Privacy Policy
This notice describes how information about you may be used and disclosed and how you may obtain access to this information. Please review this notice carefully.
Easter Seals New York
Notice of Privacy Practices
This notice describes how information about you may be used and disclosed and how you may obtain access to this information. Please review this notice carefully. If you have any questions, or do not understand any part of this notice, please contact Easter Seals Security and Compliance Officer at: compliance@ny.easter-seals.org
This notice describes Easter Seals New York’s (Easter Seals) Information Use and Disclosure practices. It describes how the personal and medical information that we collect about you will be used and shared with others. The policies apply to:
- Everyone in Easter Seals who is authorized to make notes about you or to review information about you
- All services and departments of Easter Seals
- All employees and other paid and volunteer Easter Seals personnel
- Easter Seals service, resource development, clinical and administrative support staff may share information with each other for services, payment, or operations described below
Privacy Policy Pledge:
We understand that information about you is personal and we are committed to protecting your privacy. In our records we maintain data about you, your services, insurance information, etc. We need this information to provide you with services.
By law we are required to:
- Keep information about you private
- Provide you with a notice of our duties and policies concerning your personal health information
- Comply with the policies protecting information about you
Understanding Your Case Record/Information
Each time Easter Seals provides a service; additions are made to your health record. This information may be used as:
- Basis for planning your care, service(s) and treatment
- Means of communication among the health professionals who contribute to your care
- Legal document(s) describing the care you received
- Means by which you, or a third party payee, can verify that services billed were actually provided
- To collect payment for service(s)
- For service operations to educate our service staff and employees responsible for your medical care
- A source of data for medical research
- A source of information for public health officials charged with improving the health of state and Nation
- To prevent a serious threat to health and safety
- Your information may be used in the event of your death
- We may share your information with federal, state and local law when required to do so
- A source of data for facilitating planning and marketing
- A tool with which we can assess and continually work to improve the care we render, and the outcomes we achieve.
Other Informational Uses
In the event of circumstances not covered by this notice or the laws that apply to Easter Seals when we might share information about you, we will only do so with your written permission. If you provide us permission to use or disclose information about you, you may revoke that permission, in writing, at any time. If you revoke your permission, we will no longer use or share information about you for the reasons covered by your written authorization. You understand that we are unable to take back any disclosures (sharing of information) we have already made with your permission, and that we are required to retain our records of the service that we provided to you.
Understanding what is in your record and how your health information is used by Easter Seals, helps you to:
- Ensure its accuracy
- Better understand who, what, when, where, and why others may access your health information
- Make informed decisions when authorizing disclosures to others
Your Informational Rights
Your case record is the physical property of the healthcare practitioner or facility that compiled it; however, this information belongs to you.
You have the right to:
- Request a restriction on certain uses and disclosures of your information
- Obtain a paper copy of the notice of information practices upon request
- Inspect and obtain a copy of your records
- Request an amendment to your case records
- Obtain an accounting of disclosures of your health information
- Request communications of your health information by alternative means or at alternative locations
- Revoke your authorization to use or disclose health information except if action has already been taken.
- Request confidential communications
Easter Seals may deny your request to inspect and copy your records in certain limited circumstances.
If you are denied access to information, you may file a grievance and request that the Easter Seals Privacy and Security Officer, or his or her designee, of the Easter Seals Privacy and Security Team review the denial. The privacy representative conducting the review will not be the person whom originally denied your request.
The Responsibilities of Easter Seals
Easter Seals New York is required to:
- Maintain the privacy of your health information
- Provide you with a notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to information we collect and maintain about you
- Abide by the terms of this notice
- Notify you if we are unable to agree to a requested restriction
- Accommodate reasonable requests you may have to communicate health information by alternative means or by at alternative locations
Examples Of How We Will Disclosure Your Information For Treatment, Payment And Health Operations:
We will use your health information for treatment.
For example: information obtained by your service provider will be recorded in your case record and used to determine the course of treatment and services that should work best for you. When a team of individuals are involved in your service delivery, with your written permission we will share certain agreed upon components of your record. This is to ensure that the team can best meet your needs.
We will 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, as well as your diagnosis (if applicable), procedures, and supplies used.
We will use your health information for continuous quality improvement agency operations.
For example: Members of the staff, the continuous quality improvement coordinator, or members of the quality improvement team may use information in your case record to assess the care and outcomes in your case and others like it. This information will then be used in an effort to continually improve the quality and effectiveness of the services we provide.
Supervisors of your service provider may also review your case record as part of the supervisory process of the agency. We want to ensure that best practice occurs in service delivery.
Business Associates: There are some services provided in our organization through contacts with business associates. Examples include janitorial services, vendors who maintain copy machines, our auditors, our accrediting body, and other contract monitoring bodies. 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 and bill you or your third-party payer for services rendered, or they may have access to your health information due to the proximity of health information to their work. To protect your health information, however, we require the business associate to appropriately safeguard your information through a business associate agreement.
Notification and Communication with the Family: 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.
Marketing: We may contact you to provide appointment reminders or information about treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you. We may also send your information about our agency such as newsletters, etc.
Fundraising: We may contact you as part of a fund-raising effort.
Workers Compensation: We may disclose health information to the extent authorized by and to the extent necessary to comply with laws relating to workers 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.
Correctional Institution: Should you be an inmate of a correctional institution, we may disclose to the institution or agents thereof, health information necessary for your health and the health and safety of other individuals.
Law Enforcement: We may disclose health information for law enforcement purposes as required by law or in response to a valid subpoena.
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 work force 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.
Any use of your protected health information outside of this notice will not occur without your written permission.
For More Information or to Report a Problem:
If have questions and would like additional information, you may contact the Easter Seals Privacy and Security Officer.
If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with Easter Seals. To file a complaint with Easter Seals, follow the grievance procedure and request that your grievance be reviewed by the Easter Seals Privacy and Security Officer, Christine McMahon at: 555 Auburn Street, Manchester, New Hampshire 03103. Submit your complaint in writing. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.
Some service recipients may also have the right to file a privacy complaint with the United States Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
We may change this Notice
Easter Seals reserves the right to change this notice. We reserve the right to make the revised or changed notice effective for information we already have about you as well as any information we receive in the future. Should our information practices change, we will mail a revised notice to the address you have supplied us, as well as, posting a copy of the current notice at Easter Seals facilities.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF RECEIPT
The above Consumer Information Use, Disclosure, and Release Notice provides information about how we may use and share protected information about you. You have the right to review the notice before signing this acknowledgement. As provided in our notice, the terms of our notice may change.
My signature below indicates that I understand the above, and I have been provided with a copy of the notice of privacy practices.
Distribution: Original in Easter Seals record; copy to individual or legal representative
Effective Date: June 2002