UPSTATE ORTHOPEDICS AMBULATORY SURGERY CENTER NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please read it carefully.
1. Your rights regarding medical information about you.
Your health record is the physical property of Upstate Orthopedics Ambulatory Surgery Center (UOASC). The information contained in the record however belongs to you. You have the right to:
A. Requestarestrictionorlimitationonthemedicalinformationweuseordiscloseaboutyou for your treatment, payment or health care operations. You also have the right to request a limit on the medical information we disclose about you to someone who is involved in your care or the payment for your care, like a family member or friend. We are not required to agree to your requested restrictions. If we do not agree, we will comply with your request unless the information is needed to provide you with emergency treatment.
B. If you pay for a service or healthcare item out-of-pocket in full, you can ask us not to share that information for the purpose of payment or our operations with your health insurer. We will say “yes” unless a law requires us to share that information.
C. Obtain a copy of this notice by requesting it from the Administrator of the surgery center.
D. Inspect and obtain a copy of your healthcare record by submitting a request in writing to the Medical Record Department of the surgery center
E. Amend your healthcare record if you feel that medical information that we have about you is incorrect or incomplete by requesting in writing that the amendment be made. You must provide a reason that supports your request.
F. Obtain a report of all the disclosures of your health information that we have made.
G. Request that we communicate with you about your medical information in a certain way or at a certain location.
H. Revoke your authorization to use and disclose medical information about you, except to the extent that we have already used or disclosed your medical information.
2. Our responsibilities regarding your medical information:
We are required by law to:
A. Maintain the privacy of your health information.
B. Provide you with this notice, which describes our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to information we collect about you.
C. Abide by the terms of this notice.
D. Notify you if we are unable to agree to a requested restriction.
E. Accommodate reasonable requests that you have made to have us communicate your health information to you in a certain way or a certain location.
F. Notify you if a security breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your information.
We reserve the right to change this notice. We reserve the right to make the revised and changed notice effective for medical information that we already have about you, as well as any information that we receive in the future. We will post a copy of the current notice in the surgery center. The notice will contain the effective date on the first page. Each time that you register at the center, we will offer you a copy of the current notice in effect.
3. How we may use and disclose medical information about you:
Each time that you visit us a record of your visit is made. We may use or disclose the health information contained in this record. The following categories describe the different ways that we may use and disclose your medical information.
A. Treatment: We may use medical information about you to provide you with medical treatment and services. We may disclose medical information about you to doctors, nurses, technicians, or other surgery center personnel who are involved in taking care of you at the surgery center.
For example, information obtained by a nurse, physician, or other member of your health care team will be recorded in your medical records and used to determine the course of treatment that should work best for you. Your physician will document in your record his or her expectations of the members of your health team. Members of your healthcare team will then record the actions that they took and their observations. By reading your medical record, the physician will know how you are responding to treatment.
B. Payment: We may use and disclose medical information about you so that the treatment and services you receive at the surgery center may be billed to and payment may be collected from you, an insurance company or third party.
C. Health care operations. We may use and disclose medical information about you for the operations of the center.
For example, members of the medical staff, the risk or quality management committee may use information in your health record to assess the care and outcomes in your case and others like it. This information will be used in a way to improve the quality and effectiveness of the healthcare and the services that we provide.
D. Appointment reminders: We may use and disclose medical information to contact you as a reminder that you have an appointment for treatment or medical care at the center.
E. Treatment alternatives: We may use and disclose medical information to tell you about or recommend possible treatment options or alternatives that may be of interest to you.
F. Individuals involved in your care or payment of your care. We may release medical information about you to a friend or family member who is involved in your medical care or who helps pay for your care.
G. Research: We may disclose medical information to researchers when their research has been approved by an institutional review board that has received the researcher’s proposal and established protocols to ensure the privacy of your health information.
H. As required by law: We will disclose medical information about you when required to do so by federal, state or local law.
I. Health related benefits and services: We may use and disclose medical information to inform you about health related benefits or services that may be of interest to you.
J. Emergency: We may use and disclose medical information about you when necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or the health and safety of the public or another person. The Center would only disclose the information to someone able to help prevent the threat.
K. Organ and tissue donation: Consistent with applicable law, we may disclose health information to organ procurement organizations or other entities engaged in the procurement, banking or transplantation of organs for the purpose of tissue donation and transplant.
L. Business associates: Some of the services provided at the center are provided by business associates. For example we contract with certain laboratories to perform lab tests. When we contract for these services, we may disclose your health information to our business associates so that they can perform the job we have hired them to do. To protect your health information, we require our business associates to appropriately safeguard your information.
M. Worker’s compensation: We may release medical information about you to the extent authorized by and to the extent necessary to comply with the laws relating to workers compensation or other similar programs established by law.
N. Public health risks: As required by law, we may disclose your health information to public health or legal authorities charged with preventing or controlling disease, injury or disability.
O. Health Oversight Activities: We may disclose medical information to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law. These oversight activities include for example audits investigations inspections and licensure. These activities are necessary for the government to monitor the health care system, government programs and compliance with civil rights laws.
P. Lawsuit sand Disputes: If you are involved in a lawsuit or a dispute, we may disclose medical information about you in response to a court or an administrative order. We may also disclose medical information about you in response to a subpoena, discovery request or other lawful process by someone else involved in a dispute but only if efforts have been made to tell you about the request or to obtain an order protecting the information required.
Q. Law Enforcement: We may disclose health information for law enforcement purposes as required by law or in response to a valid subpoena.
R. Coroners, Medical Examiners and Funeral Directors: We may release medical information to a coroner or medical examiner. We may also disclose health information to funeral directors consistent with applicable law to carry out the duties.
S. Food and Drug Administration: We may disclose to the FDA health information related to adverse events with respect to food, supplements, products and product defects or post marketing surveillance information to enable product recalls, repairs or replacement.
T. Inmates: If you are an inmate of a correctional institution or under the custody of a law enforcement agent, we may release medical information about you to the correctional institution or law enforcement official.
4. Other uses of medical information:
A. Your information will never be sold or shared for marketing purposes without your written permission to do so.
B. Your information may be used for fundraising efforts, however you have the right to opt out of any future communications
C. Other uses and disclosures of medical information not covered by this notice or the laws that apply to us will be made only upon written authorization you provide to us. If you provide us authorization to use or disclose medical information about you, you may revoke that authorization in writing at any time. If you revoke your authorization we will no longer use or disclose medical information about you for the reasons covered by your written authorization. The revocation however will not have any effect on any action the UOASC took before it received the revocation.
5. Questions or complaints:
If you have any questions and would like additional information, you may contact the Privacy Officer at the UOASC.
You may complain to us if you think we have violated your privacy rights. We will listen to your complaint and do our best to address it. You will not be retaliated against for bringing a complaint. Please direct complaints to Upstate Orthopedics Ambulatory Surgery Center, Attn. Privacy Officer, 6620 Fly Road, Suite 300, East Syracuse, NY 13057.
You can also file a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights by sending a letter to 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201, calling 1-877-696-6775, or visiting http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/
You may also contact the office of the Medicare Beneficiary Ombudsman at
www.cms.hhs.gov/center/ombudsman.asp

Effective Date of this Notice: 10/16/2013