Privacy

Notice Of Information & Privacy Practice

This notice describes how medical information about your care may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please Review It Carefully.

Understanding your health record/information:
Each time you visit a hospital, physician, or each time a health care professional visits your home a record of your visit is made. Typically, this record contains your symptoms, examination and test results, diagnosis, treatment and a plan for future care or treatment. This information, often referred to as your health or medical record, serves as a basis for planning your care and treatment and serves as a means of communication among the many health professionals who contribute to you care. 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:
Unless otherwise required by law your health record is the physical property of the healthcare practitioner or facility that compiled it, but the information belongs to you. You have the right to:

Request in writing a restriction on certain uses and disclosures of your information. Gentle Care, Inc. is not required to agree to comply with your requested restriction.
Request in writing amendments to your health record, either clinical or demographic.
Inspect and request in writing a copy of your health record
Obtain an accounting of disclosures of your health information
Request communications of your health information by alternative means or at alternative locations
Revoke your authorization to use or disclose health information except to the extent that action has already been taken

Our responsibilities:
Gentle Care, Inc. is required to maintain the privacy of your health information. In addition, we will:

Provide you with a notice as to our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to information we collect and maintain about you and will abide by the terms of this notice
Accommodate reasonable requests you may have to communicate health information by alternative means or at alternative locations.
Post any new notices on our Web site (www.gentlecareinc.net). We reserve the right to change our practices and to make the new provision effective for all protected health information we maintain. Should our information practices change, we will mail a revised notice to the address you have supplied us.

We will use your health information for treatment. Information obtained by the assessment professional will be recorded in your record and used to determine the course of treatment that should work best for you. By way of example, members of your healthcare team will then record the actions they took, their observations and education provided. We will also provide other practitioners involved with your care with copies of various reports that should assist them in treating you as well as enabling your physician to provide orders for your home care.

We will use your heath information for payment. Your information will be utilized to obtain payment for services provided. A bill may be sent to you or a third party payer. The information on or accompanying the bill may include information that identifies you, as well as your diagnosis, services provided and supplies used. Outside collection agencies may also be utilized.

We will use your health information for regular healthcare operations. We may use and disclose health information in order to facilitate operations and as necessary to provide quality care to all patients. Examples include:

Quality assessment and improvement activities.
Activities designed to improve health or reduce health care costs.
Protocol development, case management and care coordination.
Employee performance and evaluation
Training programs including those in which students, trainees or practitioners in health care learn under supervision.
Accreditation, certification, licensing or credentialing activities.
Review and auditing, including compliance reviews, medical reviews, legal services and compliance programs.
Business planning and development
Patient satisfaction surveys
In coordination of emergency and disaster planning and implementation

For treatment alternatives: We may use and disclose your heath information to tell you about or
recommend possible treatment options or alternatives that may interest you.

Business Associates: There may be some services provided in our organization through contracts with Business Associates. Examples may include: therapy services, laboratory tests, supply distribution, and audit services. When these services are contracted, we may disclose some or all of your health information to our Business Associate so that they can perform the job we’ve asked them to do. To protect your health information, however we require the Business Associate to appropriately safeguard your information.

Communication with family: Health professionals, using their best judgment, may disclose to a family member, other relative, close personal friends or any other person you identify, health information relevant to that person’s involvement your care or payment related to your care.

Research: We may disclose information to researchers when a review board that has reviewed the research proposal, and established protocols to ensure the privacy of your health information has approved their research.

Marketing: We may contact you to provide information about your treatment alternatives or other health related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA): As required by law we may disclose to the FDA health information relative to adverse events with respect to food, supplements, products and product defects or post marketing surveillance information to enable product recalls, repairs or replacement.

Workers compensation: We may disclose health information to the extent authorized by and to the extent necessary to comply with laws relating to workers compensation or other similar established by law.

Public health: As required by law, we may disclose your health information to public health or legal authorities charged with tracking birth and deaths, as well as preventing or controlling disease, injury or disability.

Law enforcement: We may disclose health information for law enforcement purposes as required by law or in response to a valid subpoena. Federal law makes provision for your health information to be released to an appropriate health oversight agency, public health authority or attorney, provided that a work force member or business associate believes in good faith that we have engaged in unlawful conduct or have otherwise violated professional or clinical standards and are potentially endangering one or more patients, workers or the public.

Notice of Privacy Practices availability: This notice will be prominently posted in the office. Patient will be provided a hard copy and the notice will be maintained on our Web site (www.gentlecareinc.net) for downloading.

Authorization to use or disclose health information: Other than stated in this document, Gentle Care, Inc. will not disclose your health information without your written authorization. If you or your representative authorizes Gentle Care, Inc. to use or disclose your health information, you may revoke such authorization in writing at any time.