This notice describes how medical information
about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this
information. Please review it carefully.
Texas A&M University Emergency Medical Services
is required by law to maintain the privacy of certain confidential health
information known as Protected Health Information, or PHI, and to provide you
with a Notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your
PHI. We are required to abide by the terms of this version of this notice,
most currently in effect.
The following is a
description of your rights with respect to your protected health information.
Right to Request a
Restriction
? You have the right to request a restriction on the PHI we use or disclose
about you for treatment, payment or health care operations. We are not
required to agree to any restriction that you may request. If we do agree to
the restriction, we will comply with the restriction unless the information is
needed to provide emergency treatment to you.
If you believe that a
disclosure of all or part of your PHI may endanger you, you may request that
we communicate with you regarding your information in an alternative manner or
at an alternative location. For example, you may request that we contact you
only at your work.
Right to Inspect and
Copy - You
have the right to inspect and copy your PHI that is contained in the
?designated record set.? However, you may not inspect or copy psychotherapy
notes or certain other information. We may deny your request to inspect and
copy your PHI in certain limited circumstances. If you are denied access to
your information, you may request that the denial be reviewed. A licensed
health care professional chosen by us will review your request and the denial.
The person performing the review will not be the same one who denied your
initial request. Under certain conditions our denial will not be reviewable.
If this event occurs, we will inform you in our denial that the decision is
not reviewable.
Right to Request
Amendment -
If you believe that your PHI is incorrect or incomplete, you may request that
we amend your information. In certain cases, we may deny your request for
amendment. If we deny your request, you have the right to file a statement of
disagreement with us. This statement will be linked with the disputed
information and all future disclosures of the disputed information will
include your statement of disagreement.
Right of Accounting ?
You have a
right to an accounting of most disclosures of your PHI that are for reasons
other than treatment, payment, or health care operations. An accounting will
include the date(s) of disclosure, to whom we made the disclosure, a brief
description of the information disclosed, and the purpose of the disclosure.
Your request may be for disclosures made up to six years before the date of
your request, but in no event, for disclosures made before
Right to a Paper Copy
of This Notice
? You have the right to a paper copy of this Notice, even if you have agreed
to accept this notice electronically.
USES AND DISCLOSURES OF PROTECTED HEALTH
INFORMATION (PHI)
Texas A&M University Emergency Medical Services
may use PHI for the purposes of treatment, payment, and health care
operations, in most cases without your written permission. Examples of our use
of your PHI for these purposes are:
For Treatment ?
This includes such things as verbal and written
information that we obtain about you and use pertaining to your medical
condition and treatment provided to you by us and other medical personnel
including doctors who give orders to allow us to provide treatment to you. It
also includes information we give to other healthcare personnel to whom we
transfer your care and treatment, which includes transfer of PHI via radio or
telephone to the hospital or dispatch center as well as providing the hospital
with a copy of the written record we create in the course of providing you
with treatment and transport.
For Payment ?
This includes any activities we must undertake
in order to get reimbursed for the services we provide to you, including such
things as organizing your PHI and submitting bills to insurance companies
(either directly or through a third party billing company) management of
billed claims for services rendered, medical necessity determinations and
reviews, utilization review, and collection of outstanding accounts.
For Health Care Operations ?
This includes quality assurance activities,
licensing, and training programs to ensure that our personnel meet our
standards of care and follow established policies and procedures, obtaining
legal and financial services, conducting business planning, processing
grievances and complaints, and creating reports that do not individually
identify you for data collection purposes.
OTHER PERMITTED USES AND DISCLOSURES OF PHI
Other ways in which Texas A&M University EMS is
permitted to use and/or disclose your PHI are:
As Required by Law -
?We may use or disclose your PHI to the extent
that federal, state, or local law requires the use or disclosure. When used in
this Notice, ?required by law? is defined as it is in the HIPAA Privacy
Regulations.
For Public Health Activities ?
We may use or disclose your PHI for public
health activities that are permitted or required by law. For example, we may
use or disclose information to a public health authority authorized to receive
reports of child abuse or neglect.
For Health Oversight Activities ?
We may disclose your PHI to a health oversight
agency for activities authorized by law, such as audits, investigations,
inspections, licensure or disciplinary actions, civil, administrative, or
criminal proceedings or other activities. Oversight agencies seeking this
information include government agencies that oversee (1) the healthcare
system, (2) government benefit programs, (3) other government regulatory
programs, and (4) compliance with civil rights laws.
Reporting Abuse or Neglect ?
