THIS PRIVACY POLICY DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. IT ALSO COVERS FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES THAT WE FOLLOW REGARDING USE OF THE WEBSITE.
PLEASE REVIEW THIS CAREFULLY.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal program that requires that all medical and dental 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 Protected Health Information (PHI).
This Notice of Privacy Practices describes how Mountain Lakes Physicians Group may use and disclose your Protected Health Information (PHI) to carry out treatment, payment or health care operations (TPO) and for other purposes that are permitted or required by law. It also describes your rights to access and control your protected health information. “Protected health information” is information about you, including demographic information, that may identify you and that relates to your past, present or future physical or mental health or condition-related health care services.
Uses and Disclosures of Protected Health Information
Your Protected Health Information may be used and disclosed by your physician, our office staff and others outside of our office that are involved in your care and treatment for the purpose of providing health care services to you, to pay your health care bills, to support the operation of the practice, and any other use required by law.
Treatment: We will use and disclose your Protected Health Information to provide, coordinate, or manage your health care and any related services. This includes the coordination or management of your health care with a third party. For example, your protected health information may be provided to a physician to whom you have been referred to ensure that the health care professional has the necessary information to diagnose or treat you.
Payment: Your protected health information will be used, as needed, to obtain payment for health care services. For example, obtaining approval for a hospital stay may require that your relevant protected health information be disclosed within the health plan to obtain approval for the hospital admission.
Healthcare Operations: We may use or disclose, as-needed, your protected health information in order to support the business activities of your physician’s practice. These activities include, but are not limited to, quality assessment activities, employee review activities, and conducting or arranging for other business activities. We may use or disclose, as needed, your protected health information to support the business activities of this practice. In addition, we may use a sign-in sheet at the registration desk where you will be asked to sign your name and indicate your physician. We may also call you by name in the waiting room when your physician is ready to see you. We may use or disclose your protected health information, as necessary, to contact you to remind you of your appointment. We may call your home and leave a message (either on an answering machine or with the person answering the phone) to remind you of an upcoming appointment, the need to schedule a new appointment or to call our office. We may also mail a postcard reminder to your home address. If you would prefer that we call or contact you at another telephone number or location, please let us know.
Mountain Lakes Physicians Group may use or disclose your protected health information in the following situations without your authorization. These situations include: as Required By Law, Public Health issues required by law, Communicable Diseases: Health Oversight: Abuse or Neglect: Food and Drug Administration requirements: Legal Proceedings: Law Enforcement: Coroners, Funeral Directors, and Organ Donation: Research: Criminal Activity: Military Activity and National Security: Workers’ Compensation: Inmates: Required Uses and Disclosures: Under the law, we must make disclosures to you and when required by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate or determine our compliance with the requirements of HIPAA.
Other Permitted and Required Uses and Disclosures Will Be Made Only With Your Consent, Authorization or Opportunity to Object unless required by law.
You may revoke this authorization, at any time, in writing, except to the extent that your physician or the physician’s practice has taken an action in reliance on the use or disclosure indicated in the authorization.
Your Rights
The Following is a statement of your rights with respect to your protected health information:
You have the right to inspect and copy your protected health information. Under federal law, however, you may not inspect or copy the following records; psychotherapy notes; information compiled in reasonable anticipation of, or use in, a civil, criminal, or administrative action or proceeding, and protected health information that is subject to law that prohibits access to protected health information.
You have the right to request a restriction of your health information. This means you may ask us not to use or disclose any part of your protected health information for the purposes of treatment, payment or healthcare operations. You may also request that any part of your protected health information not be disclosed to family members or friends who may be involved in your care or for notification purposes described in this Notice of Privacy Practices. Your request must state the specific restriction and to whom you want the restriction to apply.
Your physician is not required to agree to a restriction you may request. If your physician believes it is in your best interest to permit use and disclosure of your protected health information, your protected health information will not be restricted. You then have the right to use another Healthcare Professional.
You have the right to request to receive confidential communications from us by alternative means or at an alternative location. You have the right to obtain a paper copy of this Notice from us, upon request, even if you have agreed to accept this Notice alternatively (i.e. electronically).
You may have the right to have your physician amend your protected health information. If we deny your request for amendment, you have the right to file a statement of disagreement with us and we may prepare a rebuttal to your statement and will provide you with a copy of any such rebuttal.
