Privacy Policy
It is Ascension Rehab Care's policy that all providers and staff preserve the integrity and confidentiality of protected health information (PHI) pertaining to our patients. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that our practice and its providers and staff have the necessary medical and PHI to provide the highest quality physical therapy care possible, while protecting the confidentiality of our patients' PHI to the greatest extent possible. degree possible. Patients should be committed to provide information to our practice and its providers and staff for the purposes of treatment, payment and healthcare operations (TPO), knowing that our practice and its providers and staff:
- Comply with the rules established in the Notice of Privacy Practices.
- Collect, use and disclose PHI only in accordance with state and federal laws and current patient agreements and / or authorizations, as applicable. Our practice and its providers and staff will not use or disclose PHI for uses outside of the practice's TPO, such as marketing, employment, life insurance applications, etc. without an authorization from the patient.
- Use and disclose PHI to remind patients of appointments only with their consent.
- Recognize that PHI collected about patients must be accurate, timely, complete, and available when needed. Our practice and its providers and staff:
- Implement reasonable measures to protect the integrity of all PHI maintained about patients.
- Recognize that patients have a right to privacy. Our practice and its providers and staff respect the individual dignity of the patient at all times. Our practice and its providers and staff will respect patient privacy to the extent consistent with providing the highest quality medical care possible and with efficient facility management.
- Act as responsible stewards of information and treat all PHI as sensitive and confidential. Accordingly, our practice and its providers and staff:
- Treat all PHI data as confidential in accordance with professional ethics, accreditation standards, and legal requirements.
- They will not disclose PHI data unless the patient (or their authorized representative) has duly consented or authorized the disclosure or the disclosure is authorized by law.
- Recognize that, although our practice "owns" the medical record, the patient has the right to inspect and obtain a copy of their PHI. Additionally, patients have the right to request an amendment to their medical record if they believe their information is inaccurate or incomplete. Our practice and its providers and staff--
- Allow patients access to their medical records when their written requests are approved by our practice. If we deny their request, we must inform patients that they can request a review of our denial. In these cases, we will have a healthcare professional on site to review patient appeals.
- Provide patients the opportunity to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete PHI in their medical records in accordance with the law and professional standards.
- All providers and our office staff will maintain a list of all PHI disclosures for purposes other than TPO for each patient. We will provide this list to patients who request it, provided their requests are in writing.
- All providers and staff in our practice will adhere to any restrictions regarding the use or disclosure of PHI that patients have requested and approved by our practice.
- All providers and staff in our practice must adhere to this policy. Our practice will not tolerate violations of this policy. Violation of this policy is grounds for disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment and criminal or professional sanctions in accordance with the personnel rules and regulations of our practice.
- Our practice may change this privacy policy in the future. Any changes will take effect when a revised privacy policy is posted and will be made available to patients upon request.