Notice of Privacy Practices
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES THE CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU. IT ALSO DESCRIBES HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
P4 Diagnostix (“P4DX”) is committed to protecting your “protected health information” (“PHI”). PHI includes laboratory test orders and results as well as our invoices.
P4Dx Obligations
P4DX is required by law to maintain the confidentiality of your PHI. We are also required to provide you with this Notice of our obligations and privacy practices upon request. We are posting this Notice to our website and will make a hard copy available to you upon request. The Notice describes our legal duties, privacy practices and your patient rights as set forth by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability ACT of 1996 (“HIPAA”). In addition to abiding by the practices set forth in this Notice, we are required to notify affected individuals in the event of a breach involving unsecured PHI. PHI is stored electronically.
Summary of Our Privacy Practices
We may use and disclose your protected health information ("medical information"), without your permission, for treatment, payment, and health care operations activities. We may use and disclose your medical information, without your permission, when required or authorized by law for public health activities, law enforcement, judicial and administrative proceedings, research, and certain other public benefit functions.
We may disclose your medical information to your family members, friends, and others you involve in your care or payment for your health care. We may disclose your medical information to appropriate public and private agencies in disaster relief situations.
We may disclose to your employer whether you are enrolled or disenrolled in the health plans it sponsors. We may disclose summary health information to your employer for certain limited purposes. We may disclose your medical information to your employer to administer your group health plan if your employer explains the limitations on its use and disclosure of your medical information in the plan document for your group health plan.
Except for certain legally-approved uses and disclosures, we will not otherwise use or disclose your medical information without your written authorization.
You have the right to examine and receive a copy of your medical information. You have the right to receive an accounting of certain disclosures we may make of your medical information. You have the right to request that we amend, further restrict use and disclosure of, or communicate in confidence with you about your medical information.
You have the right to receive notice of breaches of your unsecured medical information.
Please review this entire notice for details about the uses and disclosures we may make of your medical information, about your rights and how to exercise them, and about complaints regarding or additional information about our privacy practices.
Your Treatment
P4DX provides laboratory testing services for physicians and other healthcare professionals and we use your PHI in our testing process. We may disclose your PHI to authorized healthcare professionals who order tests or need to review the results of your tests for purposes of treatment.
Obtaining Payment
We may use and disclose your PHI for purposes of billing and payment. For example, we may disclose your PHI to health plans or other payers in order to determine whether you are actually enrolled with the payer or eligible for certain benefits or to obtain payment for our services. If you are insured under another person’s health insurance policy (i.e. a spouse, parent or former spouse), we may also send invoices to the subscriber whose policy covers your health services.
Healthcare Operations
We may use your PHI for activities necessary to appropriately provide our healthcare operations, such as performing internal audits, quality checks on our testing or developing reference ranges for our tests.
Business Associates
We may provide your PHI to vendors that need the information to provide services to us. These other entities are required to maintain the privacy and security of PHI. For example, we may provide PHI to companies that assist us with billing of our services. When we do so, we seek to provide the minimum PHI necessary.
As Required by Law
We may use and disclose your PHI as required by law.
Law Enforcement Activities and Legal Proceedings
We may use and disclose your PHI as necessary, to prevent or minimize a significant threat to your health and safety or that of another person. We may also provide PHI to law enforcement officials for example, in response to a warrant, investigative demand or similar legal process, or for officials to identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness or missing person. We may also disclose PHI to appropriate agencies if we reasonably believe an individual to be a victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence.
We may disclose your PHI as required to comply with a court or administrative order. We may disclose PHI in response.