Blueprints for Addiction Recovery, Inc. will be referred to throughout this notice of privacy practices as “Provider,” or “Blueprints”. This policy is offered to describe the manner(s) in which Blueprints may use and disclose your confidential medical information (called “Protected Health Information” or “PHI”) and to notify you of your rights with respect to PHI in the possession of Blueprints. Blueprints protects the privacy of PHI, which also is protected from disclosure by state and federal law. In certain circumstances, pursuant to this policy, patient authorization or applicable laws and regulations, PHI may be used by Blueprints or disclosed to other parties. Below are categories describing these uses and disclosures, along with some examples to help you fully understand the scope and intention of prospective disclosures.
USES AND DISCLOSURES FOR TREATMENT, PAYMENT AND HEALTH CARE OPERATIONS
Blueprints may use or disclose your PHI for the purpose of rendering treatment services, payment or reimbursement of rendered treatment services, or other vital health care operations, described in more detail below, without obtaining written authorization from you.
FOR TREATMENT: Blueprints may use and disclose PHI throughout the course of rendering, coordinating or managing your medical treatment, including the disclosure of Protected Health Information for treatment activities at another healthcare Blueprints. These types of uses and disclosures may take place between physicians, technicians, nurses, students and other health care professionals who provide you with health services or are otherwise directly involved in your care. For example, if you are being treated by a primary care physician, that physician may need to use/disclose PHI to a specialist physician whom he or she consults regarding your condition, or to a nurse who is assisting in the delivery of care.
FOR PAYMENT: Blueprints may, at times, use or disclose PHI in order to collect payment for rendered health services. For example, Blueprints may need to furnish select PHI to your health plan in order to be reimbursed for the services provided to you. Blueprints may also disclose PHI to their business associates, such as billing companies, claims processing companies, and others that assist in processing health claims. Blueprints may also disclose PHI to other health care providers and plans in exceptional situations governed and compliant within the scope of applicable local, state and federal confidentiality laws and regulations.
FOR HEALTH CARE OPERATIONS: Blueprints may use and disclose PHI as part of their operations, including for quality assessment and improvement, such as evaluating the treatment and services you receive and the performance of our staff in caring for you. Other activities include agency training, underwriting activities, compliance and risk management activities, planning and development, and management and administration. Blueprints may disclose PHI to doctors, nurses, clinicians, technicians, students, attorneys, consultants, accountants, and others for review and learning purposes. These disclosures help make sure that Blueprints is complying with all applicable laws and are continuing to provide health care to patients at a high level of quality. Blueprints may also disclose PHI to other health care facilities’ plans for certain of their operations, including their quality assessment and improvement activities, credentialing and peer review activities, and health care fraud and abuse detection or compliance, provided that those other facilities and plans have, or have had in the past, a relationship with the patient who is the subject of the information.
FOR SHARING PHI AMONG BLUEPRINTS AND PROFESSIONAL STAFF: Blueprints works together with physicians and other care providers on their professional staff to provide medical services to you when you are a patient at Blueprints. Blueprints and members of their respective professional staff will share PHI with each other as needed to perform vital treatment, payment and health care operations/activities.
OTHER USES AND DISCLOSURES FOR WHICH AUTHORIZATION IS NOT REQUIRED: IN ADDITION TO USING OR DISCLOSING PHI FOR TREATMENT, PAYMENT AND HEALTH CARE OPERATIONS, BLUEPRINTS MAY USE AND DISCLOSE PHI WITHOUT YOUR WRITTEN AUTHORIZATION UNDER THE FOLLOWING CIRCUMSTANCES:
AS REQUIRED BY LAW AND LAW ENFORCEMENT: Blueprints may use or disclose PHI when required by law. Blueprints may also disclose PHI when ordered to in a judicial or administrative proceeding, in response to subpoenas or discovery requests, to identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person, when dealing with gunshot and other wounds, about criminal conduct, to report a crime, its location or victims, or the identify, description or location of a person who committed a crime, or for other law enforcement purposes accommodated within the scope of applicable local, state and federal confidentiality laws.
FOR PUBLIC HEALTH ACTIVITIES AND PUBLIC HEALTH RISKS: Blueprints may disclose PHI to government officials in charge of collecting information about births and deaths, preventing and controlling disease, reports of child abuse or neglect and of other victims of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence, reactions to medications or product defects or problems, or to notify a person who may have been exposed to a communicable disease or may be at risk of contracting or spreading a disease or condition.
FOR HEALTH OVERSIGHT ACTIVITIES: Blueprints may disclose PHI to the government for oversight activities authorized by law, such as audits, investigations, inspections, licensure or disciplinary actions, and other proceedings, actions or activities necessary for monitoring the health care system, government programs, and compliance with civil rights laws.
