Visiting Nurse Association of Utica and Oneida County, Inc. :: certified Home Health Care Agency, affiliates of the Mohawk Valley Network, upstate New York, NY, mohawk valley, home health care, in home health care, central new york, central NY, utica, whitesboro, new hartford, washington mills, herkimer, clinton, in home health care, home health care

HIPAA

SUMMARY OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

The attached Notice of Privacy Practices describes how the Visiting Nurse Association of Utica and Oneida County, Inc., ("VNA") uses and discloses your health information for treatment, payment or health care operations and for other purposes permitted or required by law. The Notice also informs you of your rights with respect to your protected health information and contains a description of how you may exercise these rights. In addition, the Notice informs you of our legal requirements regarding this Notice and advises you of your right to complain if you believe your privacy rights have been violated by us. This is just a summary of our privacy practices. Please refer to the attached Notice of Privacy Practices for further information.

VISITING NURSE ASSOCIATION OF UTICA AND ONEIDA COUNTY, INC.
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.

NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

This Notice of Privacy Practices describes how the Visiting Nurse Association of Utica and Oneida County, Inc. ("VNA") may use and disclose your protected health information to carry out treatment, payment or health care operations and for other purposes. It also describes your right to access and control your protected health information. "Protected health information" is information about you that may identify you and relate to your past, present or future physical or mental health and related health care services.

I. USE AND DISCLOSURE OF PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION BASED UPON YOUR WRITTEN CONSENT

You will be asked by the VNA to sign a consent form. Once you have consented to use and disclosure of your protected health information for treatment, payment and health care operations by signing the consent form, the VNA will use or disclose your protected health information as described in this section. The VNA has established policies to guard against unnecessary disclosure of your health information

The following is a summary of the circumstances under which and purposes for which your health information may be used and disclosed once you have signed our consent form. These examples are not meant to be exhaustive, but to describe the types of uses and disclosures that may be made by VNA once you have provided consent:

To Provide Treatment. The VNA may use your health information to coordinate care within the VNA and with others involved in your care, such as your attending physician and other health care professionals who have agreed to assist the VNA in coordinating care. For example, physicians involved in your care will need information about your symptoms in order to prescribe appropriate medications. The VNA also may disclose your health care information to individuals outside of the VNA involved in your care including family members, pharmacists, suppliers of medical equipment or other health care professionals.

To Obtain Payment. The VNA may include your health information in invoices to collect payment from third parties for the care you receive from the VNA. For example, the VNA may be required by your health insurer to provide information regarding your health care status so that the insurer will reimburse you or the VNA. The VNA also may need to obtain prior approval from your insurer and may need to explain to the insurer your need for home care and the services that will be provided to you.

To Conduct Health Care Operations. The VNA may use and disclose health information for its own operations in order to facilitate the function of the VNA and as necessary to provide quality care to all of the Agency's patients. Health care operations include such activities as:

Quality assessment and improvement activities.

Activities designed to improve health or reduce healthcare costs.

Protocol development, case management and care coordination.

Contracting healthcare providers and patients with information about treatment alternatives and other related functions that do not include treatment.

Professional review and performance evaluation.

Training programs including those in which students, trainees or practitioners in healthcare learn under supervision.

Training of non-health care professionals.

Accreditation, certification, licensing or credentialing activities.

Review and auditing, including compliance reviews, medical reviews, legal services and compliance programs.

Business planning and development including cost management and planning related analyses and formulary development.

Business management and general administrative activities of the VNA.

Fundraising for the benefit of the VNA.

For example the VNA may use your health information to evaluate its staff performance, combine your health information with other VNA patients in evaluating how to more effectively serve all VNA patients, disclose your health information to VNA staff and contracted personnel for training purposes, use your health information to contact you as a reminder regarding a visit to you, or contact you as part of general fundraising and community information mailings (unless you tell us you do not want to be contacted).

For Fundraising Activities. The VNA may use information about you including your name, address, phone number and the dates you received care in order to contact you to raise money for the. VNA. The VNA may also release this information to a related VNA foundation. If you do not want the VNA to contact you, notify Privacy Officer at (315) 624-8900 and indicate that you do not wish to be contacted.

For Appointment Reminders. The VNA may use and disclose your health information to contact you as a reminder that you have an appointment for a home visit.

For Treatment Alternatives. The VNA may use and disclose your health information to tell you about or recommend possible treatment options or alternatives that may be of interest to you.

