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 IT CAREFULLY.
If you have any questions about this notice, please contact Bari Engelsberg Vecchio, Privacy Officer c/o Huntington Hearing & Speech Center, 44 Elm Street, Huntington, New York 11743 or at (631) 271-6263.
WHO WILL FOLLOW THIS NOTICE
This notice describes information about privacy practices followed by our employees, staff, and other office personnel. The practices described in the notice will also be followed by any business associates such as insurance claims administrators and hearing aid manufacturers etc., who conduct business with our office.
YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION
This notice applies to the information and records we have about your health, health status, and the healthcare and services you receive at this office.
We are required by law to give you this notice. It will tell you about the ways in which we may use and disclose health information about you and describes your rights and our obligations regarding the use and disclosure of that information.
HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU
We may use and disclose health information for the following purposes:
- For Treatment — We may use health information about you to provide you with medical treatment or services. We may disclose health information about you to doctors, nurses, technicians, office staff, or other personnel who are involved in taking care of you and your health.
For example, your doctor may be treating you for a heart condition and may need to know if you have other health problems that could complicate your treatment. The doctor may use your medical history to decide what treatment is best for you. The doctor may also tell another doctor about your condition so that doctor can help determine the most appropriate care for you.
Different personnel in our office may share information about you and disclose information to people who do not work in our office in order to coordinate your care, such as phoning in information about your ears or hearing loss to doctors, hearing healthcare professionals and hearing aid manufacturers. Family members and other healthcare providers may be part of your medical care outside this office and may receive information about you that we have.
- For Payment — We may use and disclose health information about you so that the treatment and services you receive at this office may be billed to, and payment may be collected from you, an insurance company, or a third party. For example, we may need to give your health plan information about a service you receive here so your health plan will pay us or reimburse you for the service. We may also tell you health plan about a treatment you are going to receive to obtain prior approval, or to determine whether your plan will cover the treatment.
- For Healthcare Operations — We may use and disclose health information about you in order to run the office and make sure that you and our other patients receive quality care. For example, we may use your health information to evaluate the performance of our staff in caring for you. We may also use health information about all or many of our patients to help us decide what additional services we should offer, how we can become more efficient, or whether certain new treatments are effective.
- Appointment Reminders — We may contact you by phone, mail or e-mail as a reminder that you have an appointment for treatment or medical care at our office.
- Treatment Alternatives — We may tell you about or recommend possible treatment options or alternatives that may be of interest to you.
- Health-Related Products and Services — We may tell you about health-related products or services that may be of interest to you. Please notify us if you do not wish to be contacted for appointment reminders, or if you do not wish to receive communication about treatment alternatives or health-related products and services. If you advise us in writing that you do not wish to receive such communications, we will not use or disclose your information for these purposes.
