Privacy

Healing Connections Therapy Center is committed to treating you and using protected health information about you responsibly. This Notice of Health Information Privacy Practices (HIPPA) describes the personal information that is collected, and how and when it is used or disclosed. It also describes your rights as they relate to your protected health information. This Notice is effective April 15, 2003 and applies to all protected health information as defined by federal regulations.

 

Understanding Your Health Record / Information

Each time you visit Healing Connections Therapy Center a record of your visit is made. Typically, this record contains your symptoms, examination and test results, diagnoses, 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
• Means of communication among the many health professionals who contribute to your care
• Legal document describing the care you received
• Means by which you or a third-party payer can verify that services billed were actually provided
• A tool in educating health professionals
• A source of information for public health officials charged with improving the health of this state and the nation
• A source of data for our planning and marketing
• A tool with which I can assess and continually work to improve the services rendered and the outcomes achieved.

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

Although your health record is the physical property of Healing Connections Therapy Center, the information belongs to you. You have the right to:

Obtain a paper copy of this notice of information practices upon request:

• Inspect and copy your health record as provided for in 45 CFR 164.524,
• Amend your health record as provided in 45 CFR 164.528,
• Obtain an accounting of disclosures of your health information as provided in 45 CFR 164.528,
• Request communications of your health information by alternative means or at alternative locations,
• Request a restriction on certain uses and disclosures of your information as provided by 45 CFR 164.522, and
• Revoke your authorization to use or disclose health information except to the extent that action has already been taken.

 

Responsibilities of Our Practice

Healing Connections Therapy Center is required to:

• Maintain the privacy of your health information,
• Provide you with this notice as to my legal duties and privacy practices with respect to information I collect and maintain about you,
• Abide by the terms of this notice
• Notify you if we are unable to agree to a requested restriction, and
• Accommodate reasonable requests you may have to communicate health information by alternative means or at alternative locations.

We reserve the right to change our practices and to make the new provisions effective for all protected health information we maintain. Should our information practices change, we will give you in person, or mail a revised notice to the address youve supplied us.

We will not use or disclose your health information without your authorization, except as described in this notice. We will also discontinue to use or disclose your health information after we have received a written revocation of the authorization according to the procedures included in the authorization.

 

For More Information or to Report a Problem

If you have questions, would like additional information, or believe your privacy rights have been violated, you can contact the Office for Civil Rights. There will be no retaliation for filing a complaint. The address for the OCR is listed below:

Office for Civil Rights

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

200 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Room 509F, HHH Building

Washington, D.C. 20201