II. USES AND DISCLOSURES REQUIRING AUTHORIZATION

For uses and disclosures beyond treatment, payment and healthcare operations purposes, we are required to have your written authorization, unless the use or disclosure falls within one of the exceptions described in section III below. An authorization can be revoked at any time to stop future uses and disclosures except to the extent we have already undertaken an action in reliance upon your authorization.

Ill. OTHER PERMITTED USES AND DISCLOSURES THAT MAY BE MADE WITH YOUR CONSENT, AUTHORIZATION OR OPPORTUNITY TO OBJECT

We may use or disclose your protected health information in the following instances. You have the opportunity to agree or object to the use or disclosure of the protected health information. If you are not present or able to agree or object to the use or disclosure of the protected health information, then a VNA nurse may, using professional judgment, determine whether the disclosure is in your best interest. In this case, only the protected health information that is relevant to your health care will be disclosed.

Communication with family: Unless you object, health professionals, using their best judgment, may disclose to a family member, another relative, a close personal friend, or any other person that you identify, health information relevant to that person's involvement in your care or payment related to your care. An example of this is when a client is not following physician directions, and, in doing so creates a life-threatening situation for him or herself. Family members may be notified to help correct this situation and preserve the client's life.

Notification: We may use or disclose information to notify or assist in notifying a family member, a personal representative, or another person responsible for your care, your location and general condition.

Emergencies: We may use or disclose your protected health information in an emergency treatment situation. If this happens, VNA and your treating physician shall try to obtain your consent as soon as reasonably practicable after the delivery of treatment.

Communication Barriers: We may use and disclose your protected health information if we attempt to obtain consent from you but are unable to do so due to substantial communication barriers and we determine, using professional judgment, that you intend to consent to use or disclosure under the circumstances.

IV. OTHER PERMITTED AND REQUIRED USES AND DISCLOSURES THAT MAY BE MADE WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT, AUTHORIZATION OR OPPORTUNITY TO OBJECT.

We may use or disclose your protected health information in the following situations without your consent or authorization. These situations include:

When Legally Required. We will disclose your health information when it is required to do so by any Federal, State or local law.

When There Are Risks to Public Health. We may disclose your health information for public activities and purposes in order to:

Prevent or control disease, injury or disability, report disease, injury, vital events such as birth or death and the conduct of public health surveillance, investigations and interventions, as required by law.

Report adverse events, product defects, to track products or enable product recalls, repairs and replacements and to conduct post-marketing surveillance and compliance with requirements of the Food and Drug Administration.

Notify a person who has been exposed to a communicable disease or who may be at risk of contracting or spreading a disease.

Notify an employer about an individual who is a member of the workforce as legally required.

To Report Abuse, Neglect or Domestic Violence. We are allowed to notify government authorities if we believe a patient, is the victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence. We will make this disclosure only when specifically required or authorized by law or when the patient agrees to the disclosure.

To Conduct Health Oversight Activities. We may disclose your health information to a health oversight agency for activities including audits, civil administrative or criminal investigations, inspections, licensure or disciplinary action. However, we may not disclose your health information if you are the subject of an investigation and your health information is not directly related to your receipt of health care or public benefits.

In Connection With Judicial and Administrative Proceedings. We may disclose your health information in the course of any judicial or administrative proceeding in response to an order of a court or administrative tribunal as expressly authorized by such order or in response to a subpoena, discovery request or other lawful process, but only when we make reasonable efforts to either notify you about the request or to obtain an order protecting your health information and only when such disclosure is permitted under New York law.

For Law Enforcement Purposes. As permitted or required by State law, we may disclose your health information to a law enforcement official for certain law enforcement purposes as follows:

As required by law for reporting of certain types of wounds or other physical injuries pursuant to the court order, warrant, subpoena or summons or similar process.
For the purpose of identifying or locating a suspect, fugitive, material witness or missing person.
Under certain limited circumstances, when you are the victim of a crime.
To a law enforcement official if we have a suspicion that your death was the result of criminal conduct including criminal conduct at the VNA.
In an emergency in order to report a crime.

To Coroners and Medical Examiners. We may disclose your health information to coroners and medical examiners for purposes of determining your cause of death or for other duties, as authorized by law.

To Funeral Directors. We may disclose your health information to funeral directors consistent with applicable law and if necessary to carry out their duties with respect to your funeral arrangements. If necessary to carry out their duties, we may disclose your health information prior to and in reasonable anticipation of your death.

For Organ, Eye or Tissue Donation. We may use or disclose your health information to organ procurement organizations or other entities engaged in the procurement, banking or transplantation of organs, eyes or tissue for the purpose of facilitating the donation and transplantation.

