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Notice of Privacy Practices Download PDF version of this Notice of Privacy Practices (129K) Dimensions Health Corporation
This notice applies to services you receive in Dimensions Health Corporation's facilities. This includes services from physicians who are not employed by Dimensions Health Corporation. If you also receive services from any of these physicians in their own offices, they may give you a different notice of privacy practices that applies to their offices. OUR LEGAL DUTIES
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, a hospital nurse 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. 2. Payment. We will 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. 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. 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 by Medicare or Medicaid. 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 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 that require or allow such reporting, or with your permission. 7. Law Enforcement. We may disclose your health information for law enforcement purposes. This includes providing information to help locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness or missing person, or in connection with suspected criminal activity. We must also disclose your health information to a federal 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 examiners and funeral directors; 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). 9. To Avert a Serious Threat. We may disclose your health information if we decide that the disclosure is necessary to prevent serious harm to the public or to an individual. 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. We may notify family or friends if you are in the hospital, and tell them your general condition. 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 not disclose your information to family or friends if you object. 11. Facility Directory. We may list you in our directory if you are admitted to the hospital. The directory listing includes name, general condition, and location in the hospital. We will also list your religion in the directory, but will disclose that information only to members of the clergy. Except for members of the clergy, we will only disclose the information in the directory to visitors who ask for you by name. You may ask not to be listed in the directory. You may also ask us not to provide information about you to a member of the clergy. 12. 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. 13. 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. 14. Fund Raising. We may use your information to contact you to ask for donations to the covered entity. 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. 15. Health Benefits Information. Your health information may be disclosed by the Dimensions Health Corporation employee health benefit program to Dimensions Health Corporation employees, as necessary for the administration of the health benefit program. Employees who receive this information have special rules to prevent the misuse of your information for other purposes. 16. Business Associates. We may share your health information with another company that performs business services for us such as billing companies. If so, we will have a written contract to ensure that this company also protects the privacy of your health information. 17. Emergencies. We may use of disclose your health information if you need emergency treatment or if we are required by law to treat you but are unable to obtain your written authorization. If this happens, we will try to obtain your written authorization as soon as we reasonably can after we treat you. 18. Employment Related. We may release some health information about you to your employer if your employer hires us to provide you with a physical exam and we discover that you have a work-related injury or disease that your employer must know about in order to comply with employment laws. 19. Product Monitoring, Repair and Recall. We may disclose your health information to a person or company that is required by the Food and Drug Administration to conduct certain oversight activities. 20. Lawsuits and Disputes. We may disclose your health information if required by law or an order of a court that is handling a lawsuit or other dispute. YOUR RIGHTS 1. Authorization. We will not use or disclose your health information for any purpose that is not listed in this notice without your written authorization. If you authorize us to use or disclose your health information, you have the right to revoke the authorization at any time. For information about how to authorize us to use or disclose your health information, or about how to revoke an authorization, contact the person listed under "Whom to Contact" at the end of this notice. You may not revoke an authorization for us to use and disclose your information to the extent that we have taken action in reliance on the authorization. If the authorization is to permit disclosure of your information to an insurance company, as a condition of obtaining coverage, other law may allow the insurer to continue to use your information to contest claims or your coverage, even after you have revoked the authorization. 2. Request Restrictions. You have the right to ask us to restrict how we use or disclose your health information. We will consider your request. But we are not required to agree. If we do agree, we will comply with the request unless the information is needed to provide you with emergency treatment. We cannot agree to restrict disclosures that are required by law. 3. Confidential Communication. You have the right to ask us to communicate with you at a special address or by a special means. For example, you may ask us to send mail to a different address rather than to your home. Or you may ask us to speak to you personally on the telephone rather than sending your health information by mail. We will not ask you to explain why you are making the request. We will agree to any reasonable request. 4. Inspect And Receive a Copy of Health Information. You have a right to inspect the health information about you that we have in our records, and to receive a copy of it. This right is limited to information about you that is kept in records that are used to make decisions about you. For instance, this includes medical and billing records. If you want to review or receive a copy of these records, you must make the request in writing. We may charge a fee for the cost of copying and mailing the records. To ask to inspect your records, or to receive a copy, contact the person listed under "Whom to Contact" at the end of this notice. We will respond to your request within 30 days. We may deny you access to certain information. If we do, we will give you the reason, in writing. We will also explain how you may appeal the decision. 5. Amend Health Information. You have the right to ask us to amend health information about you which you believe is not correct, or not complete. You must make this request in writing, and give us the reason you believe the information is not correct or complete. We will respond to your request in writing within 30 days. We may deny your request if we did not create the information, if it is not part of the records we use to make decisions about you, if the information is something you would not be permitted to inspect or copy, or if it is complete and accurate. 6. Accounting of Disclosures. You have a right to receive an accounting of certain disclosures of your information to others. This accounting will list the times we have given your health information to others. The list will include dates of the disclosures, the names of the people or organizations to whom the information was disclosed, a description of the information, and the reason. We will provide the first list of disclosures you request at no charge. We may charge you for any additional lists you request during the following 12 months. You must tell us the time period you want the list to cover. You may not request a time period longer than six years. We cannot include disclosures made before April 14, 2003. Disclosures for the following reasons will not be included on the list: disclosures for treatment, payment, health care operations; disclosures of information in a facility directory, disclosures for national security purposes, disclosures to correctional or law enforcement personnel, disclosures that you have authorized, disclosures made to friends and family involved in your care, and disclosures made directly to you. 7. Paper Copy of this Privacy Notice. You have a right to receive a paper copy this notice. If you have received this notice electronically, you may receive a paper copy by contacting the person listed under "Whom to Contact" at the end of this notice. 8. Complaints. You have a right to complain about our privacy practices, if you think your privacy has been violated. You may file your complaint with the person listed under "Whom to Contact" at the end of this notice. You may also file a complaint directly with the Secretary of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, at the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Room 509F HHH Bldg., Washington, D.C. 20201. All complaints must be in writing. We will not take any retaliation against you if you file a complaint. OUR RIGHT TO CHANGE THIS NOTICE We reserve the right to change our privacy practices, as described in this notice, at any time. We reserve the right to apply these changes to any health information which we already have, as well as to health information we receive in the future. Before we make any change in the privacy practices described in this notice, we will write a new notice that includes the change. We will post the new notice in the main reception areas of all of our facilities. You will also be able to obtain your own copy of the new notice by accessing our website, www.dimensionshealth.org, calling any one of our offices, Prince George's Hospital Center, 301-618-2000, Laurel Regional Hospital, 301-725-4300, Bowie Health Center, 301-262-5511, PGHC Medical Associates, 301-322-2326, PGHC OB/GYN Associates in Lanham, 301-618-1550 and PGHC OB/GYN Associates in Forrestville, 301-817-3021 or asking for one at the time of your next visit. The new notice will include an effective date. WHOM TO CONTACT Contact the person listed below:
Dixie Poe, Vice President, Compliance Officer Dimensions Health Corporation 3001 Hospital Drive Cheverly, MD 20875 301-583-4020 Copies of this notice are also available at the Dimensions Health Corporation Corporate Office and/or in the executive office at each Dimensions Health Corporation facility. This notice is also available by e-mail. Contact the person named above, or send an e-mail to: .
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