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,” at your first office visit we will provide you with a written 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. An example of this would include a physical examination.
- 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 customer service. An example would be an internal quality assessment review.