ADDUS HEALTHCARE, INC.
NOTICE OF PRIVACY
PRACTICES EFFECTIVE JUNE 23, 2021
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.
Addus HealthCare, Inc. and its
affiliates listed at the end of this Notice (collectively, “Addus,” “the
Company” or “we”) are committed to
maintaining the confidentiality of all medical information they receive. The
purpose of this notice is to inform
you of how Addus may use and disclose your medical information, called
Protected Health Information or
“PHI,” and to describe your rights with respect to PHI. Addus is required by
law to maintain the privacy of PHI,
to provide you and other individuals with notice of Addus’ legal duties and
privacy practices with respect to
PHI and to notify affected individuals following a breach of unsecured PHI.
Addus will abide by the terms set
forth in this Notice. Your PHI may be stored electronically and may be
disclosed electronically.
HOW WE USE OR DISCLOSE YOUR PHI
- Treatment – The Company may use and disclose PHI about you to provide you with
home health, hospice, palliative care,
and/or home care services
and treatment. For example, information may be shared
with members of our staff, your doctors, or health
care facilities. We may also contact you about other health related benefits, services
or treatments that may be available to you.
- Payment – The Company may use and disclose PHI for payment purposes. For
example, The Company may disclose
your PHI to obtain prior approval from an insurer before providing services to
you and to bill and collect payment for the services we provided
to you.
- Health Care Operations – The Company may use or disclose your PHI for our
health care operations. For example,
the Company may use your PHI for quality improvement, staff evaluation, or
other operational purposes. Your name
and address may be used to send out satisfaction surveys, or we may call you to
remind you that our staff will be
visiting you. We have business associates such as accountants, consultants and attorneys that provide some services for
us. We have a written contract with them that requires them to protect the privacy of your
PHI.
- Individuals Involved in Your Care – Unless you object, the Company may disclose
PHI about you to a family member,
other relative, close friend or any other person identified by you if they are
involved in your care or payments
related to your care. We may disclose PHI about you if they need to be notified
of your location, general
condition or death. If you are not present, you are incapacitated or there is an emergency, we may determine
that it is in your best interest for us to disclose PHI that is directly
relevant to a person’s involvement with your
care.
- As Required by Law– The Company may use and disclose PHI about you as required by law.
For example, we are required to
disclose information about you to the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services if it requests the information to determine how we are complying
with federal privacy law.
- Public Health Activities– The Company may use and disclose PHI about you for
public health activities, including the collection of vital statistics, preventing disease and helping with product recalls.
- Abuse, Neglect or Domestic Violence– The Company may disclose PHI to appropriate
agencies if we believe a service recipient
has been the victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence. The Company will
only make this disclosure if you agree or when
we are required or authorized
to do so by law.
- Health Oversight Activities– The Company may disclose PHI to a health oversight
agency for activities authorized by law. These oversight activities include audits, investigations,
inspections, and licensure.
- Lawsuits and Disputes– The Company may disclose PHI about you in response
to a court or administrative order.
The Company may also disclose PHI about you in response to a subpoena,
discovery request, or other lawful
process, but only if reasonable efforts have been made to tell you about the
request or to obtain an order protecting the information
requested.
- Law Enforcement– The Company may disclose PHI to law enforcement for certain law enforcement purposes.
- National Security and Intelligence Activities– The Company may disclose
PHI about you to authorized federal officials
for intelligence, counterintelligence, presidential protective services and other national
security activities
authorized by law. If you are a member of the armed forces, we may disclose
information as required by military
command authorities
- Inmates– If you are an inmate of a correctional institution or under the
custody of a law enforcement official,
the Company may release PHI about you to the correctional institution or law enforcement
official.
- Deaths and Organ Donation– The Company may disclose PHI regarding deaths to
coroners, medical examiners and funeral directors. The Company
may use and disclose PHI to
entities involved in procuring, banking and
transplanting organs, eyes and
tissues to assist with donation or transplantation.
- Serious Threat to Health and Safety– The Company may use and disclose PHI when
necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or
the health and safety of the
public or another person.
- Research– The Company may use and disclose PHI for research purposes if you
authorize us to do so or if an institutional review board (IRB)
has waived the authorization requirement. We may also review
your health information to
assist in the preparation of a research
study.
- Workers’ Compensation– The Company may disclose PHI about you for
Workers’ Compensation or similar programs providing benefits for work-related
injuries or illness as required by state law.
USES OR DISCLOSURES THAT REQUIRE YOUR AUTHORIZATION
Other uses and disclosures of
PHI that are not listed above will be made only with your written
authorization, which you may revoke
at any time by notifying our Privacy Officer in writing. If you revoke your
authorization, the Company will no
longer use or disclose PHI about you for
the reasons covered by your written authorization. You
understand that we are unable to take back any disclosures we have already made
with your authorization, and that we
are required to retain our records of the care that we provided to you. Subject
to compliance with limited
exceptions, we will not use or disclose psychotherapy notes, use or disclose
your PHI for marketing purposes, or sell your PHI, unless you have signed an authorization.
