Protecting Your Medical Information

Our Pharmacy is required under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to protect the privacy of your Protected Health Information (PHI). PHI includes your medical records and any other health information that identifies you. This information may be maintained or shared in any form — electronic, paper, or verbal.

In accordance with HIPAA, we are required to provide you with this Notice of Privacy Practices and make a good faith effort to obtain your acknowledgment that you have received it. This Notice describes how we may use and disclose your PHI, outlines your rights regarding your health information, and explains our obligation to follow the terms of this Notice, including any future updates.

​

Under the law we are permitted to use and disclose your PHI without your authorization for the purposes of treatment, payment and health care operations:

​

1. Treatment

We may use your information to fill prescriptions, provide medication counseling, communicate with your doctors, and coordinate your care.

​

2. Payment

We may use your information to bill and receive payment from insurance companies, Medicare, Medicaid, or other third parties.

​

3. Health Care Operations

We may use your information for business operations such as quality improvement, auditing, training, licensing, and accreditation activities.

​

Our Use of Your Information

We may disclose your Protected Health Information to a family member, other relative, close personal friend, or any other person identified by you who is involved in your care or payment for your care. For example, we may disclose information to someone who picks up a prescription for you or to a caregiver who assists you with your medications. We may also use our professional judgment to determine whether the disclosure is in your best interest.

​

When disclosing Protected Health Information to someone acting on your behalf, we will make reasonable efforts to limit the information shared to the minimum necessary to accomplish the intended purpose and support your care.

​

We may also disclose your Protected Health Information for law enforcement purposes when required by law or in response to a valid court order, subpoena, summons, or other lawful process.

 

Your Rights

Under federal law, you have the following rights regarding your Protected Health Information (PHI):

​

Right to Inspect and Copy

You have the right to inspect and obtain a copy of your PHI maintained by our Pharmacy, including prescription and billing records. Requests must be made in writing. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee for copies as permitted by law.

​

Right to Request an Amendment

If you believe your PHI is incorrect or incomplete, you have the right to request an amendment. Your request must be submitted in writing and include a reason supporting the requested change. We may deny your request in certain circumstances, but we will provide a written explanation of the denial.

​

Right to an Accounting of Disclosures

You have the right to request a list (accounting) of certain disclosures of your PHI made by our Pharmacy during the six (6) years prior to the date of your request, excluding disclosures made for treatment, payment, healthcare operations, and certain other permitted purposes.

​

Right to Request Restrictions

You have the right to request restrictions on certain uses and disclosures of your PHI for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations. While we are not required to agree to most requested restrictions, we will comply with a requested restriction if the disclosure is to a health plan for payment or healthcare operations purposes and the PHI relates solely to a healthcare item or service for which you have paid out-of-pocket in full.

​

Right to Request Confidential Communications

You have the right to request that we communicate with you about medical matters in a specific manner or at a specific location (for example, by mail only or at a different address). We will accommodate reasonable requests.

​

Right to a Paper Copy of This Notice

You have the right to receive a paper copy of this Notice at any time, even if you have agreed to receive it electronically.

​

Right to Be Notified of a Breach

You have the right to be notified in the event that we discover a breach of your unsecured PHI.

​​

​

​

​

Effective Date of This Privacy Notice: January 1st, 2003