Greater Owensboro Pediatric Dentistry, Inc.
Notice of Privacy Practices
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE PATIENT MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
The Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) requires all medical and dental records and other individually identifiable health information (protected health information) used or disclosed to us in any form, whether electronically, on paper, or orally, be kept confidential. This federal law gives you, the patient's parent/guardian, significant new rights to understand and control how the patient's health information is used. HIPAA provides penalties for covered entities that misuse personal health information. As required by HIPAA, we have prepared this explanation of how we are required to maintain the privacy of health information and how we may use and disclose the patient's health information.
• Without specific written authorization, we are permitted to use and disclose the patient's health care records for the purposes of treatment, payment and health care operations.
• Treatment means providing, coordinating, or managing health care and related services by one or more health care providers. Examples of treatment would include crowns, fillings, teeth cleaning services, etc.
• Payment means such activities as obtaining reimbursement for services, confirming coverage, billing or collection activities, and utilization review. An example of this would be billing your dental plan for dental services.
• Health Care Operations include the business aspects of running our practice, such as conducting quality assessment and improvement activities, auditing functions, cost-management analysis, and customer service. An example would include a periodic assessment of our documentation protocols, etc.
In addition, the patient's confidential information may be used to remind you of an appointment (by phone, text, email or mail) or provide you with information about treatment options or other health-related services including release of information to friends and family members that are directly involved in the patient's care or who assist in taking care of the patient. We will use and disclose protected information when we are required to do so by federal, state or local law. We may disclose protected health information to public health authorities that are authorized by law to collect information, to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law included but not limited to: response to a court or administrative order, if involved in a lawsuit or similar proceeding, response to a discovery request, subpoena, or other lawful process by another party involved in the dispute, but only if we have made an effort to inform you of the request or to obtain an order protecting the information the party has requested.
We will release protected health information if requested by a law enforcement official for any circumstance required by law. We may release protected health information to a medical examiner or coroner to identify a deceased individual or to identify the cause of death. If necessary, we also may release information in order for funeral directors to perform their jobs. We may release protected health information to organizations that handle organ, eye or tissue procurement or transplantation, including organ donation banks, as necessary to facilitate organ or tissue donation and transplantation if the patient is an organ donor. We may use and disclose protected health information when necessary to reduce or prevent a serious threat to the patient's health and safety or the health and safety of another individual or the public. Under these circumstances, we will only make disclosures to a person or organization able to help prevent the threat.
We may disclose protected health information if a member of U.S. or foreign military forces (including veterans) and if required by the appropriate authorities. We may disclose protected health information to federal officials for intelligence and national security activities authorized by law.
We may disclose protected health information to correctional institutions or law enforcement HIPAA officials if patient is under the custody of a law enforcement official. Disclosure for these purposes would be necessary: (a) for the institution to provide health care services to patient, (b) for the safety and security of the institution, and/or (c) to protect patient's health and safety or the health and safety of other individuals or the public.
We may release protected health information for workers' compensation and similar programs.
Any other uses and disclosures will be made only with your written authorization. You may revoke such authorization in writing and we are required to honor and abide by that written request, except to the extent that we have already taken actions relying on your authorization.
You have certain rights in regards to protected health information, which you can exercise by presenting a written request:
• The right to request restrictions on certain uses and disclosures of protected health information, including those related to disclosures to family members, other relatives, close personal friends, or any other person identified by you. We are, however, not required to agree to a requested restriction. If we do agree to a restriction, we must abide by it unless you agree in writing to remove it.
• The right to request to receive confidential communications of protected health information from us by alternative means or at alternative locations.
• The right to access, inspect, and copy patient's protected health information.
• The right to request an amendment to patient's protected health information.
• The right to receive an accounting of disclosures of protected health information outside of treatment, payment and health care operations.
• The right to obtain a paper copy of this notice from us upon request.
We are required by law to maintain the privacy of protected health information and to provide you with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices.
We are required to abide by the terms of the Notice of Privacy Practices currently in effect. We reserve the right to change the terms of our Notice of Privacy Practices and to make the new notice provisions effective for all protected health information that we maintain. Revisions to our Notice of Privacy Practices will be posted on the effective date and you may request a written copy of the Revised Notice from this office. You have the right to file a formal, written complaint with us at the address below, or with the Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Civil Rights, in the event you feel the patient's privacy rights have been violated. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.
For more information about HIPAA or to file a complaint:
Greater Owensboro Pediatric Dentistry, Inc.
3817 Fairview Drive
Owensboro, KY 42303
(270)683-7114
Applicable Regulations
45 C.F.R. § 164.520
Website Privacy Policy
This privacy notice discloses the privacy practices for this website. This privacy notice applies solely to information collected by this web site. It will notify you of the following:
- What personally identifiable information is collected from you through the web site, how it is used and with whom it may be shared.
- What choices are available to you regarding the use of your data.
- The security procedures in place to protect the misuse of your information.
- How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.
Information Collection, Use, and Sharing
We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to/collect information that you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contact from you. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone.
We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as necessary to fulfill your request, e.g. to ship an order.
Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about specials, new products or services, or changes to this privacy policy.
Your Access to and Control Over Information
You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time. You can do the following at any time by contacting us via the contact form on our website:
- See what data we have about you, if any.
- Change/correct any data we have about you.
- Have us delete any data we have about you.
- Express any concern you have about our use of your data.
Security
Please do not use our contact form to email us confidential information. While we will not disclose this information to anyone, it could possibly be intercepted by unauthorized entities.
Cookies
We use "cookies" on this site. A cookie is a piece of data stored on a site visitor's hard drive to help us improve your access to our site and identify repeat visitors to our site. For instance, when we use a cookie to identify you, you would not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. Cookies can also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information on our site.
Links
This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of any other site that collects personally identifiable information.
If you feel that we are not abiding by this privacy policy, you should contact us immediately.
