Privacy Statement
Westmoreland Community Action, Inc.
226 South Maple Avenue
Greensburg, PA 15601
(724) 834-1260
NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
This Notice describes how health information about you may be
used and disclosed and how you can get access to this
information. Please review it carefully.
We have a legal duty to safeguard your protected health
information. We will protect the privacy of the
health information that we maintain that identifies you, whether
it deals with the provision of health care to you or the payment
for health care. We must provide you with this Notice
about our privacy practices. It explains how, when and why
we may use and disclose your health information. With some
exceptions, we will avoid using or disclosing any more of your
health information than is necessary to accomplish the purpose
of the use or disclosure. We are legally required to
follow the privacy practices that are described in this Notice,
which is currently in effect.
However, we reserve the right to change the terms of this Notice
and our privacy practices at any time. Any changes will
apply to any of your health information that we already have.
Before we make an important change to our policies, we will
promptly change this Notice and post a new Notice in our
reception area. You may also request, at any time, a copy
of our Notice of Privacy Practices that is in effect at any
given time, from the Human Resources department. You may
view and obtain an electronic copy of this Notice on our web
site at
www.WestmorelandCA.org.
We would like to take this opportunity to answer some common
questions concerning our privacy practices:
Question: How Will this Organization Use and
Disclose My Protected Health Information?
Answer: We use and disclose health
information for many different reasons. For some of these
uses or disclosures, we need your specific authorization.
Below, we describe the different categories of our uses and
disclosures and give you some examples of each.
A. Uses and Disclosures Relating to
Treatment, Payment or Healthcare Operations. We
may, by federal law, use and disclose your health information
for the following reasons:
1. For Treatment: With
the possible exception of information concerning mental health
disorders and/or treatment, drug and alcohol abuse and/or
treatment, and HIV status (for which we may need your specific
authorization), we may disclose your general health information
to other health care providers who are involved in your care.
For example, we may disclose your medical history to a hospital
if you need medical attention while at our facility, or we may
disclose information to another treatment provider who we are
referring you to for continuity of care.
2. To Obtain Payment for Treatment: With
the possible exception of information concerning mental health
disorders and/or treatment, drug and alcohol abuse and/or
treatment, and HIV status (for which we may need your specific
authorization), we may use and disclose necessary health
information in order to bill and collect payment for the
treatment that we have provided to you. For example, we
may provide certain portions of your health information to
Medicaid, or a Heath Choices provider in order to get paid for
taking care of you.
3. For Health Care Operations: We may, at
times, need to use and disclose your health information to run
our organization. For example, we may use your health
information to evaluate the quality of the treatment that our
staff has provided to you. We may also need to provide
some of your health information to our accountants, attorneys
and consultants in order to make sure that we’re complying with
law; if this information concerns mental health disorders and/or
treatment, drug and alcohol abuse and/or treatment, and/or HIV
status, we may be further limited in what we provide and may be
required to first obtain from you specific authorization.
B. Certain Other Uses and Disclosures
are Permitted by Federal Law. We may use and
disclose your health information without your authorization for
the following reasons:
1. When a Disclosure is Required by
Federal, State or Local Law, in Judicial or Administrative
Proceedings or by Law Enforcement. For example,
we may disclose your protected health information if we are
ordered by a court, or if a law requires that we report that
sort of information to a government agency or law enforcement
authorities, such as in the case of suspected child abuse for
which this agency is a mandated reporter.
2. For Public Health Activities. Under
the law, we need to report information about certain diseases,
and about any deaths, to government agencies that collect that
information. With the possible exception of information
concerning mental health disorders and/or treatment, drug and
alcohol abuse and/or treatment, and HIV status (for which we may
need your specific authorization), we are also permitted to
provide some health information to the coroner or a funeral
director, if necessary, after a client’s death or if someone is
an organ donor.
3. For Health Oversight Activities. For
example, we will need to provide your health information if
requested to do so by the County and/or the State when they
oversee the program in which you receive care. We will
also need to provide information to government agencies that
have the right to inspect our offices and/or investigate
healthcare practices.
4. To Avoid Harm. If one of our staff
believes that it is necessary to protect you, or to protect
another person or the public as a whole, we may provide
protected health information to the police or others who may be
able to prevent or lessen the possible harm. For example, we may
give enough information to a treatment provider for involuntary
mental health treatment if one of our clients informs the staff
of intention to harm himself or someone else.
5. For Specific Government Functions.
With the possible exception of information concerning mental
health disorders and/or treatment, drug and alcohol abuse and/or
treatment, and HIV status (for which we may need your specific
authorization), we may disclose the health information of
military personnel or veterans where required by U.S. military
authorities. Similarly, we may also disclose a client’s
health information for national security purposes, such as
assisting in the investigation of suspected terrorists who may
be a threat to our nation.
6. For Workers’ Compensation. We may
provide your health information as described under the workers’
compensation law, if your condition was the result of a
workplace injury for which you are seeking workers’
compensation.
7. Appointment Reminders and Health-Related Benefits or
Services. With the exception of those clients in
our mental health programs we may leave messages to remind you
about medical appointments unless you inform us otherwise.
C. Certain Uses and Disclosures
Require You to Have the Opportunity to Object.
