Copyright © 2000-2006 Shreveport Eye Clinic
The Shreveport Eye Clinic owns the copyright for all contents of the Shreveport Eye Clinic web site with exception of graphic images owned by Patient Education Concepts, Inc., and American Academy of Ophthalmology. We expressly prohibit reprints or electronic reproduction of any document in part or in its entirety, unless you obtain prior written permission from the Shreveport Eye Clinic or the owner of the material. Address all applications and inquiries to the contact cited on the page of interest.
SHREVEPORT EYE CLINIC, A MEDICAL CORP.
NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
This notice is provided to comply with the Privacy Regulations issued by the Department of Health and Human Services in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please Review it carefully.
This notice applies to all of the records of your care generated by the practice.
This notice describes Shreveport Eye Clinic (SPEC) policies, which extend to:
- Any health care professional authorized to enter information into your chart (including physicians, optometrists, and ophthalmic assisting personnel);
- All areas of the individual practice locations (front desk, administration, billing and collection, etc.);
- All employees, staff and other personnel that work for the SPEC.
- Our business associates (including computer services, bill & insurance agencies, or facilities to which we refer patients), on-call physicians and so on.
We understand that your medical information is personal to you, and we are committed to protecting the information about you. As our patient, we create paper and electronic medical records about your health, our care for you, and the services and/or items we provide to you as our patient. We need this record to provide for your care and to comply with certain legal requirements.
We are required by law to:
- make sure the protected health information about you is kept private;
- provide you with a Notice of our Privacy Practices and your legal right with respect to protected health information about you; and
- follow the conditions of the Notice that is currently in effect.
HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU
The following categories describe different ways that we use and disclose protected health information that we have and share with others. Each category of uses or disclosures provides a general explanation and provides some examples of uses. Not every use or disclosure in a category is either listed or actually in place. The explanation is provided for your general information only.
Medical Treatment. We use previously given medical information about you to provide you with current or prospective medical treatment or services. Therefore we may, and most likely will, disclose medical information about you to doctors, nurses, technicians, medical students, or hospital personnel who are involved in taking care of you. For example, a doctor to whom we refer you for ongoing or further care may need your medical record. Different offices within SPEC also may share medical or optical information about you, including your record(s), prescriptions for medication, optical prescriptions, requests for additional testing or procedures. We may also discuss your medical information with you to recommend possible treatment options or alternatives that may be of interest to you. We also may disclose medical information about you to people outside SPEC who may be involved in your medical care after you leave.
Payment. We may use and disclose medical information about you for services and procedures so they may be billed and collected from you or an insurance company in order to obtain payment or reimbursement of the care. We may also release to your health plan and/or referring physician information about a treatment you are going to receive to obtain prior approval or to determine whether your plan will cover the treatment, to facilitate payment of a referring physician.
Health Care Operations. We may use and disclose medical information about you so that we can run our Practice more efficiently and make sure that all of our patients receive quality care. These issues may include reviewing our treatment and services to evaluate the performance of our staff, deciding what additional services to offer and where, deciding what services are not needed, and whether certain new treatments are effective. We may also disclose information to doctors, medical students, and other appropriate personnel for review and learning purposes. We may also combine the medical information we have with medical information from other Practices to compare how we are doing and see where we can make improvements in the care and services we offer. We may remove information that identifies you from this set of medical information so others may use it to study health care and health care delivery without learning who the specific patients are.
We may also use or disclose information about you for internal or external utilization review and/or quality assurance, to business associates for purposes of helping us to comply with our legal requirements, to auditors to verify our records, to billing companies to aid us in this process and the like. We shall endeavor, at all times when business associates are used, to advise them of their continued obligation to maintain the privacy of your medical records.
Appointment and Patient Recall Reminders. We may use and disclose medical information to contact you as a reminder that you have an appointment for medical care with one of our providers. This contact may be by phone, in writing, email, or otherwise and may involve leaving a message on an answering machine, or otherwise which could (potentially) be received or intercepted by others.
Emergency Situations. In addition, we may disclose medical information about you to an organization assisting in disaster relief effort or in an emergency situation so that your family can be notified about your condition, status and location.
Legal Medical Release. We will disclose medical information about you when required to do so by federal, state or local law.
