Drug and Alcohol Treatment Facility Privacy

• Basis for planning your care and treatment.
• Means of communicating among the many health professionals who contribute to your care.
• Legal document describing the care you received.
• Means by which you or a third-party payer can verify that you actually received the services billed for.
• A tool in medical education.
• A source of information for public health officials charged with improving the health of the regions they serve.
• A tool to assess the appropriateness and quality of care you received.
• A tool to improve the quality of healthcare and achieve better patient outcomes

• Ensure its accuracy and completeness.
• Understand who, what, where, why, and how others may assess your health information.
• Make informed decisions about authorizing disclosures to others.
• Better understand the health information rights detailed below.

• Request restriction on uses and disclosures of your health information for treatment, payment and healthcare operations: Healthcare operations consist of activities that are necessary to carry out the operations of the provider, such as quality assurance and peer review. The right to request restriction does not extend to uses or disclosures permitted or required under sections 164.502(a)(2)(I) (disclosures to you), 164.510(a) (for facility directories, but note that you have the right to object to such uses), or 164.512 (uses and disclosures not requiring a consent or an authorization). The latter uses and disclosures include, for example, those required by law, like mandatory communicable disease reporting. In those cases, you do not have a right to request restriction. Even in those cases in which you do have the right to request restriction, we do not have to agree to the restriction. If we do, however, we will adhere to it unless you request otherwise or we give you advance notice.
• Ask us to communicate with you by alternate means: If the method of communication is reasonable, we must grant the alternate communication request.
• Receive and keep a copy of this notice of information practices: Although we have posted a copy in prominent locations throughout the facility and on our website, if you access those copies, you nonetheless have a right to a hard copy on request. The law requires us to ask you to acknowledge receipt of your copy.
• Inspect and copy your health information upon request: This right is not absolute. In certain situations, such as if access would cause harm, we can deny access. You do not have a right to access of the following:
  • Psychotherapy notes - such notes comprise those that are recorded in any medium by a healthcare provider who is a mental health professional documenting or analyzing a conversation during a private counseling session or a group, joint, or family counseling session and that are separated from the rest of your medical record.
  • Information compiled in reasonable anticipation of or for use in a civil, criminal, or administrative actions or proceedings.
  • Any of your health information that is subject to the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments if 1988 (CLIA), 42 U.S.C. 263a, to the extent that the provision of access to the individual would be prohibited by law.
  • Information that was obtained from someone other than a healthcare provider under a premise of confidentiality when the access requested would be reasonably likely to reveal the source of the information.

• When a licensed healthcare professional has determined, in the exercise of professional judgment, that the access is reasonably likely to endanger the life or physical safety of the individual or another person.
• When the protected health information makes reference to another person (other than a healthcare provider) and a licensed healthcare provider has determined, in the exercise of professional judgment, that the access is reasonably likely to cause substantial harm to such other person.
• The request is made by the individual’s personal representative and a licensed healthcare professional has determined, in the exercise of professional judgment, that the provision of access to such personal representative is reasonably likely to cause substantial harm to the individual or another person.

• We did not create the record. If, as in the case of a consultation report from another provider, we did not create the record, we cannot know whether it is accurate or not. Thus, in such cases, you must seek amendment / correction from the party creating the record. If they amend or correct the record, we will put the corrected record in our records.
• The records are not available to you as discussed immediately above.
• The record is accurate and complete.

• Disclosures to you.
• Disclosures authorized by you.
• For disclosures of limited data sets (partially de-identified data used for research, public health, or healthcare operations).
• For the facility directory or to persons involved in your care or for other notification purposes as provided in 164.510 (uses and disclosures requiring an opportunity for the individual to agree or to object, including notification to family members, personal representatives, or other persons responsible for the care of the individual, of the individual’s location, general condition or death).
• For national security or intelligence purposes under 164.512(k)(2) (disclosures not requiring consent, authorization, or an opportunity to object).
• To correctional institutions or law enforcement officials under 164.512(k)(5) (disclosures not requiring consent, authorization or an opportunity to object).
• Those occurring before April 14, 2003.

• Date of each disclosure.
• Name and address of the organization or person who received the protected health information.
• Brief description of the information disclosed.
• Brief statement of the purpose of the disclosure that reasonably informs you of the basis for the disclosure or, in lieu of such statement, a copy of the written authorization or a copy of the written request for disclosure.

• Maintain the privacy of your health information, including implementing reasonable and appropriate physical, administrative, and technical safeguards to protect the information.
• Provide you with this notice as to our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to individually identified health information we collect and maintain about you.
• Abide by the terms of this notice.
• Train our personnel concerning privacy and confidentiality.
• Implement a sanction policy to discipline those who breach privacy / confidentiality or our policies with regard thereto.
• Mitigate (lessen the harm of) any breach of privacy / confidentiality.