CORONERS, MEDICAL EXAMINERS, AND FUNERAL DIRECTORS: Blueprints may disclose PHI to coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors for the purpose of identifying a decedent, determining a cause of death, or otherwise as necessary to enable these parties to carry out their duties consistent with applicable law.
ORGAN, EYE, AND TISSUE DONATION: Blueprints may release PHI to organ procurement organizations to facilitate organ, eye, and tissue donation and transplantation.
RESEARCH: Under certain circumstances, Blueprints may use and disclose PHI for medical research purposes.
TO AVOID A SERIOUS THREAT TO HEALTH OR SAFETY: Blueprints may use and disclose PHI to law enforcement personnel or other appropriate persons, to prevent or lessen a serious threat to the health or safety of a person or the public.
LAWSUITS AND DISPUTES: If you are involved in a lawsuit or a dispute, Blueprints may disclose health information about you in response to a court or administrative order.
SPECIALIZED GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONS: Blueprints may use and disclose PHI of military personnel and veterans under certain circumstances, and may also disclose PHI to authorized federal officials for intelligence, counterintelligence, and other national security activities, and for the provision of protective services to the President or other authorized persons or foreign heads of state or to conduct special investigations.
WORKERS’ COMPENSATION: Blueprints may disclose PHI to comply with workers’ compensation or other similar laws that provide benefits for work-related injuries or illnesses.
HEALTH-RELATED BENEFITS AND SERVICES; LIMITED MARKETING ACTIVITES: Blueprints may use and disclose PHI to inform you of treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you, such as disease management programs.
DISASTER RELIEF: Blueprints may disclose medical information about you to an entity assisting in a disaster relief effort so that your family can be notified about your condition, status and location.
DISCLOSURES TO YOU OR FOR HIPAA COMPLIANCE INVESTIGATIONS: BLUEPRINTS MAY DISCLOSE YOUR PHI TO YOU OR TO YOUR PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE AND ARE REQUIRED TO DO SO IN CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES DESCRIBED BELOW IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR RIGHTS OF ACCESS TO YOUR PHI AND TO AN ACCOUNTING OF CERTAIN DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PHI. BLUEPRINTS MUST DISCLOSE YOUR PHI TO THE SECRETARY OF THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (THE “SECRETARY”) WHEN REQUESTED BY THE SECRETARY IN ORDER TO INVESTIGATE COMPLIANCE WITH PRIVACY REGULATIONS ISSUED UNDER THE FEDERAL HEALTH INSURANCE PORTABILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 1996 (“HIPAA”)
OTHER USES AND DISCLOSURES OF PHI FOR WHICH AUTHORIZATION IS REQUIRED:
OTHER TYPES OF USES AND DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PHI NOT DESCRIBED ABOVE WILL BE MADE ONLY WITH YOUR WRITTEN AUTHORIZATION, WHICH YOU HAVE THE LIMITED RIGHT TO REVOKE IN WRITING.
REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS: Blueprints is required by law to maintain the privacy of your PHI, to provide individuals with notice of their legal duties and privacy practices with respect to PHI, and to abide by the terms described in this Notice. Blueprints reserves the right to change the terms of this Notice and of its privacy policies, and to make the new terms applicable to all of the PHI it maintains. Before Blueprints makes an important change to its privacy policies, they will promptly revise this digital Notice and post a new physical Notice in registration and admitting areas. You have the following rights regarding your PHI:
You may request that Blueprints restrict the use and disclosure of your PHI. Blueprints is not required to agree to any restrictions you request, but if the entity does so it will be bound by the restrictions to which it agrees except in emergency situations.
You have the right to request that communications of PHI to you from Blueprints be made by particular means or in particular locations. For instance, you might request that communications be made at your work address, or by e-mail rather than regular mail. Your requests must be in writing and addressed to “Compliance Officer”. Blueprints will accommodate your reasonable requests without requiring you to provide a reason.
Generally, you have the right to inspect and copy your PHI in the possession of Blueprints if you make a request in writing to the Blueprints’ Medical Records Department. Within thirty (30) days of receiving your request (unless extended by an additional thirty (30) days), Blueprints will inform you of the extent to which your request has or has not been granted. In some cases, Blueprints may provide you a summary of the PHI you request if you agree in advance to such a summary and any associated fees. If you request copies of your PHI or agree to a summary of your PHI, Blueprints may impose a reasonable fee to cover copying, postage, and related costs. If Blueprints denies access to your PHI, it will explain the basis for denial and your opportunity to have the denial reviewed by a licensed health care professional (not involved in the initial denial decision) designated as a reviewing official. If Blueprints does not maintain the PHI you request, if it knows where that PHI is located it will tell you how to redirect your request.