Health Threat. We may use and disclose medical information about you when necessary to prevent a serious threat either to your specific health and safety or the health and safety of another person. Any disclosure would only be to someone able to help prevent the threat.
Workers' Compensation. We may release medical information on you in accordance with federal, state and local law for workers compensation.
Public Health Risks. Law or public policy may require us to disclose medical information about you for public health activities. These activities generally include the following:
- to prevent or control disease, injury or disability;
- to report births or deaths;
- to report child abuse or neglect;
- to report reactions to medications or problems with products;
- to notify people of recalls of products they may be using;
- to notify a person who may have been exposed to a disease or may be at risk for contracting or spreading a disease or condition;
- to notify the appropriate government authority if we believe a patient has been the victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence. We will only make this disclosure if you agree or when required or authorized by law.
Lawsuits and Disputes. If you are involved in a lawsuit or a dispute, we may disclose medical information about you in accordance with state or local law.
CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE
We reserve the right to change this notice at any time. We reserve the right to make the revised or changed notice effective for medical information we already have about you as well as any information we may receive from you in the future. We will post a copy of the current notice. The notice will be dated. In addition, each time you visit our office for treatment or health care services, you may request a copy of the current notice in effect.
COMPLAINTS
If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with SPEC or with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. You will not be penalized for filing a complaint.
OTHER MEDICAL RELEASES
If you have provided us with permission to use or disclose medical information in writing we will disclose the information accordingly.
PATIENT RIGHTS
You have the following rights regarding medical information we maintain about you:
You have the right to inspect and receive a copy of your medical information. To inspect or receive a copy, you must submit your request in writing. We have the right to charge a fee for copying, mailing and handling your request.
We may deny your request to inspect and copy in certain very limited circumstances. If you are denied access to medical information, you may request that our Compliance Committee review the denial.
If you feel that the medical information we have about you in your record is incorrect or incomplete, then you may ask us to amend the information. To request an amendment, your request must be submitted in writing, along with your intended amendment and reason that supports your request to amend. The amendment must be dated, signed by you and notarized.
We may deny your request for an amendment if the information was not created by us, is not part of the medical information kept by us or is inaccurate or incomplete.
You have a right to a paper copy of this notice. You may ask us to give you a copy of this notice at any time.
Complaints
If you believe that your privacy rights have been violated, a complaint may be made to our privacy officer at 318-221-8646 or the address below. You may also submit a complaint to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.
Contact Person
Our contact person for all questions, requests or for further information related to the privacy of the privacy of your health information is:
Beth Morgan
471 Ashley Ridge #300
Shreveport, LA 71106
Attn: Privacy Officer
Changes to this Notice
We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and to apply the revised practices to health information about you that we already have. Any revision to our privacy practices will be described in a revised Notice that will be posted prominently in our facility.
Notice Effective Date: March 1, 2003
Disclaimer
The Shreveport Eye Clinic offers on-line information and services on the Internet to benefit its members and members of the general public, as a public service. The Shreveport Eye Clinic, does not make any warranties, as to the accuracy, or completeness of material presented on this web site, by members of the Shreveport Eye Clinic, the web site designers, or anyone contributing to the web site.
Shreveport Eye Clinic, and the web site designers, are not liable, to anyone, for any errors, inaccuracies, or omissions found in any of the material associated with this web site. Shreveport Eye Clinic, and the web site designers, are not liable, to anyone, for damages or personal injury, or property injury from the use of information or ideas associated with this web site. Shreveport Eye Clinic, and the web site designers, are not liable, to anyone, for damages to the user's system, by any contaminated or infected material associated with this site.
The information published on the Shreveport Eye Clinic web site is, by no means, intended to replace consultation with an ophthalmologist. Unless specifically stated otherwise, the opinions expressed and statements made by various authors on this web site reflect the author's observations and do not imply endorsement by Shreveport Eye Clinic. Shreveport Eye Clinic does not support, endorse, or hold any responsibility for hyperlink pointers, their web site content, any of their expressed views, any services they offer or hyperlinks they mention.
Information in this publication should not be considered endorsement, promotion or in any other way encouragement for the use of any particular procedure, technique, device or product. ShreveportEyeClinic.com, its editors, the publisher or Shreveport Eye Clinic in no event will be liable for any injury and/or damages arising out of any decision made or action taken or not taken in reliance on information contained herein.