1. Disclosures to Notify a Family
Member, Friend or Other Selected Person. When you
first started in our program, we asked that you provide us with
an emergency contact person in case something should happen to
you while you are at our facilities. Unless you tell us
otherwise, we will disclose certain limited health information
about you (your general condition, location, etc.) to your
emergency contact or another available family member, should you
need to be admitted to the hospital, for example. (This
information may not contain information about mental health
disorders and/or treatment, drug and alcohol abuse and/or
treatment, and HIV status, without your specific authorization.)
D. Other Uses and Disclosures Require
Your Prior Written Authorization. In situations
other than those categories of uses and disclosures mentioned
above, or those disclosures permitted under federal law, we will
ask for your written authorization before using or disclosing
any of your protected health information. In addition, we
need to ask for your specific written authorization to disclose
information concerning your mental health, drug and alcohol
abuse and/or treatment, or to disclose your HIV status.
If you choose to sign an authorization to disclose any of your
health information, you can later revoke it to stop further uses
and disclosures to the extent that we haven’t already taken
action relying on the authorization, so long as it is revoked in
writing.
Question: What Rights Do I Have Concerning My
Protected Health Information?
Answer: You have the following rights
with respect to your protected health information:
A. The Right to Request Limits on Uses
and Disclosures of Your Health Information. You
have the right to ask us to limit how we use and disclose your
health information. We will certainly consider your
request, but you should know that we are not required to agree
to it. If we do agree to your request, we will put the
limits in writing and will abide by them, except in the case of
an emergency. Please note that you are not permitted to
limit the uses and disclosures that we are required or allowed
by law to make.
B. The Right to Choose How We Send Health Information to
You or How We Contact You. You have the right to
ask that we contact you at an alternate address or telephone
number (for example, sending information to your work address
instead of your home address) or by alternate means (for
example, by [e-mail/mail] instead of telephone). We must
agree to your request so long as we can easily do so.
C. The Right to See or to Get a Copy of Your Protected
Health Information. In most cases, you have the
right to look at or get a copy of your health information that
we have, but you must make the request in writing. A
request form for this purpose can be obtained by asking your
casemanager. We will respond to you within 30 days after
receiving your written request. If we do not have the
health information that you are requesting, but we know who
does, we will tell you how to get it. In certain
situations, we may deny your request. If we do, we will
tell you, in writing, our reasons for the denial. In
certain circumstances, you may have a right to appeal the
decision.
If you request a copy of any portion of your protected health
information, we will charge you for the copy on a per page
basis, only as allowed under Pennsylvania state law. We
need to require that payment be made in full before we will
provide the copy to you. If you agree in advance, we may
be able to provide you with a summary or an explanation of your
records instead. There will be a charge for the
preparation of the summary or explanation.
D. The Right to Receive a List of Certain Disclosures of
Your Health Information That We Have Made. You
have the right to get a list of certain types of disclosures
that we have made of your health information. This list
would not include uses or disclosures for treatment, payment or
healthcare operations, disclosures to you or with your written
authorization, or disclosures to your family for notification
purposes or due to their involvement in your care. This
list also would not include any disclosures made for national
security purposes, disclosures to corrections or law enforcement
authorities if you were in custody at the time, or disclosures
made prior to April 14, 2003. You may not request an
accounting for more than a six (6) year period.
To make such a request, we require that you do so in writing; a
request form is available upon asking your case manager.
We will respond to you within 60 days of receiving your request.
The list that you may receive will include the date of the
disclosure, the person or organization that received the
information (with their address, if available), a brief
description of the information disclosed, and a brief reason for
the disclosure. We will provide such a list to you at no
charge; but, if you make more than one request in the same
calendar year, you will be charged $50.00 for each additional
request that year.
E. The Right to Ask to Correct or Update Your Health
Information. If you believe that there is a
mistake in your health information or that a piece of important
information is missing, you have a right to ask that we make an
appropriate change to your information. You must make the
request in writing, with the reason for your request, on a
request form that is available by asking your casemanager.
We will respond within 60 days of receiving your request.
If we approve your request, we will make the change to your
health information, tell you when we have done so, and will tell
others that need to know about the change.
We may deny your request if the protected health information:
(1) is correct and complete; (2) was not created by us; (3) is
not allowed to be disclosed to you; or (4) is not part of our
records. Our written denial will state the reasons that
your request was denied and explain your right to file a written
statement of disagreement with the denial. If you do not
wish to do so, you may ask that we include a copy of your
request form, and our denial form, with all future disclosures
of that health information.
Question: How Do I Complain or Ask Questions
About This organization’s Privacy Practices?
Answer: If you have any questions about
anything discussed in this Notice or about any of our privacy
practices, or if you have any concerns or complaints, please
discuss this with your casemanager. If you do not receive
satisfaction please call the main number 724-834-1260 extension
“0” for the operator who will direct your call to the
appropriate person. Calls concerning mental health
information should be directed to 724-547-2535.
You also have the right to file a written complaint with the
Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
We may not take any retaliatory action against you if you lodge
any type of complaint.
Question: When Does This Notice Take Effect?
Answer: This Notice takes effect on April
14, 2003.
The Notice of Privacy Practices is posted at the following
locations:
Westmoreland Community Action, Inc. (Main Office)
226 S. Maple Avenue
Greensburg, PA 15601
119 Westmoreland Avenue
Greensburg, PA 15601
515 S. Church St.
Mt. Pleasant, PA 15666
604 S. Church St.
Mt. Pleasant, PA 15666
And all Head Start Centers (a list of the Head Start Centers can
be obtained by calling the main office)
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