For Research Purposes. The VNA may under very select circumstances, use your health information for research. Before the VNA discloses any of your health information for such research purposes, the project will be subject to an extensive approval process. [If the VNA intends to routinely conduct research it is important to carefully review the authorization requirements for research exceptions and revise the Notice provisions as needed.]

In the Event of A Serious Threat to Health or Safety. We may consistent with applicable law and ethical standards of conduct, disclose your health information if we in good faith, believe that such disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to your health or safety or to the health and safety of the public.

For Specified Government Functions. In certain circumstances, the Federal regulations authorize us to use or disclose your health information to facilitate specified government functions relating to military and veterans, national security and intelligence activities, protective services for the President and others, medical suitability determinations and inmates and law enforcement custody.

For Workers' Compensation. The VNA may release your health information for worker's compensation or similar programs when required by law.

YOUR RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION

You have the following rights regarding your health information that we maintain: Right to request restrictions. You may request restrictions on certain uses and disclosures of your health information. You have the right to request a limit on our disclosure of your health information to someone who is involved in your care or the payment of your care. However, we are not required to agree to your request. If you wish to make a request for restrictions, please contact Privacy Officer at (315) 624-8900

Right to receive confidential communications. You have the right to request that we communicate with you in a certain way For example, you may ask that we only conduct communications pertaining to your health information with you privately with no other family members present. If you wish to receive confidential communications, please contact Privacy Officer at (315) 624-8900. We will not request that you provide any reasons for your request and; will attempt to honor your reasonable requests for confidential communications.
Right to inspect and copy your health information. You have the right to inspect and copy your health information, including billing records. A request to inspect and copy records containing your health information may be made to Privacy Officer at (315) 624-8900. If we deny your access, we. will give you written reasons for the denial and explain any right you have to have the denial reviewed. If you request a copy of your health information, we may charge a reasonable fee for copying and assembling costs associated with your request.
Right to amend health care information. You have the right to request that we amend your records, if you believe that your health information is incorrect or incomplete. That request may be made as long as the information is maintained by us. A request for an amendment of records must be made in writing to Privacy Officer, Visiting Nurse Association of Utica and Oneida County, Inc., 2608 Genesee St., Utica, NY 13502. We may deny the request if it is not in writing or does not include a reason for the amendment. The request also may be denied if your health information records were not created by us, if the records you are requesting are not part of our records or if, in our opinion, the records containing your health information are accurate and complete:
Right to an accounting. You have the right to request an accounting of disclosures of your health information made by us for certain reasons, including reasons related to public purposes authorized by law and certain research. The request for an accounting must be made in writing to Privacy Officer, Visiting Nurse Association of Utica and Oneida County, Inc. The request should specify the time period for the accounting starting on or. after April 14, 2003. Accounting requests may not be made for periods of time in excess of six (6) years. We will provide the first accounting you request during any 12-month period without charge. Subsequent accounting requests may be subject to a reasonable cost-based fee. We do not need to provide an accounting for uses and disclosures in certain situations; for example, disclosures made for treatment, payment or health care operations or pursuant to your authorization.
Right to a paper copy of this notice. You or your representative has a right to a separate paper copy of this Notice at any time even if you or your representative has received this Notice previously. To obtain a separate paper copy please contact Privacy Officer at (315) 624-8900.

DUTIES OF THE VNA

The VNA is required by law to maintain the privacy of your health information and to provide to you and your representative this Notice of its duties and privacy practices. We are required to abide by the terms of this Notice as may be amended from time to time. We reserve the right to change the terms of this Notice and to make the new Notice provisions effective for all health Information that it maintains. If we change our Notice, we will provide a copy of the revised Notice to you or your appointed representative. You or your personal representative has the right to express complaints to us and to the Secretary of DHHS if you or your representative believe that your privacy rights have been violated. Any complaints to us should be made in writing to Privacy Officer at (315) 624-8900. We encourage you to express any concerns you may have regarding the privacy of your information. You will not be retaliated against in any way for filing a complaint.

CONTACT PERSON

We have designated the Privacy Officer as our contact person for all issues regarding patient privacy and your rights under the Federal privacy standards. You may contact this person at 2608 Genesee Street, Utica, NY 13502 or (315) 624-8900.

EFFECTIVE DATE
This Notice is Effective April 14, 2003.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS NOTICE, PLEASE CONTACT PRIVACY OFFICER, VISITING NURSE ASSOCIATION OF UTICA AND ONEIDA COUNTY, INC., 2608 GENESEE ST., UTICA, NY 13502, (315) 624-8900.