Privacy Policy
OUR RESPONSIBILITIES
Talbot Hospice is required by law to protect the privacy of your health information. We are required to provide you with the Notice of Privacy Practices to describe our legal duties and your rights with respect to your protected health information. Talbot Hospice and its Business Associates are required to abide by the terms of this Notice, and to notify you in the event of a breach of your health information.
How We May Use and Disclose Your Information
Below, describes the ways we may use and disclose your health information for your treatment, payment, and health care operations.
Treatment: Talbot Hospice may use and disclose your health information to coordinate care within the hospice and with other healthcare providers involved in your care. These include your attending physician, members of the Talbot Hospice Interdisciplinary Team and consulting health care professionals who have agreed to assist Talbot Hospice with the coordination of your care plan. For example, Talbot Hospice may take pictures of your wound in order to monitor healing or may disclose your health information to a physician involved in your care who needs information about your symptoms to prescribe appropriate medications.
Payment: Talbot Hospice may use and disclose your health information to receive payment for the care you receive from Talbot Hospice. For example, Talbot Hospice may be required by your health insurer to provide information regarding your health care status, your need for care and the care that Talbot Hospice intends to provide to you so that the insurer will reimburse you or Talbot Hospice.
Health Care Operations: Talbot Hospice may use and disclose health information for its own operations in order to facilitate the functioning of the Hospice and as necessary to provide quality care to all of the hospice’s patients. Health care operations may include, but not be limited to, such activities as:
• Quality Assessment and Improvement Plans • Procedures designed to improve health or reduce health care costs.
• Contacting health care providers and patients with information about treatment alternatives and other related functions that do not include treatment.
• Professional review and performance evaluation.
• Training programs including those in which students, trainees or practitioners in health care learn under supervision.
• Accreditation, certification, licensing, or credentialing activities.
• Review and auditing, including compliance reviews, medical reviews, legal services, and compliance programs; and,
• Business management and general administrative activities of the hospice
As Required by Law: Talbot Hospice will disclose your health information when it is required to do so by any Federal, State, or local law.
Public Health Risks: Talbot Hospice may disclose your health information for public activities and purposes in order to:
• Prevent or control disease, injury or disability, report disease, injury, vital events such as birth or death and the conduct of public health surveillance, investigations, and interventions.
• Report adverse events or product defects; to track products or enable product recalls, repairs, and replacements; and to conduct post-marketing surveillance and compliance with requirements of the Food and Drug Administration.
• Notify a person who has been exposed to a communicable disease or who may be at risk of contracting or spreading a disease.
• Notify an employer about an individual who is a member of the employer’s workforce in certain limited situations, as authorized by law.
Abuse, Neglect or Domestic Violence: Talbot Hospice is allowed to notify government authorities if the hospice believes a patient is the victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence. Talbot Hospice will make this disclosure only when specifically required or authorized by law or when the patient agrees to the disclosure.
Health Oversight Activities: Talbot Hospice may disclose your health information to a health oversight agency for activities including audits, civil administrative or criminal investigations, inspections, licensure, or disciplinary action. Talbot Hospice, however, may not disclose your health information if you are the subject of an investigation and your health information is not directly related to your receipt of health care or public benefits.
Judicial And Administrative Proceedings: Talbot Hospice may disclose your health information in the course of any judicial or administrative proceeding in response to an order of a court or administrative tribunal as expressly authorized by such order or in response to a subpoena, discovery request or other lawful process, but only when the hospice makes reasonable efforts to either notify you about the request or to obtain an order protecting your health information.
Law Enforcement: As permitted or required by State law, Talbot Hospice may disclose your health information to a law enforcement official for certain law enforcement purposes as follows:
• As required by law for reporting of certain types of wounds or other physical injuries pursuant to the court order, warrant, subpoena or summons or similar process.
• For the purpose of identifying or locating a suspect, fugitive, material witness or missing person.
