Notice of Privacy Practices
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW CAREFULLY.
The Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) is a federal program that requires that all medical records and other individually identifiable health information used or disclosed by us in any form, whether electronically, on paper, or orally, are kept properly confidential. This Act gives you, the patient, significant new rights to understand and control how your 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 your health information and how we may use and disclose your health information.
We may use and disclose your medical records only for each of the following purposes: treatment, payment and health care operations.
- Treatment means providing, coordinating, or managing health care and related services by one or more health care providers.
- Payment means such activities as obtaining reimbursement for services, confirming coverage, billing or collection activities, and utilization review. An example of this would be sending a bill for your visit to your insurance company for payment.
- 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 client service. An example would be an internal quality assessment review.
We may also create and distribute de-identified health information by removing all references to individually identifiable information.
INFORMATION COLLECTED
We collect personal information from you through the HealthQuest Program only when it is specifically and knowingly provided by you.
To be a member of HealthQuest, you must provide your name, mailing address, telephone number, fax number (if applicable), e-mail address (if applicable), and year of birth. This information is required in the HealthQuest registration process, but we recognize that this is your personal information and we do not give it out to third parties. Additional demographic information, such as your occupation, level of education, and special interests, may also collected in an "optional information" area of surveys. In this section, you are not required to provide additional information about yourself that you may find personal. We do this to learn more about you in tailoring HealthQuest for your needs and preferences. We will collect your phone number and mailing address for purposes of contacting you for any HealthQuest-related matter and to mail information that you requested if you do not have a fax or email address. This information will not be used for any other purpose. At any time you may later review or update the personal information we have collected online from you by logging on with your PIN and then going to the "My Profile" tab.
INFORMATION COLLECTED FROM E-MAILS AND ON-LINE FORMS
In those instances where our web pages allow you to send us an email, we will use the information you provide to respond to your inquiry on a secured web site.
We may use or disclose protected health information to carry out treatment, payment, or health care operations in the following circumstances:
- In emergency treatment situations.
- If we are required by law to treat you; or
- We may contact you to provide appointment reminders or information about treatment alternatives or other healthrelated benefits and services that may be of interest you.
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 the following rights with respect to your protected health information, which you can exercise by presenting a written request to the Privacy Officer:
- 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 reasonable requests to receive confidential communications of protected health information from us by alternative means or at alternative locations.
- The right to inspect and copy your protected health information.
- The right to amend your protected health information.
- The right to receive an accounting of disclosures of protected health information.
- The right to obtain a paper copy of this notice from us upon request.
We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your protected health information and to provide you with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to protected health information.
This notice is effective as of August 24, 2005, and 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. We will post and you may request a written copy of a revised Notice of Privacy Practices from this office.
SECURITY: DETECTION OF UNAUTHORIZED INTRUSIONS
For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, our computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits other than those uses identified in this policy. Intentional misuse of secure information will be investigated and may result in federal prosecution.
SECURITY: SECURED DATA TRANSMISSIONS
In those instances where we secure your information in transit to us and upon receipt in order to safeguard your personal information, Engage Health, Inc. uses the industry standard encryption software, Secured Socket Layer (SSL). The URL in your browser will change to “HTTPS” instead of “HTTP” when this security feature is invoked. Your browser may also display a lock symbol on its bottom task bar line to indicate invoked secure transmission.
ACCESS BY THIRD PARTIES
Engage Health, Inc. enters into relationships with service providers in order to provide the highest quality product or service. Service providers may include an entity that provides assistance for the program, such as a call center or a partner for the program. Where Engage Health, Inc. has partnered with such an entity, we will indicate that partnership to you using such words as “Powered by…” Engage Health, Inc. holds service providers to the same rigorous standards of privacy that apply to Mind-Peace. Inc., including being made subject to the Privacy Act, as applicable, and Engage Health, Inc. privacy policies. Service providers that have access to sensitive information are also subject to security review.
INQUIRIES
We would like to hear from you if you have any questions or complaints regarding our privacy policy or use of your data.
Engage Health, LLC
250 East Broad Street, 21st Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
Toll Free: (866) 263-5438
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Office of Civil Rights
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201
Direct: (202) 619-0257
Toll Free: (877) 696-6775