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Examples of Disclosures for Treatment & Payment

We will use your health information for treatment. For example, information obtained by a nurse, physician or another member of your healthcare team will be recorded in your medical record. These records are used to determine the course of treatment that should work best for you. Your physician will document their expectations to your healthcare team. Members of your medical team will then record the actions they took and their observations. By doing this, your physician will know how you are responding to treatment.

We will also provide your physician or a subsequent healthcare provider with copies of various reports that should help treat you once you are discharged from this health center.

We use your health information for payment

For example, a bill may be sent to you or a third-party payer. The information on or accompanying the bill may include information that identifies you and your diagnosis, procedures, and supplies used.

We will use your health information for regular healthcare operations

Members of the medical staff, the risk or quality improvement manager, or members of the quality improvement team may use information in your health record to assess the care and outcomes in your case and others like it. This information will then be used to continually improve the quality and effectiveness of the services we provide.

We will use your health information for other permitted disclosures

  • Business associates: There are some services provided in our organization through contracts with business associates. Examples include physician services in the emergency department and radiology, specific laboratory tests, and a copy service we may use when making copies of your health record. When these services are contracted, we may disclose your health information to our business associate so that they can perform the job we’ve asked them to do. To protect your health information, however, we require the business associate to appropriately safeguard your information.
  • Notification: We may use or disclose information to notify or assist in notifying a family member, personal representative, or another person responsible for your care, your location and general condition.
  • Research: We may disclose information to researchers when their research has been approved by an Institutional Review Board that has reviewed the research proposal and established protocols to ensure the privacy of your health information.
  • Funeral directors: We may disclose health information to funeral directors consistent with applicable law to carry out their duties.
  • Organ procurement organizations: Consistent with applicable law, we may disclose health information to organ procurement organizations or other entities engaged in the procurement, banking, or transplantation of organs for the purpose of tissue donation and transplant.
  • Food and Drug Administration (FDA): We may disclose to the FDA health information relative to adverse events concerning food, supplements, product and product defects, or post-marketing surveillance information to enable product recalls, repairs, or replacement.
  • Worker’s Compensation: We may disclose health information to the extent authorized by and to the extent necessary to comply with laws relating to worker’s compensation or other similar programs established by law.
  • Public health: As required by law, we may disclose your health information to public health or legal authorities charged with preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability.
  • Law enforcement: We may disclose health information for law enforcement purposes as required by law or in response to a valid subpoena.
  • Abuse or neglect: We may disclose your protected health information to a public health authority that is authorized by law to receive a report of child abuse or neglect. We may also disclose this information if we believe you have been a victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence.

Federal law makes provision for your health information to be released to an appropriate health oversight agency, public health authority or attorney, provided that a workforce member or business associate believes in good faith that we have engaged in unlawful conduct or have otherwise violated professional or clinical standards and are potentially endangering one or more patients, workers or the public.