• Under certain limited circumstances, when you are the victim of a crime.
• To a law enforcement official if Talbot Hospice has a suspicion that your death was the result of criminal conduct including criminal conduct at the hospice; or,
• In an emergency in order to report a crime.
Coroners and Medical Examiners: Talbot Hospice may disclose your health information to coroners and medical examiners for purposes of determining your cause of death or for other duties, as authorized by law.
Funeral Directors: Talbot Hospice may disclose your health information to funeral directors consistent with applicable law and if necessary, to carry out their duties with respect to your funeral arrangements. If necessary to carry out their duties, Talbot Hospice may disclose your health information prior to and in reasonable anticipation of your death.
Serious Threat To Health Or Safety: Talbot Hospice may, consistent with applicable law and ethical standards of conduct, disclose your health information if the hospice, in good faith, believes that such disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to your health or safety or to the health and safety of the public.
Worker’s Compensation: Talbot Hospice may release your health information for worker’s compensation or similar programs.
Limited Data Set: Talbot Hospice may use or disclose a limited data set of your health information, that is, a subset of your health information for which all identifying information has been removed, for purposes of research, public health, or health care operations. Prior to our release, any recipient of that limited data set must agree to appropriately safeguard your health information.
Specified Government Functions: In certain circumstances, the Federal regulations authorize a hospice to use or disclose your health information to facilitate specified government functions relating to military and veterans, national security and intelligence activities, protective services for the President and others, medical suitability determinations and inmates and law enforcement custody.
SUD Treatment Information: If we receive or maintain any information about you from a substance use disorder treatment program that is covered by 42 CFR Part 2 (a “Part 2 Program”) through a general consent you provide to the Part 2 Program to use and disclose the Part 2 Program record for purposes of treatment, payment or health care operations, we may use and disclose your Part 2 Program record for treatment, payment and health care operations purposes as described in this Notice. If we receive or maintain your Part 2 Program record through specific consent you provide to us or another third party, we will use and disclose your Part 2 Program record only as expressly permitted by you in your consent as provided to us.
In no event will we use or disclose your Part 2 Program record, or testimony that describes the information contained in your Part 2 Program record, in any civil, criminal, administrative, or legislative proceedings by any Federal, State, or local authority, against you, unless authorized by your consent or the order of a court after it provides you notice of the court order.
OTHER USES AND DISCLOSURES TO WHICH YOU MAY AGREE OR OBJECT
Facility Directory: Talbot Hospice may disclose certain information about you in a hospice directory while you are in The Eleanor A. Koons Hospice House, (hereafter known as The Hospice House) including your name, general health status, your religious affiliation, and your location. The hospice may disclose this information to people who ask for you by name. Please inform us if you want to restrict or prohibit some or all of the information provided in the directory. Authorization and restriction consents will be completed upon admission to The Hospice House.
Persons Involved in Your Care: When appropriate, Talbot Hospice may share your health information with a family member, other relative or any other person you identify if that person is involved in your care and the information is relevant to your care or the payment of your care. Talbot Hospice may also notify your family about your location or general condition or disclose such information to an entity assisting in a disaster relief effort. 3 You may ask us at any time not to disclose your health information to any person(s) involved in your care. Talbot Hospice will agree to your request unless circumstances constitute an emergency.
Fundraising & Development Activities: Talbot Hospice may use information about you, including your name, address, telephone number, the dates you received care, and contact information for your family members who are involved in your care, for fundraising activities. If you do not want Talbot Hospice to contact you or your family, please notify Talbot Hospice by calling 410-822-6681 and request to speak with the Director of Development, or by email to info@talbothospice.org
AUTHORIZATIONS TO USE OR DISCLOSE YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION
Other than the permitted uses and disclosures described above, Talbot Hospice will not use or disclose your health information without an authorization signed by you or your personal representative. If you or your representative signs a written authorization allowing us to use or disclose your health information, you may cancel the authorization (in writing) at any time. If you cancel your authorization, we will follow your instructions except to the extent that we had previously relied upon your authorization and have already taken action. The following uses and disclosures of your health information will only be made with your signed authorization:
• Uses and disclosures for marketing purposes.
