Effective April 14, 2003
Same Day Surgery Center respects the privacy and confidentiality of your health information. This Notice of Privacy Practices (�Notice�) describes how we may use and disclose your medical/health information and how you can get access to this information.
This notice applies to Same Day Surgery Center, members of its Medical staff and other health care practitioners practicing at this facility. These entities are an Organized Health Care Arrangement for the purposes of information sharing only. These entities are independent of one another and nothing in this Notice should be construed to create or imply any agency, partnership, or joint venture between the entities.
Our Responsibilities To You:
SDSC is required by law to maintain the privacy of your health information and to provide you with this Notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to such information. We are also required by law to abide by the terms of this Notice currently in effect.
SDSC reserves the right to change the terms of this Notice and of its privacy policies, and to make the new terms applicable to all of the PHI it maintains. Before SDSC makes a change to its privacy policies, it will promptly revise this Notice and post a new Notice in the patient entrance area of the facility.
As a health care provider, Same Day Surgery Center (�SDSC�) uses confidential personal health information about patients, referred to below as protected health information (�PHI�). SDSC protects the privacy of this information, and it is also protected from disclosure by state and federal law. In certain specific circumstances, pursuant to this Notice, patient authorization or applicable laws and regulations, PHI can be used by SDSC or disclosed to other parties. Below are categories describing these uses and disclosures, along with some examples to help you better understand each category.
Uses and Disclosures for Treatment, Payment and Health Care Operations.
As described in detail below, SDSC may use or disclose your PHI for the purposes of treatment, payment, and health care operations, without obtaining written authorization from you. SDSC will make a good faith effort to obtain from patients or their representatives a written acknowledgement of receipt of this Notice, which describes the uses and disclosures of patients� PHI.
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For Treatment:
SDSC may use and disclose PHI in the course of providing, coordinating, or managing your medical treatment, including the disclosure
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of PHI for treatment activities of another health care provider. These types of uses and disclosures may take place between physicians who are members of SDSC�s medical staff, nurses, technicians, students, and other health care professionals who provide you health care services or are otherwise involved in your care. For example, a dietician may need to know if you are diabetic in order to prepare an appropriate meal. While physicians of SDSC�s Medical Staff are required to follow this Notice and to observe SDSC�s privacy practices and policies, they are independent professionals rather than hospital employees, and SDSC expressly disclaims any responsibility for their acts or omissions.
For Payment:
SDSC may use and disclose PHI in order to bill and collect payment for the health care services provided to you. For Example: SDSC may need to give PHI to your health plan in order to be reimbursed for the services provided to you. SDSC may also disclose PHI to its business associates, such as billing companies, claims process companies, and others that assist in processing health claims. SDSC may also disclose PHI to other health care providers and health plans for the payment activities of such providers or health plans.
For Health Care Operations:
SDSC may use and disclose PHI as part or our internal operations such as quality assessment and improvement, evaluating the treatment and services you receive and the performance of our staff in caring for you, provider training, underwriting activities, compliance and risk management activities, planning and development, and management and
administration. SDSC may disclose PHI to doctors, nurses, technicians, students, attorneys, consultants, accountants, and others for review and learning purposes, to help make sure SDSC is complying with all applicable laws, and to help SDSC continue to provide health care to its patients at a high level of quality. SDSC may also disclose PHI to other health care providers and health plans for such entity�s quality assessment and improvement activities, credentialing and peer review activities, and health care fraud and abuse detection or compliance, provided that such entity has, or has had in the past, a relationship with the patient who is the subject of the information.
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