Notice of Privacy Practices
LifeMed, Inc. (“LifeMed”) is required by law to maintain the
privacy of certain confidential health care information, known as
Protected Health Information or PHI, and to provide you with a
notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to
your PHI. LifeMed is also required to abide by the terms of the
version of this Notice currently in effect.
Uses and Disclosures of PHI: LifeMed may use PHI for
the purposes of treatment, payment and health care operations, in
most cases without your written permission. Examples of our use of
your PHI:
For Treatment: This includes such things as obtaining
verbal and written information about your medical condition and
treatment from you as well as from others, such as doctors and
nurses who give orders to allow us to provide treatment to you. We
may give your PHI to other health care providers involved in your
treatment, and may transfer your PHI via radio or telephone to the
hospital or dispatch center.
For Payment: This includes any activities we must undertake
in order to get reimbursed for the services we provide to you,
including such things as submitting bills to insurance companies,
making medical necessity determinations and collecting outstanding
accounts.
For health care operations: This includes quality assurance
activities, licensing and training programs to ensure that our
personnel meet our standards of care and follow established
policies and procedures, as well as certain other management
functions.
Reminders for Scheduled Transports and Information on Other
Services: We may also contact you to provide you with a
reminder of any scheduled appointments for non-emergency ambulance
and medical transportation, or to provide information about other
services we provide.
Use and Disclosure of PHI Without Your Authorization:
LifeMed is permitted to use PHI without your written
authorization, or opportunity to object, in certain situations,
and unless prohibited by a more stringent state law, including:
For the treatment, payment or health care operations of another
health care provider who treats you; for health care and legal
compliance activities; to a family member, other relative, or
close personal friend or other individual involved in your care if
we obtain your verbal agreement to do so or if we give you an
opportunity to object to such a disclosure and you do not raise an
objection, and in certain other circumstances where we are unable
to obtain your agreement and believe the disclosure is in you best
interest; to a public health authority in certain situations as
required by law (such as to report abuse, neglect or domestic
violence); for health oversight activities including audits or
government investigations, inspections, disciplinary proceedings,
and other administrative or judicial actions undertaken by the
government (or their contractors) by law to oversee the health
care system; for judicial and administrative proceedings as
required by a court or administrat ive order, or in some cases in
response to a subpoena or other legal process; for law enforcement
activities in limited situations, such as when responding to a
warrant; for military, national defense and security and other
special government functions; to avert a serious threat to the
health and safety of a person or the public at large; for workers’
compensation purposes, and in compliance with workers’
compensation laws; to coroners, medical examiners and funeral
directors for identifying a deceased person, determining cause of
death, or carrying on their duties as authorized by law; if you
are an organ donor, we may release health information to
organizations that handle organ procurement or organ, eye or
tissue transplantation or to an organ donation bank, as necessary
to facilitate organ donation and transplantation; for research
projects, but this will be subject to strict oversight and
approvals; and we may use or disclose health information about you
in a way that does not personally identify you or reveal who you
are.
Any other use or disclosure of PHI, other than those listed
above will only be made with you written authorization. You may
revoke your authorization at any time, in writing, except to the
extent that we have already used or disclosed medical information
in reliance on that authorization.
Patient Rights: As a patient, you have a number of
rights with respect to your PHI, including:
The right to access, copy or inspect your PHI: This means
that you may inspect and copy most of the medical information
about you that we maintain. We will normally provide you with
access to this information within 30 days of your request. We may
also charge you a reasonable fee for you to copy any medical
information that you have the right to access. In limited
circumstances, we may deny you access to your medical information,
and you may appeal certain types of denials. We have available
forms to request access to your PHI and we will provide a written
response if we deny you access and let you know your appeal
rights. You also have the right to receive confidential
communications of your PHI. If you wish to inspect and copy your
medical information you should contact our privacy officer.
The right to amend your PHI: You have the right to ask us
to amend written medical information that we may have about you.
We will generally amend your information within 60 days of your
request and will notify you when we have amended the information.
We are permitted by law to deny your request to amend your medical
information only in certain circumstances, like when we believe
the information you have asked us to amend is correct. If you wish
to ask us to amend the medical information that we have about you,
you should contact our privacy officer.
The right to request an accounting: You may request an
accounting from us of certain disclosures of your medical
information that we have made in the six years prior to the date
of your request. We are not required to give you an accounting of
information we have used or disclosed for purposes of treatment,
payment or health care operations, or when we share your health
information with our business associates, like our billing company
or a medical facility from/to which we have transported you. We
are also not required to give you an accounting of our uses of
protected health information for which you have already given us
written authorization. If you wish to request an accounting,
contact our privacy officer.
The right to request that we restrict the uses and disclosures
of your PHI: You have the right to request that we restrict
how we use and disclose your medical information that we have
about you. LifeMed is not required to agree to any restrictions
you request, but any restrictions agreed to by LifeMed in writing
are binding on LifeMed.
Internet, electronic mail, and the Right to Obtain Copy of
Paper Notice on Request: If we maintain a web site, we will
prominently post a copy of this Notice on our web site. If you
allow us, we will forward you this Notice by electronic mail
instead of on paper and you may always request a paper copy of
this Notice.
Revisions to the Notice: LifeMed reserves the right to
change the terms of this Notice at any time, and the changes will
be effective immediately and will apply to all protected health
information that we maintain. Any material changes to the Notice
will be promptly posted in our facilities and posted to our web
site, if we maintain one. You can get a copy of the latest version
of this Notice by contacting our privacy officer.
Your Legal Rights and Complaints: You also have the right
to complain to us, or to the Secretary of the United States
Department of Health and Human Services if you believe your
privacy rights have been violated. You will not be retaliated
against in any way for filing a complaint with us or or to the
government. Should you have any questions, comments or complaints
you may direct all inquiries to our privacy officer.
LifeMed, Inc.
P.O. Box 323