• Uses and disclosures that constitute a sale of health information.
• Most uses and disclosures of psychotherapy notes; and,
• Any other uses and disclosures not described in this Notice. Y
OUR RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION
You have the following rights regarding your health information that Talbot Hospice maintains:
Right to request restrictions: You have the right to request restrictions on certain uses and disclosures of your health information. You have the right to request a limit on our disclosure of your health information to someone who is involved in your care or the payment of your care. Talbot Hospice is not required to agree to your request, unless your request is for a restriction on a disclosure to a health plan for purposes of payment or health care operations (and is not for purposes of treatment) and the medical information you are requesting to be restricted from disclosure pertains solely to a health care item or service for which you have paid out of pocket in full. If you wish to make a request for restrictions, please contact the Compliance Officer at Talbot Hospice by calling 410-822-6681.
Right to receive confidential communications: You have the right to request that we communicate with you in a certain way. For example, you may ask that Talbot Hospice only conduct communications pertaining to your health information with you privately and with no other family members present. Talbot Hospice cannot guarantee the security of email messages if you should request communication via email. If you wish to receive confidential communications, please contact the Compliance Officer at Talbot Hospice at 410-822-6681. Talbot Hospice will not request that you provide any reasons for your request and will attempt to honor your reasonable requests for confidential communications.
Right to inspect and copy your health information: You have the right to inspect and copy your health information, including billing records. A request to inspect and copy records containing your health information may be made to the Compliance Officer at Talbot Hospice at 410-822-6681.
Right to amend health care information: You or your representative have the right to request that Talbot Hospice amend your records, if you believe that your health information is incorrect or incomplete. That request may be made as long as the information is maintained by Talbot Hospice. A request for an amendment of records must be made in writing to the Compliance Officer at Talbot Hospice, 586 Cynwood Drive, Easton, Maryland 21601. Talbot Hospice may deny the request if it is not in writing or does not include a reason for the amendment. The request may also be denied if your health information records were not created by Talbot Hospice, if the records you are requesting are not part of Talbot Hospice‘s records, if the health information you wish to amend is not part of the health information you or your representative are permitted to inspect and copy, or if, in the opinion of Talbot Hospice, the records containing your health information are accurate and complete. Right to an accounting: You or your representative has the right to request an accounting of disclosures of your health information made by Talbot Hospice for certain reasons, including reasons related to public purposes authorized by law and certain research. The request for an accounting must be made in writing to the Compliance Officer at Talbot Hospice, 586 Cynwood Drive, Easton, Maryland 21601. The request should specify the time period for the accounting and may not be made for periods of time in excess of six (6) years.
Right to receive notification of a breach: You or your representative has the right to receive notification of a breach of your unsecured health information. If you have questions regarding what constitutes a breach or your rights with respect to breach. notification, please contact the Compliance Officer at Talbot Hospice at 410-822-6681.
Changes to this Notice: Talbot Hospice reserves the right to change this Notice and to make the revised Notice effective for health information we already have about you, as well as any health information we receive in the future. You will be notified of any changes to this notice and a copy will be made available to you.
Questions and Complaints: Talbot Hospice has designated the Compliance Officer as its contact person for all issues regarding patient privacy and your rights under the Federal privacy standards. You may contact the Compliance Officer at any time + Talbot Hospice encourages you to express any concerns you may have regarding the privacy of your information. You will not be retaliated against in any way for filing a complaint. You or your personal representative have the right to express complaints to Talbot Hospice and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services- Office for Civil Rights: write, 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington DC. 20201 or call 877-696-6775 if you or your representative believes that your privacy rights have been violated.