- Senior
Home Care is committed to ensuring confidentiality and privacy of your health information, and complying with the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This law requires us to maintain the privacy of your health information, provide you
with this information, and notify you of any changes. This privacy
statement will inform you of your rights regarding the use of your
health information, how we will use and share your health information
with other others. This information will be explained to you and
given to you on admission, and posted in the Senior Home Care offices.
The Health Information Portability and Accountability
Act, commonly referred to as HIPAA, provides two actions: Health
Insurance Reform and Administrative Simplification.
The Health Insurance Reform provisions have been in
effect for some time and requires that certain practices by health
plans and insurers regarding the portability and continuity of health
coverage. The Administrative Simplification regulations set standards
for electronic transactions, privacy of all medical records and
Individually Identifiable Health Information (IIHI), and the security
of electronically stored health information. IIHI that is covered
under the HIPAA law is considered Protected health Information (PHI),
“the privacy regulations”.These regulations affect all health
care providers, health plans, health insurances, etc.. Under HIPAA,
these entities are considered to be Covered Entities (CE’s). Certain
entities are called “business Associates”, and they are considered
covered entities that we do business with and we have a business
associate agreement between us. A covered entity doing business
with business associates must obtain in writing, “satisfactory assurances”
that it’s business associates will safeguard PHI in accordance with
the privacy regulations. Satisfactory assurances may be obtained
in a “business associate agreement” between the covered entity and
the business associate.
Health care providers, such as home care agencies, who
electronically transmit health information in connection with specific
transactions, such as billing, are covered entities that must comply
with the HIPAA Administrative Simplification regulations. The electronic
transactions regulations establish the uniform rules and codes that
entities in the health care industry must utilize when conducting
specific electronic transactions. The privacy regulations require
adherence to specific standards for preserving the confidentiality
of “protected health information” PHI. PHI includes medical and
billing records and oral communications that identify or could identify
the patient. The HIPAA privacy regulations permit the covered entity
to disclose PHI to facilitate a relative, family member or close
personal friend’s “involvement in the individual’s [patient’s] care.”
They also permit a covered entity to disclose PHI to personal representatives
of an incompetent patient. However, where the individual is present,
available, and has the capacity to make health care discussions
prior to a disclosure of health care information to a third party
such as a family member or close personal friend, the nurse or other
health care provider delivering the care must: Obtain the individual’s agreement, Grant the individual an opportunity to object to
the disclosure, or Reasonably infer from the circumstances, based
on the exercise of professional judgment, that the individual does
not object to the disclosure.
This law provides all patients with the assurance that
their health information (PHI) would not be accessed by or disclosed
to any unauthorized entities, and we achieve this through increased
technological security measure and operational safeguards. In order
to provide you with care and services we need to share your health
information with other entities, care providers, such as: physicians,
hospitals, rehabilitation center, nursing homes, insurance companies,
other programs or agencies, individuals involved with your care.
This information will be kept confidential and only shared when
it is necessary to ensure that your health care needs are effectively
met. We will also be sharing this information with our billing department,
as indicated and necessary. We will also be sharing this information
with the Senior Residence where you may be residing for the purposes
of providing effective continuity of care and services, again only
as indicated and necessary. We will also be sharing or reporting
information as noted below, as required by local, state or federal
laws to a required and indicated, but necessarily be limited to:
· Government agencies such as: Department of Health
, law enforcement, national security, veteran programs, medical
examiners, or judicial branches through court orders, warrants
and subpoena.
· Auditing bodies such as the Joint Commission of Health
Care Organizations, or to our Quality Assurance Committee, for the
purpose of auditing records.
· Local and state agencies, such as the police, fire,
emergency personnel and other emergency delivery agencies, as required
for purposes of preparing and carrying out evacuation plans as mandated
by the Emergency Disaster Management Plan.
The information that we will be sharing will be kept
confidential, though we can not necessarily assure that the entity
to whom the PHI is provided to will not disclose this information.
Unless authorized by you or by applicable law, we do not share your
PHI. You do have the right to restrict to whom, or how we may disclose
your PHI, to request confidential communication of your PHI, and
to review and obtain copies of your PHI. Our Privacy statements
will be made available to all current clients and made available
to all new client’s upon admission. Our privacy statement will be
posted in each Senior Home Care branch office. You also have the
right to make a complaint to the Department of Health & Human
Services, Office of Civil Rights.
If you have any questions, request or restrictions
you would like to exercise, please contact the Branch Manager/Privacy
Officer, and in writing:
Senior Home Care 305 West End Ave. New
York, New York 10023.
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