If you believe that your PHI maintained by Blueprints contains an error or needs to be updated, you have the right to request that the agency correct or supplement your PHI. Your request must be made in writing to the Medical Records Department and it must explain why you are requesting an amendment to your PHI. Within sixty (60) days of receiving your request (unless extended by an additional thirty (30) days), Blueprints will inform you of the extent to which your request has or has not been granted. Blueprints generally can deny your request if your request relates to PHI: (i) not created by Blueprints; (ii) that is not part of the records Blueprints maintains; (iii) that is not subject to being inspected by you; or (iv) that is accurate and complete. If your request is denied, Blueprints will give you a written denial that explains the reason for the denial and your rights to: (i) file a statement disagreeing with the denial; (ii) submit a request that any future disclosures of the relevant PHI be made with a copy of your request and Blueprints’ denial attached, if you do not file a statement of disagreement; and (iii) complain about the denial.
You generally have the right to request and receive a list of disclosures of your PHI Blueprints has made during the six (6) years prior to your request. The list will not include disclosures (i) for which you have provided a written authorization; (ii) for treatment, payment, and health care operations; (iii) made to you; (iv) for a Blueprints patient directory or to persons involved in your health care; (v) for national security or intelligence purposes; (vi) to correctional institutions or law enforcement officials; or (vii) of a limited data set. You should submit any such request to the Compliance Officer, and within sixty (60) days of receiving your request (unless extended by an additional thirty (30) days), Blueprints will respond to you regarding the status of your request. The agency will provide the list to you at no charge, but if you make more than one request in a year you will be charged for each additional request.
You have the right to receive PHI in an electronic format.
You have the right to receive a paper copy of this notice upon request even if you have agreed to receive this notice electronically. To obtain a paper copy of this notice, please contact the Compliance Officer (Contact information below).
You have the right to receive notice in the event of a breach of confidentiality.
You have the right to opt out of all communications from our company.
You have the right to restrict disclosures of PHI to health plans if you have paid for services out of pocket in full.
PRIVACY POLICIES GOVERNING DIGITAL & MULTIMEDIA ASSETS
This privacy notice discloses the privacy practices for https://blueprintsrecovery.com. This privacy notice applies solely to information collected by this website. It will notify you of the following:
- What personally identifiable information is collected from you through the website, how it is used and with whom it may be shared.
- What choices are available to you regarding the use of your data.
- The security procedures in place to protect the misuse of your information.
- How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.
INFORMATION COLLECTION, USE, AND SHARING We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to/collect information that you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contact from you. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone.
We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as consented by you to fulfill your request for treatment services.
We collect website traffic information that is non-personally identifiable such as internet protocol address, browser type, device type, date and time of visit. Such information is used to improve site visitor experience and website content and performance
Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you more about our services, or changes to this privacy policy.
COOKIES We use “cookies” on this site. A cookie is a piece of data stored on a site visitor’s hard drive to help us improve your access to our site and identify repeat visitors to our site. For instance, when we use a cookie to identify you, you would not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. Cookies can also enable us to track and target the interests of our visitors to enhance the experience on our site. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information on our site.
YOUR ACCESS TO AND CONTROL OVER INFORMATION You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time. You can do the following at any time by contacting us via the email address or phone number given on our website:
- See what data we have about you, if any.
- Change/correct any data we have about you.
- Have us delete any data we have about you.
- Express any concern you have about our use of your data.
SECURITY We take precautions to protect your information. When you submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and offline.
Wherever we collect sensitive information, that information is encrypted and transmitted to us in a secure way. You can verify this by looking for a lock icon in the address bar and looking for “https” at the beginning of the address of the Web page.
While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, billing or clinical service) are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers/servers in which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.
CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE: We reserve the right to change this notice and make the new notice apply to Health Information we already have as well as any information we receive in the future. We will post a copy of the new notice on our website. The notice will contain the effective date of the changes.
You may complain to Blueprints if you believe your privacy rights with respect to your PHI have been violated by contacting Blueprints’ Compliance Officer and submitting a written complaint. To reach Blueprints for any reason associated with this Notice, please write or call:
Compliance
Blueprints for Addiction Recovery, Inc.
1901 Olde Homestead Lane, Suite 101
Lancaster, PA 17601
(717)-361-1660
Blueprints will not penalize you or retaliate against you for filing a complaint regarding their privacy practices. You also have the right to file a complaint with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services at 200 Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington, DC
If you have any questions about this notice, please contact Blueprints as listed above.
Effective 05/02/16