You have the right to receive an accounting of certain disclosures we have made, if any, of your protected health information.
We reserve the right to change the terms of this Notice and will inform you of any changes. You then have the right to object or withdraw as provided in this Notice.
Complaints
We believe that open communication is the key to any healthy relationship. We take complaints and satisfaction notifications with high regard. You may submit complaints to us via email or via contact information or through any communication channel listed on the Contact Us page of our website. If you believe your privacy rights have been violated by us, you can also contact the Secretary of Health and Human Services. You may file a complaint with us by notifying our privacy officer of your complaint at our office. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.
Website Data Policies
We don’t ask you for personal information unless we truly need it.
We don’t share your personal information with anyone except to comply with the law, develop our services, or protect our rights.
We don’t store personal information on our servers unless required for the on-going operation of our site.
Website Visitors
Like most website operators, Mountain Lakes Physicians Group collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. Mountain Lakes Physicians Group’s purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how our visitors use the website. From time to time, Mountain Lakes Physicians Group may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website. Mountain Lakes Physicians Group also collects potentially personally-identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for users completing contact or request forms on our site.
Gathering of Personally-Identifying Information
Certain visitors to Mountain Lakes Physicians Group’s websites choose to interact with the website in ways that require Mountain Lakes Physicians Group to gather personally-identifying information. The amount and type of information that Mountain Lakes Physicians Group gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. Mountain Lakes Physicians Group collects information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor’s interaction with Mountain Lakes Physicians Group. Mountain Lakes Physicians Group does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below. And visitors can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities.
Aggregated Statistics
Mountain Lakes Physicians Group may collect statistics about the behavior of visitors to its websites. For instance, Mountain Lakes Physicians Group may monitor the most popular pages on the mlmedgroup.com site or use spam screened by the Akismet service to help identify spam. Mountain Lakes Physicians Group may display this information publicly or provide it to others. However, Mountain Lakes Physicians Group does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below
Protection of Certain Personally-Identifying Information
Mountain Lakes Physicians Group discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only to those of its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations that (i) need to know that information in order to process it on Mountain Lakes Physicians Group’s behalf or to provide services available at Mountain Lakes Physicians Group’s websites, and (ii) that have agreed not to disclose it to others. Some of those employees, contractors and affiliated organizations may be located outside of your home country; by using Mountain Lakes Physicians Group’s websites, you consent to the transfer of such information to them. Mountain Lakes Physicians Group will not rent or sell potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information to anyone. Other than to its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations, as described above, Mountain Lakes Physicians Group discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only in response to a subpoena, court order or other governmental request, or when Mountain Lakes Physicians Group believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Mountain Lakes Physicians Group, third parties or the public at large. If you are a registered user of an Mountain Lakes Physicians Group website and have supplied your email address, Mountain Lakes Physicians Group may occasionally send you an email to tell you about new features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what’s going on with Mountain Lakes Physicians Group and our services. We primarily use our various product blogs to communicate this type of information, so we expect to keep this type of email to a minimum. Mountain Lakes Physicians Group takes all measures reasonably necessary to protect against the unauthorized access, use, alteration or destruction of potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information.
Cookies
A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Mountain Lakes Physicians Group uses cookies to help Mountain Lakes Physicians Group identify and track visitors, their usage of Mountain Lakes Physicians Group website, and their website access preferences. Mountain Lakes Physicians Group visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using Mountain Lakes Physicians Group’s websites, with the drawback that certain features of Mountain Lakes Physicians Group’s websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies
Business Transfers
If Mountain Lakes Physicians Group, or substantially all of its assets were acquired, or in the unlikely event that Mountain Lakes Physicians Group goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of Mountain Lakes Physicians Group may continue to use your personal information as set forth in this policy.
Website Privacy Policy Changes
Although most changes are likely to be minor, Mountain Lakes Physicians Group may change its Privacy Policy from time to time, and in Mountain Lakes Physicians Group’s sole discretion. Mountain Lakes Physicians Group encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.
This privacy policy became effective on/or before 10/18/2018.
Mountain Lakes Physicians Group
162 Legacy Point
Clayton, GA 30525
Phone: 706-960-9533