CLINICAL PRACTICE: NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
JUNE 9, 2010
YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION IS PROTECTED BY FEDERAL LAWS
The HIPAA Privacy Rule, a Federal law, gives you rights over your health information and sets rules and limits on who can look at and receive your health information. The Privacy Rule applies to all forms of individuals' protected health information, whether electronic, written, or oral. The Security Rule, a Federal law that protects health information in electronic form, requires entities covered by HIPAA to ensure that electronic protected health information is secure.
WHAT INFORMATION IS PROTECTED
HOW IS THIS INFORMATION PROTECTED
Your medical records are kept in my private office that is kept locked except when I am physically present. Documentation for your visit will include notes of your initial psychiatric assessment, a brief entry at each subsequent visit indicating current status, any salient information or laboratory results, and any medication(s) prescribed. There may also be periodic summary statements that are concise and provide a general description of treatment progress. More detailed psychotherapy notes may or may not be recorded at each of your office visits, but these are kept separate from the documentation of the visit, as described above.
I will reasonably limit uses and disclosures to the minimum necessary to accomplish their intended purpose. Most routine uses and disclosures of health information fall into three main categories: treatment, payment and health care operations. Additionally, I may use or disclose the minimum necessary information as required by the law. This includes disclosures regarding potential for harm to oneself or others, suspicion of child or elder abuse, or abuse of persons with mental retardation.
Psychotherapy notes are not necessarily made routinely and consist of my notes to myself documenting or analyzing the contents of conversation during a private counseling session, for the purpose of understanding your case and following up your progress in treatment; they are not part of your medical record. With your additional request and authorization in writing, the specific content of psychotherapy notes about your treatment may be disclosed, but only at my discretion and after discussion with you, except under the following specific circumstances in which I may use or disclose any information, without your consent or authorization:
WHAT RIGHTS DOES THE PRIVACY RULE GIVE YOU OVER YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION
I will comply with your right to:
SUMMARY
With your consent, I will use confidential medical records for the purposes of treatment, payment and health care operations. With the exceptions noted above, further authorization in writing will need to be obtained for all other uses of your protected medical information by me.
Dr. Camilla L. Lyons, MD, MPH
YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION IS PROTECTED BY FEDERAL LAWS
The HIPAA Privacy Rule, a Federal law, gives you rights over your health information and sets rules and limits on who can look at and receive your health information. The Privacy Rule applies to all forms of individuals' protected health information, whether electronic, written, or oral. The Security Rule, a Federal law that protects health information in electronic form, requires entities covered by HIPAA to ensure that electronic protected health information is secure.
WHAT INFORMATION IS PROTECTED
- Information I put in your medical record
- Conversations I have about your care or treatment with others
- Billing information about you at my office
- Most other health information about you that I hold
HOW IS THIS INFORMATION PROTECTED
Your medical records are kept in my private office that is kept locked except when I am physically present. Documentation for your visit will include notes of your initial psychiatric assessment, a brief entry at each subsequent visit indicating current status, any salient information or laboratory results, and any medication(s) prescribed. There may also be periodic summary statements that are concise and provide a general description of treatment progress. More detailed psychotherapy notes may or may not be recorded at each of your office visits, but these are kept separate from the documentation of the visit, as described above.
I will reasonably limit uses and disclosures to the minimum necessary to accomplish their intended purpose. Most routine uses and disclosures of health information fall into three main categories: treatment, payment and health care operations. Additionally, I may use or disclose the minimum necessary information as required by the law. This includes disclosures regarding potential for harm to oneself or others, suspicion of child or elder abuse, or abuse of persons with mental retardation.
Psychotherapy notes are not necessarily made routinely and consist of my notes to myself documenting or analyzing the contents of conversation during a private counseling session, for the purpose of understanding your case and following up your progress in treatment; they are not part of your medical record. With your additional request and authorization in writing, the specific content of psychotherapy notes about your treatment may be disclosed, but only at my discretion and after discussion with you, except under the following specific circumstances in which I may use or disclose any information, without your consent or authorization:
- For my own training in consultation with other members of my profession. In these instances your personal identifiers will not be revealed so as to maintain anonymity.
- For me to defend myself in a legal proceeding brought by you
- For HHS to investigate my compliance with privacy rules
- To avert a serious and imminent threat to public health and safety
- To a health oversight agency for lawful oversight of me
- For the lawful activities of a coroner or medical examiner
- For any other reason as required by law or legal process
WHAT RIGHTS DOES THE PRIVACY RULE GIVE YOU OVER YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION
I will comply with your right to:
- Ask to see and get a copy of your health records
- Have corrections added to your health information
- Receive a notice that tells you how your health information may be used and shared
- Decide if you want to give your permission before your health information can be used or shared for certain purposes
- Get a report on when and why your health information was shared for certain purposes
- Ask to be reached somewhere other than home
- If you believe your rights are being denied or your health information isn’t being protected, you can file a complaint with me, or with the U.S. Government, at the website at www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/
SUMMARY
With your consent, I will use confidential medical records for the purposes of treatment, payment and health care operations. With the exceptions noted above, further authorization in writing will need to be obtained for all other uses of your protected medical information by me.
Dr. Camilla L. Lyons, MD, MPH