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Privacy Practices

NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED, DISCLOSED, AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION.
PLEASE REVIEW THIS NOTICE CAREFULLY.

WHAT IS A NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES?
Your health record contains personal information about you and your health. We are required by law to tell you how your health information may be used.
This notice tells you:
How we may use and disclose your information;
Your rights regarding protected health information.

OUR RESPONSIBILITIES
Information about you that may identify you and that relates to past, present or future physical or mental health or condition and related health care services is referred to as Protected Heath Information (“PHI”). We will only release your health information as allowed by law or with special permission from you. We will use and disclose the minimum amount of health information necessary to do our work.

We are required to abide by the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices. We reserve the right to change the terms of our Notice of Privacy Practices at any time. Any New Notice of Privacy Practices will be effective for all PHI that we maintain at that time. We will provide you with a copy on our website, sending a copy to you in the mail upon request or providing one to you at your next appointment.

HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION
OCOK must use and release some of your health information to conduct its business. The following sections list the types of disclosures that can be made:
Without your authorization;
Only with your written authorization.

1) WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION

We may use your health information without authorization as follows:

For Treatment.
Your PHI may be used and disclosed by those who are involved in your care for the purpose of providing, coordination, or managing your health care treatment and related services. This includes coordination with other health care providers or other individuals who are involved in your treatment.

For Payment.
We may use and disclose PHI so that we can receive or provide payment for the treatment services provided to you. Examples of payment-related activities are making a determination of eligibility or coverage for insurance benefits, processing claims with your insurance company, reviewing services provided to you to determine medical necessity, or undertaking utilization review activities. If it becomes necessary to use collection processes due to lack of payment for services, we will only disclose the minimum amount of PHI necessary for purposes of collection.

For Health Care Operations.
We may use or disclose, as needed, your PHI in order to support our business activities including, but not limited to:

  • Quality assessment and improvement activities;
  • Employee review activities;
  • Licensing, accreditation, certification and credentialing;
  • Training students and other practitioners as part of their educational activities at OCOK; Conducting or arranging for other business activities including business planning, audits, computer systems maintenance, legal services and customer services (for example, we may share your PHI with third parties that perform various business activities, such as billing or typing services), provided we have a written contract with the business that requires it to safeguard the privacy of your PHI;
  • Advising you about disease prevention and health care options, and reminding you of recommended services, treatments or scheduled appointments;
    Certain fundraising activities.


As Required by Law
. Under the law, we must make disclosures of your PHI to you upon your request. We must also make disclosures to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for the purpose of investigating or other authorities for law enforcement purposes, including reporting suspected child or adult abuse, neglect, or exploitation; for reporting domestic violence or certain physical injuries; or for responding to a court order, subpoena, warrant, or lawsuit requests.

Other Purposes. Your PHI may also be disclosed without your authorization as follows:

  • For public health activities;
  • For health oversight activities, such as monitoring, investigation, inspecting, disciplining or licensing those who work in the health-care system, or for governmental benefit programs;
  • In certain situations related to death;
  • To avoid a serious threat to health or safety;
  • For national security or other specialized government functions;
  • In emergency situations;
  • To comply with laws related to workers’ compensation or other similar programs that provide benefits for work-related injuries or illness;
  • For research purposes through a special approval process which may include asking for your authorization.

PHI that is disclosed under “Other purposes” is often de-identified.

2) WITH WRITTEN AUTHORIZATION
Except for the types of situations listed above, we must obtain your authorization for any other types of releases of your health information. If you provide us authorization to use or release health information about you, you may revoke that authorization in writing at any time. You may receive more information about this by contacting OCOK Privacy Officer.