How We May
Use or Disclose Your Health Information.
We
may use your health information, or disclose it to others, for a number of
different reasons. This notice describes these reasons. For each reason, we have written a brief explanation.
We also provide some examples. These
examples do not include all of the specific ways we may use or disclose your
information. But any time we use
your information, or disclose it to someone else, it will fit one of the reasons
listed here.
1. Treatment.
We will use your health information to provide you with medical care and
services. This means that our
employees, staff, students, volunteers and others whose work is under our direct
control, may read your health information to learn about your medical condition
and use it to make decisions about your care.
For instance, one of the Hospital’s nurses may read your medical chart
in order to care for you properly. We
will also disclose your information to others who need it in order to provide
you with medical treatment or services. For
instance, we may send your doctor the results of laboratory tests we perform or
order. We may disclose this
information to a family member, other relative, close personal friend or other
person you authorize.
2. Payment. We
may use your health information, and disclose it to others, as necessary to
obtain payment for the services we provide to you.
For instance, an employee in our business office may use your health
information to prepare a bill. And
we may send that bill, and any health information it contains, to your insurance
company. We may also disclose some
of your health information to companies with whom we contract for
payment-related services. For
instance, we may give information about you to a collection company that we
contract with to collect bills for us. We
will not use or disclose more information for payment purposes than is
necessary. We will only disclose
this information upon your (or your legal representative’s) written consent.
However, we reserve the right to refuse treatment to you if you refuse to
sign such consent.
3.
Health Care Operations. We may
use your health information for activities that are necessary to operate this
organization. This includes reading
your health information to review
the performance of our
staff. We may also use your
information and the information of other patients to plan what services we need
to provide, expand, or reduce. We
may also provide health information to students who are authorized to receive
training
here.
We may disclose your health information as necessary to others who we
contract with to provide administrative services.
This includes our lawyers, auditors, accreditation services, and
consultants, for instance. We may
disclose such information for these administrative services with your (or your
legal representative’s) written consent.
4.
Legal Requirement to Disclose Information. We will
disclose your information when we are required by law
to do so.
This includes reporting information to government agencies that have the
legal responsibility to monitor the health care system.
For instance, we may be required to disclose your health information, and
the information of others, if we are audited or investigated by Medicare
, Medicaid or other state agencies
. We will
also disclose your health information when we are required to do so by a court
order
or other
judicial or administrative process.
5. Public Health
Activities. We
will disclose your health information when required or permitted to do so for
public health
purposes. This
includes reporting certain diseases, births, deaths, and reactions to certain
medications. It may also include
notifying people who have been exposed to a disease.
6. To Report
Abuse.
We may disclose your health information when the information relates to a
victim of abuse
, neglect
or
domestic violence
. We
will make this report only in accordance with laws or orders that require or
allow such reporting, or with your authorization.
7. Law Enforcement.
We may disclose your health information for law enforcement purposes,
under court order or with your permission.
We must also disclose your health information to a federal or state
agency investigating our compliance with federal privacy regulations.
8. Specialized
Purposes.
We may disclose the health information of members of the armed forces as
authorized by military
command
authorities. We may disclose your
health information for a number of other specialized purposes.
We will only disclose as much information as is necessary for the
purpose. For instance, we may
disclose your information to coroners, medical examiner
s and funeral director
s; to organ procurement organizations (for
organ, eye, or tissue donation); or for national security
, intelligence
, and protection of the president.
We also may disclose health information about an inmate
to
a correctional institution or to law enforcement officials,
to
provide the inmate with health care, to protect the health and safety of the
inmate and others, and for the safety, administration, and maintenance of the
correctional institution. We may
also disclose your health information to your employer for purposes of
workers’ compensation and work site safety laws (OSHA
, for instance). We will only disclose information for these specialized
purposes as required by federal or state laws and regulations, court order, or
with your (or your legal representative’s) permission.
9. To Avert a Clear,
Dangerous and Immediate Threat.
We may disclose your health information if we decide that the disclosure
is necessary to prevent clear, dangerous and immediate harm to the patient or
others. The disclosure will only be
made to someone who is able to prevent or reduce the threat.
10. Family and Friends.
We may disclose your health information to a member of your family or to
someone else who is involved in your medical care or payment for care.
In the event of a disaster
, we may provide information about you to
a disaster relief organization so they can notify your family of your condition
and location. We will only disclose
your information to family or friends if you authorize it.
11. Research.
We may disclose your health information in connection with medical
research
projects. Federal
rules govern any disclosure of your health information for research purposes
without your authorization. Before
services are performed as a part of medical research a patient must give his/her
informed consent.
12. Information to
Patients. We
may use your health information to provide you with additional information.
This may include sending appointment reminders to your address
. This
may also include giving you information about treatment options or other
health-related services that we provide.
13. Fund Raising.
We may use your information to contact you to ask for donations to BHHF.
We may disclose your information to a related foundation
for
the same purpose. If you do not
want us to do this, contact the person listed under “Whom to Contact” at the
end of this notice
.