How We May Use and Disclose Your Protected Health Information

The law requires us to have your written authorization for some uses and disclosures. In other circumstances, the law allows us to use or disclose PHI without your written authorization. Some types of PHI, such as drug and alcohol abuse, patient treatment information, HIV test results, mental health information, and genetic testing results, may be subject to greater protection of your privacy with more restrictions on our use or disclosure of PHI. In general, we disclose a minor patient's PHI to a parent or guardian, but in some situations, we may deny the parents access to the minor patient's PHI.

This section explains and shows examples of each of these disclosure situations:

Uses and Disclosures for Treatment, Payment and Health Care Operations

• To provide treatment to you, we may use or disclose your PHI to physicians, nurses, and other health care personnel who are involved in your care.
• To contact you as a reminder that you have an appointment for treatment, to tell you about or recommend possible treatment options or alternatives, or about health-related benefits or services that may interest you, we may use and disclose your PHI.
• To get paid for treatment provided to you, we may use or disclose your PHI to your insurance carrier. We may use or disclose your PHI to our business associates who perform billing and claims processing services, to create the bills that we submit to the insurance company.

Uses and Disclosures that Require Us to Give You the Opportunity to Object

• We may provide relevant portions of your PHI to a family member, friend or other person you indicate is involved in your health care. In an emergency or when you are not capable of agreeing or objecting to these disclosures, we will disclose PHI as we determine is in your best interest, but will tell you about it after the emergency, and give you the opportunity to object to future disclosures to family and friends.

Certain Uses and Disclosures Do Not Require Your Written Authorization Other than Treatment, Payment, and Health Care Operations. The law allows us to disclose PHI without your written authorization in the following situations:

• When Required by Law. We disclose PHI, for example, when we are required to do so by federal, state, or local law.
• For Public Health Activities. We disclose PHI, for example, when we report suspected child abuse, occurrence of certain diseases, or adverse reactions to a drug or medical device.
• For Reports About Victims of Abuse, Neglect, or Domestic Violence. We disclose your PHI in these reports if we are required or authorized by law to do so, or if you otherwise agree.
• To Health Oversight Agencies. We provide PHI as requested to government agencies who have authority to audit or investigate our operations.
• For Lawsuits and Disputes. If you are involved in a lawsuit or dispute, we disclose your PHI in response to a subpoena or other lawful request, but only if efforts have been made to tell you about the request or to obtain a court order that will protect the PHI requested.
• To Law Enforcement. We release PHI if asked to do so by a law enforcement official, in the following circumstances: (a) in response to a court order, subpoena, warrant, summons, or similar process. (b) In emergency circumstances, to report a crime, its location or victims, or the identity, description or location of the person who committed the crime.
• To Coroners, Medical Examiners, and Funeral Directors. We disclose PHI to facilitate the duties of these individuals.
• To Organ Procurement Organizations. We disclose PHI to facilitate organ donation and transplantation.
• For Medical Research. We may disclose your PHI without your written authorization, to medical researchers who request it for approved medical research projects. However, with very limited exceptions, such disclosures must be cleared through a special approval process before any PHI is disclosed to the researchers, who are required to safeguard any PHI they receive.
• To Avert a Serious Threat To Health or Safety. We disclose your PHI to someone who can help prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or the health and safety of another person or the public.
• For Special government Functions. We disclose your PHI, for example, to federal officials for intelligence and national security activities that are authorized by law, or so that they may provide protective services to the President or foreign heads of state or conduct special investigations authorized by law.
• To Workers' Compensation or Similar Programs. We provide your PHI to these programs in order for you to obtain benefits for work-related injuries or illness.