We may disclose your PHI to a government
authority that is authorized by law to receive reports of abuse, neglect, or
domestic violence. Additionally, as required by law, we may disclose to a
government entity authorized to receive such information, if we believe that
you have been a victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence.
Legal Proceedings ?
We may disclose your PHI (1) in the course of
any judicial or administrative proceeding (2) in the response to an order of a
court or administrative tribunal to the extent such disclosure is expressly
authorized (3) in response to a subpoena, a discovery request, or other lawful
process, once we have met all administrative requirements of the HIPAA Privacy
Regulations.
Law Enforcement ?
Under certain conditions, we also disclose your
PHI to law enforcement officials. Some of the reasons for such a disclosure
may include, but not limited to: (1) it is required by law or some other legal
process (2) it is necessary to locate or identify a suspect, fugitive,
material witness, or missing person (3) it is necessary to provide evidence of
a crime that occurred on our premises.
For Research ?
We may disclose your PHI to researchers when an
institutional review board or privacy board has (1) reviewed the research
proposal and established protocols to ensure the privacy of the information
and (2) approved the researched.
Coroners, Medical Examiners, Funeral Directors,
and Organ Donation ? We may disclose
PHI to a coroner or medical examiner for purposes of identifying a deceased
person, determining a cause of death, or for the coroner or medical examiner
to perform other duties authorized by law. We may also disclose, as authorized
by law, information to funeral directors so that they may carry out their
duties. Further, we may disclose PHI to organizations that handle organ, eye,
or tissue donation and transportation.
To Prevent a Serious Threat to Health or Safety
? Consistent with federal and state
laws, we may disclose your PHI if we believe that the disclosure is necessary
to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to health or safety of a
person or the public. We may also disclose PHI if it is necessary for law
enforcement authorities to identify or apprehend an individual.
Military Activity and National Security,
Protective Services ? Under certain
conditions, we may disclose your PHI if you are, or were, Armed Forces
personnel for activities deemed necessary by appropriate military command
authorities. If you are a member of foreign military service, we may disclose
your information to the foreign military authority. We also may disclose your
PHI to authorized federal officials for conducting national security and
intelligence activities, and for the protection of the President, other
authorized persons, or heads of state.
Inmates ?
If you are an inmate of a correctional
institution, we may disclose your PHI to the correctional institution or to a
law enforcement official for (1) the institution to provide health care to you
(2) your health and safety and the health and safety of others, or (3) the
safety and security of the correctional institution.
Worker?s Compensation ?
We may disclose your PHI to comply with worker?s
compensation laws and other similar programs that provide benefits for work
related injuries or illnesses.
Others Involved in Your Health Care ?
Unless you object in writing we may disclose
your PHI to a friend or family member that you have identified as being
involved with your health care. We also may disclose your information to an
entity assisting in a disaster relief effort so that your family can be
notified about your condition, status, and location. If you are not present or
able to agree to these disclosures of your PHI, then we may, using our
professional judgment, determine whether the disclosure is in your best
interest.
REQUIRED DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PHI
The following is a description of the
disclosures that we are required by law to make.
Disclosures to the Secretary of the
Disclosure to You ?
We are required to disclose to you most of your
PHI in a ?designated record set? when you request access to this information.
Generally a ?designated record set? contains medical and billing records as
well as other records that are used to make decisions about your health care
benefits. We are also required to provide, upon your request, an accounting of
most disclosures of your PHI that are for reasons other than treatment,
payment, and health care operations.
OTHER USES AND DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PROTECTED
HEALTH INFORMATION
Other uses and disclosures
of your PHI that are not described above will be made only with your written
authorization. If you provide us with such an authorization, you may revoke
the authorization in writing, and this revocation will be effective for future
disclosures of PHI. However, the revocation will not be effective for
information that we have
You also have the
right to complain to us, or to the Secretary of the United States Department
of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights have been
violated. You will not be retaliated against in any way for filing a complaint
with us or to the government. Should you have any questions, comments, or
complaints you may direct all inquiries to the privacy officer listed at the
end of this notice.
Texas A&M University Emergency Medical Services reserves the right to change
the terms of this Notice at any time, and the changes will be effective
immediately and will apply to all protected health information that we
maintain. Any material changes to the Notice will be promptly posted in our
facilities and posted on our web site, if we maintain one. You can get a copy
of the latest version of this notice by contacting the Privacy Officer as
listed.
If you have any questions or if you wish to file a complaint or exercise any
rights noted in this Notice, please contact:
Privacy Officer, Texas A&M University Emergency Medical Services, A.P. Beutel
Health Center, 1264 TAMU,