, auditors, attorneys, and information technology vendors.  These associates will also be required to protect your health information.
  
  

Example:  We use health information about you to manage your treatment and services.

Bill for your services

• We can use and share your health information to bill and get payment from health plans or other entities.
  
  

Example: We give information about you to your health insurance plan so it will pay for your services.

How else can we use or share your health information?

We are allowed or required to share your information in other ways – usually in ways that contribute to the public good, such as public health and research.  We have to meet many conditions in the law before we can share your information for these purposes.  For more information see: www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/consumers/index.html.

Help with public health and safety issues

• We can share health information about you for certain situations such as:
• Preventing disease
• Helping with product recalls
• Reporting adverse reactions to medications
• Reporting suspected abuse, neglect, or domestic violence
• Preventing or reducing a serious threat to anyone’s health or safety

Do research

• We can use or share your information for health research.

Comply with the law

• We will share information about you if state or federal laws require it, including with the Department of Health and Human Services if it wants to see that we’re complying with federal privacy law.

 
Example:  We will share your health information to comply with mandatory state reporting requirements.  These include reporting of births, deaths, injuries caused by a deadly weapon, victims of abuse or neglect, certain diseases and afflictions, the dispensing of certain controlled substances, and drug diversion and fraudulent prescription activity.

Respond to organ and tissue donation requests

• We can share health information about you with organ procurement organizations.

Work with a medical examiner or funeral director

• We can share health information with a coroner, medical examiner, or funeral director when an individual dies.

Respond to lawsuits and legal actions

• We can share health information about you in response to a court or administrative order, or in response to a subpoena.

Appointment reminders and treatment alternatives

• We can use or share health information about you to provide you appointment reminders or information about treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.

Inmates

• We can share health information about you to a correctional institution or law enforcement official if you are an inmate of a correctional institution or under the custody of a law enforcement official.

 Health oversight activities

• We can share your health information to a health oversight agency for oversight activities authorized by law. These oversight activities include, for example, audits investigations, inspections, licensure or disciplinary actions, or other activities necessary for the appropriate oversight of the health care system, government benefit programs, and compliance with civil rights laws.

Serious threats to health or safety

• We can use or share your health information if we believe that its use or disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to a person’s or the public’s health or safety and the use or disclosure is to a person reasonably able to prevent or lessen the threat, or necessary for law enforcement authorities to identify or apprehend an individual.

Immunizations

• We will share proof of immunizations with a school to comply with relevant law requiring the school to have proof of immunization prior to admitting a student. We will obtain the oral or written consent of a minor’s parent or guardian or the individual, if the individual is an adult or emancipated minor prior to making the disclosure.

We can also use or share health information about you:

• For workers’ compensation claims
• For law enforcement purposes or with a law enforcement official
• For special government functions such as military, national security, and presidential protective services

More stringent state and federal laws

• In some cases, certain Michigan or federal laws are more stringent than HIPAA. Michigan or federal laws are more stringent when the individual’s health information is more protected from disclosure than under HIPAA, or when the individual is entitled to greater access to health information than under HIPAA.

Example:  Certain Michigan laws and/or federal laws and regulations governing the confidentiality of mental health, substance abuse and HIV/AIDS conditions are more stringent than HIPAA.  We will abide by these more stringent state and federal laws.

Organized health care arrangement

• We participate in an organized health care arrangement with physicians, allied health professionals, and other health care practitioners and entities that provide health care services to patients at our health care facility and service delivery sites. This notice will be followed by all participants in the organized health care arrangement, including all health care facilities and service delivery sites run by us, or workforce (including all employees, students, volunteers and other workforce members), and all physicians, allied health professionals, and other health care practitioners who are not our agents or employees but who provide services and treatment to patients at our facilities.  Participants in the organized health care arrangement may use and share your health information for treatment, payment and health care purposes related to the organized health care arrangement.