HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices

Uses and Disclosures of Health Information

We use health information about you for treatment, to obtain payment for treatment, for administrative purposes, and to evaluate the quality of care that you receive. Continuity of care is part of treatment, and your records may be shared with other providers to whom you are referred. Information may be shared by paper mail, electronic mail, fax, or other methods.

We use or disclose identifiable health information about you without your authorization for several reasons. Subject to certain requirements, we may give out health information your authorization for public health purposes, for auditing purposes, for research studies, and for emergencies. We provide information when otherwise required by law, such as for law enforcement in specific circumstances. In any other situation, we will ask for your written authorization before using or disclosing any identifiable health information about you. If you choose to sign an authorization to disclose information, you can later revoke that authorization to stop any future uses and disclosures.

We may change our policies at any time. Before we make a significant change in our policies, we will change our notice and post the new notice in the waiting area. You can also request a copy of our notice at any time. For more information about our privacy practices, contact the person listed below.

Individual Rights

In most cases, you have the right to look at or get a copy of health information about you that we use to make decisions about you. If you request copies, we will charge you only normal photocopy fees. You also have the right to receive a list of instances where we have disclosed health information about you for reasons other than treatment, payment or related administrative purposes and other than when you explicitly authorized it. If you believe that information in your records is incorrect or if important information is missing, you have the right to request that we correct the existing information or add the missing information.

Complaints

If you are concerned that we have violated your privacy rights, or you disagree with a decision we made about access to your records, you may contact the person below. You also may send a written complaint to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The person listed below can provide you with the appropriate address upon request.

Our Legal Duty

We are required by law to protect the privacy of your information, provide this notice about our information practices, follow the information practices that are described in this notice, and obtain your acknowledgment of receipt of this notice.

This notice also applies to other health care providers that come to Veterans Memorial Hospital to care for patients, such as physicians, physician assistants, therapists, other health care providers that are not employed by the hospital, emergency service providers, medical transportation companies and medical equipment and supplies that come to veterans Memorial Hospital. These other healthcare providers may follow different practices at their own offices or facilities.

If you have questions or complaints, please contact:

Health Information Management, Tammy Jostand, Ext. 524
40 1st St. S.E., Waukon, Iowa 52172
563-568-3411