HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices

NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

Bell Ambulance, Inc.

 

THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION.  PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY

Your health information is personal, and Bell Ambulance, Inc. is committed to protecting it.  We are required by law to maintain the privacy of health information that could be used to identify you, known as protected health information (PHI).  The law requires us to provide you with a copy of this Notice of Privacy Practices, which describes our privacy practices and our legal duties with respect to PHI.  Under certain circumstances, we may also be required to notify you following a breach of unsecured PHI. 

HOW WE MAY USE OR DISCLOSURE YOUR PHI

TreatmentWe may use or disclose your PHI in connection with our treatment or transportation of you.  For example, we may disclose your PHI to doctors, nurses, technicians, medical students or any other health care professional involved in taking care of you.  We may also provide information about you to a hospital or dispatch center via radio, telephone or other electronic means.  We may provide a hospital or other health care facility with a copy of the medical records created by us in the course of treating or transporting you.

PaymentWe may use and disclose your medical information to obtain payment from you, an insurance company, and other third parties.  For example, we may provide PHI to your health insurance plan in order to receive payment for our services. 

Health care operationsWe may use and disclose your PHI for quality assurance activities, licensing and training programs to ensure that our personnel meet our standards for care, and to ensure that our personnel follow our established policies and procedures.  We may also use your information for obtaining legal, financial or accounting services, conducting business planning, processing complaints, and for the creation of reports that do not individually identify you.

Other uses or disclosures that do not require authorizationThe law permits us to use or disclose your PHI without your authorization in the following circumstances:

USES OR DISCLOSURES WHERE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO OBJECT

Unless you object, we may provide relevant portions of your PHI to a family member, friend or other person that you indicate is involved in making decisions about your health care or in paying for your health care.  We may use or disclose PHI to notify your family member, friends or personal representative about your condition.  In an emergency or when you are not capable of agreeing or objecting to these disclosures, we will disclose your PHI only to the extent we reasonably believe such disclosure to be in your best interest, and we will tell you about such disclosure after the emergency has passed, and give you the opportunity to object to future disclosures to family, friends or personal representatives.  Unless you object, we may also disclosure your PHI to persons involved in providing disaster relief, for example, the American Red Cross.  

USES OR DISCLOSURES THAT REQUIRE YOUR WRITTEN CONSENT

Any other use or disclosure of PHI, other than those listed above will only be made with your written authorization.  The law also requires your written authorization before we may use or disclose: (i) psychotherapy notes, other than for the purpose of carrying out our treatment, payment or health care operations purposes, (ii) any PHI for our marketing purposes or (iii) any PHI as part of a sale of PHI.  You may revoke a previous written authorization in writing at any time.  If you elect to revoke a previously authorization, we will immediately stop any further uses or disclosures of your PHI for the purposes set out in the written authorizations to the extent we have not already acted in reliance on your authorization; however, we will be unable to retract any disclosures previously made with your permission. 

YOUR RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO YOUR PHI

You have the following rights with respect to your PHI:

CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE

Bell Ambulance, Inc. is required to comply with the terms of this Notice as currently in effect.  We reserve the right to change or amend our privacy practices at any time in the future, and to make any changes applicable to PHI already in our possession.  This Notice will be revised to reflect any changes in our privacy practices.  You may obtain a copy of our revised Notice by contacting our Privacy Officer.  We will also make any revised Notice available on our website at: http://www.264bell.com. 

CONTACT

If you should have questions or comments about our privacy practices, or if you would like to obtain additional information regarding your privacy rights, please contact our Privacy Officer at: Bell Ambulance, Inc., 549 E Wilson St, Milwaukee, WI 53207.  You may also contact our Privacy Officer by phone at: 414-486-4015

COMPLAINTS

If you think that your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with Bell Ambulance, Inc. or with Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).  To file a complaint with us, please put your complaint in writing and mail it to the following address: Privacy Officer, Bell Ambulance, Inc., 549 E Wilson St, Milwaukee, WI 53207.   You may also contact our Privacy Officer by phone at: 414-486-4015.  To file a complaint with the DHHS, you must put your complaint in writing and mail it to: Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201.  You will not be retaliated against or denied any health services if you elect to file a complaint. 

Note: You may substitute the corresponding OCR Regional Office for the OCR Headquarters.  Addresses for the ten regional offices can be found at:  http://www.hhs.gov/ocr.office/about/rgn-hqaddresses.html

 

Effective Date: April 14, 2003Revision Date: December 28, 2017