YOUR RIGHTS
You have the following rights with respect to your
PHI:
Right to Request Restrictions – You have the right to ask us not to
use/disclose your PHI for a particular reason
related to treatment, payment or our operations. You may ask that family
members or other individuals not be
informed of specific PHI. Requests must be made in writing to our Privacy
Officer. We do not have to agree to
your request, unless the disclosure is to a health plan for a payment or health
care operations purpose and is not
otherwise required by law, and the PHI relates solely to a health care item or
service for which we have been paid
out-of-pocket in full. If we agree to your request, we must keep the agreement,
except in the case of a medical emergency. Either you or the
Company can stop a restriction at any time.
Right to
Receive Confidential Communications– You have the right to ask that we communicate with
you by alternative means or at an
alternative location. A request
for confidential communications must be made
in
writing to our Privacy Officer and
must state how or when you would like to be contacted. We must agree with the request
if it is reasonable.
Right to Inspect and Copy Your PHI – You have the right to request,
inspect, and obtain a copy of your PHI or
to direct us to send a copy of your PHI to another person designated by you.
You must submit a request in writing
to our Privacy Officer. We may charge a reasonable fee for the costs of copying,
summarizing and/or mailing
information to you. In most cases we
will provide this access to you, or the person you designate, within 30 days of your request.
We may deny your request
under certain limited
circumstances, and we will let you know in writing, if your request is denied. You may be able
to request a review of our denial.
Right to Request Amendments to Your PHI – You have the right to
request that we correct your PHI. You must
submit your request for an amendment in writing to our Privacy Officer, if you
believe that any PHI in your record
is incorrect or that important information is missing. We do not have to agree
to your request. If we deny your
request, we will tell you why within 60 days of receiving your request. You
have the right to submit a statement
disagreeing with our decision. We may deny a request if we determine that the
information: (1) Was not created by
us, unless you provide a reasonable basis to believe that the originator of the
PHI is no longer available to act on
the requested amendment; (2) Is not part of the medical information that we
maintain about you; (3) Is in records
that you are not allowed to inspect and copy; or (4) Is already accurate and complete.
Right To An Accounting of Disclosures of Health Information – You
have a right to an accounting (a list) of disclosures
we have made of your PHI for the six (6) years prior to your request. We are
not required to include disclosures
for treatment, payment or health care operations or certain other exceptions
(such as disclosures you authorize).
You are entitled to one free accounting in any twelve (12) month period and
must submit a written request to our
Privacy Officer. We may charge you for the reasonable cost of providing
additional accountings. We will notify you in advance if
there is an additional charge.
Right To Obtain a Copy of
the Notice –
You have the right to request and get a paper copy of this notice, even if you have agreed to receive the notice electronically.
If you have given another
individual a medical power of attorney, or if another individual is appointed
as your legal guardian or is
authorized by law to act on your behalf, that individual may exercise any of
the rights listed above for you.
We will confirm this individual has the authority to act
on your behalf before we take any
action.
CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE
The Company is required to
abide by the terms of our notices that are currently in effect. Addus reserves
the right to change this notice. The
Company reserves the right to make the revised or changed notice effective for PHI we already have about you as well as
any information we receive in the future. If
we change our notice, the Company
will provide a copy of the revised notice to you upon request. The Company will
post a copy of the current notice
on our website and have
it on file at our offices.
COMPLAINTS
If you believe that your
privacy rights have been violated, you may contact our Privacy Officer at Addus HealthCare, Inc. directly or the Secretary
of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. You will not be retaliated against for reporting a violation of your privacy rights.
CONTACT PERSON
If you have any questions,
want more information, or wish
to file a complaint with us,
please contact by phone,
or by mail:
Addus Privacy
Officer Addus HealthCare, Inc.
6303 Cowboys Way Suite 600, Frisco, TX 75034
Tel: 469.535.8200
AFFILIATES
Please note that this list may be periodically updated to reflect
additional entities we acquire.
- Addus HomeCare
- A-Plus HealthCare
- Alamo Hospice
- Alamo Hospice of Conroe
- Alamo Hospice of Waco
- Alamo Supportive Care
- Ambercare
- Arcadia Home Care and
Staffing
- Capital City Hospice
- Day City Hospice
- Harrison’s Hope Hospice
- Harrison’s Hope Twin Falls
- Hospice of Virginia
- House Calls of
New Mexico
- LifeStyle Options
- Miracle City Hospice
- Queen City Hospice
- Serenity Hospice
- Serenity Supportive Care