Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA)

WE ARE REQUIRED BY LAW TO PROTECT MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU.

We are required by law to protect the privacy and security of medical information about you and information that identifies you. This medical information may be information about clinical test results we provide to you, your physician or provide for the payment for the clinical testing provided to you. It may contain information about your past, present, or future medical condition.

We are also required by law to provide you with this Notice of Privacy Practices explaining our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to medical information. We are legally required to follow the terms of this Notice. In other words, we are only allowed to use and disclose medical information in the manner that we have described in this Notice.

We are required to notify you within 60 days when there is a breach of your unsecured patient health information as required under the law.

We may change the terms of this Notice in the future. We reserve the right to make changes and to make the new Notice effective for all medical information that we maintain. If we make changes to the Notice, we will:

The rest of this Notice will:

If, at any time, you have questions about information in this Notice or about our privacy policies, procedures or practices, you can contact our Privacy Officer us at [email protected].

HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU

This section of our Notice explains in some detail how we may use and disclose medical information about you without your Authorization or permission in order to provide clinical testing services, obtain payment for these services, and operate our business efficiently.  For more information about any of these uses or disclosures, or about any of our privacy policies, procedures or practices, contact us at [email protected].

1.  Clinical Testing
We may use and disclose medical information about you to provide clinical testing services.  In other words, we may use and disclose medical information about you to provide, coordinate or manage your clinical testing.  This may include communicating with your doctor regarding your clinical testing.

2.  Payment
We may use and disclose medical information about you to obtain payment for clinical testing services that you received.  This means that we may use medical information about you to arrange for payment (such as preparing bills and managing accounts).  We also may disclose medical information about you to others (such as insurers, collection agencies, and consumer reporting agencies).  In some instances, we may disclose medical information about you to an insurance plan before you receive certain clinical testing services to confirm whether the insurance plan will pay for a particular service.

3.  Persons Involved in Your Care
We may disclose your clinical test results only to you, personnel authorized under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment regulations and to other persons you identify.  If the patient is a minor, we may disclose medical information about the minor to a parent, guardian or other person responsible for the minor except in limited circumstances.  For more information on the privacy of minors’ information, contact us at [email protected].

4.  Required by Law
We will use and disclose medical information about you whenever we are required by federal, state or local law to do so.  This also includes lawsuits and administrative proceedings.  Examples include public health authorities authorized by law to collect or receive health information for the purpose of preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability.

5.  Business Associates
We will use and disclose medical information about you to a person(s) or company that provide services on our behalf and with which we have their agreement to comply with this Notice.

6.  Authorization
Other than the uses and disclosures described above (#1-5), we will not use or disclose medical information about you without the “authorization”, or signed permission from you or your personal representative. We will make reasonable efforts to prevent the incidental uses or disclosures of your health information that occur while we are providing services to you or conducting our business.

In some instances, we may wish to use or disclose medical information about you and we may contact you to ask you to sign an authorization form.  In other instances, you may contact us to ask us to disclose medical information and we will ask you to sign an authorization form.

If you sign a written authorization allowing us to disclose medical information about you, you may later revoke (or cancel) your authorization in writing (except in very limited circumstances related to obtaining insurance coverage).  If you would like to revoke your authorization, you must write us a letter revoking your authorization. If you revoke your authorization, we will follow your instructions except to the extent that we have already relied upon your authorization and taken some action.

YOU HAVE RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU.

You have several rights with respect to medical information about you.  This section of the Notice will briefly mention each of these rights.  If you would like to know more about your rights, please contact us at [email protected]

1.  Right to a Copy of This Notice
You have a right to have a paper copy of our Notice of Privacy Practices at any time.  In addition, a copy of this Notice will always be posted on our web site and available at our laboratory locations.  If you would like to have a copy of our Notice, ask the receptionist for a copy or contact our Privacy Officer.

2.  Right of Access to Inspect and Copy
You have the right to inspect (which means see or review) and receive a copy of medical information about you.  If you would like to inspect or receive a copy of medical information about you, you must provide us with a request in writing.   You have the right to request your copy in an electronic format.

3.  Right to Have Medical Information Amended
You have the right to have us amend (which means correct or supplement) medical information about you that we maintain.  If you believe that we have information that is either inaccurate or incomplete, we may amend the information to indicate the problem and notify others who have copies of the inaccurate or incomplete information.  If you would like us to amend information, you must provide us with a request in writing and explain why you would like us to amend the information.

We may deny your request in certain circumstances.  If we deny your request, we will explain our reason for doing so in writing.  You will have the opportunity to send us a statement explaining why you disagree with our decision to deny your amendment request and we will share your statement whenever we disclose the information in the future.

4.  Right to an Accounting of Disclosures We Have Made
You have the right to receive an accounting (which means a detailed listing) of disclosures that we have made for the previous six (6) years.  This does not apply to disclosures made to you, with your authorization, for treatment, payment or health care operations and in certain other cases.  If you would like to receive an accounting, you must send us a letter requesting an accounting and the requested time period that may not be longer than six years ago.

5.  Right to Request Restrictions on Uses and Disclosures
You have the right to request that we limit the use and disclosure of medical information about you.

We are not required to agree to your request.

If we do agree to your request, we must follow your restrictions.  You may cancel the restrictions at any time.  In addition, we may cancel a restriction at any time as long as we notify you of the cancellation and continue to apply the restriction to information collected before the cancellation.

We are required to agree to your request that we not disclose certain health information to your health plan for payment or health care operations purposes, if you pay in full for all expenses related to that service prior to your request and the disclosure is not otherwise required by law.  Such a restriction only applies to records that relate solely to the service for which you have paid in full.

6.  Right to Request an Alternative Method of Contact
You have the right to request to be contacted at a different location or by a different method.  For example, you may prefer to have all written information mailed to your work address rather than to your home address.

We will agree to any reasonable request for alternative methods of contact.  If you would like to request an alternative method of contact, you must provide us with a request in writing.

YOU MAY FILE A COMPLAINT ABOUT OUR PRIVACY PRACTICES

If you believe that your privacy rights have been violated or if you are dissatisfied with our privacy policies or procedures, you may file a complaint either with us by contacting us at [email protected] or with the federal government here.

We will not take any action against you or change our treatment of you in any way if you file a complaint.