Privacy Practices

NOTICE OF INFORMATION PRIVACY PRACTICES OF  BALTIMORE WASHINGTON MEDICAL CENTER, INC.
ARUNDEL PHYSICIANS ASSOCIATES
BALTIMORE WASHINGTON EMERGENCY PHYSICIANS

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.
Effective: March 1, 2006

1. We have a legal duty to protect health information about you.  We call this information “protected health information” or “PHI”.
2. We may use and disclose PHI without asking you in the following ways:

1.     We may use and disclose PHI to treat you.
2.     We may use and disclose PHI to get paid for our services.
3.     We may use and disclose PHI for health care operations.
4.     We may contact you to remind you of an appointment.
5.     We may send you material about our services and providers.
6.     We may contact you to raise money for our Facility.
7.     We may list you in the Patient Directory.  We may also share information about you with family or with other people who are involved in your care or payment for your care.  We may share information for disaster relief purposes.
8.     We may use and disclose PHI about you under other circumstances without asking you.

1. You have certain rights regarding PHI about you:

1.     You have a right to a copy of this Notice.
2.     You have the right to see and copy PHI about you.
3.     You have the right to request different ways to communicate with you.
4.     You have the right to request an amendment of PHI about you.
5.     You have the right to ask us to restrict uses and disclosures of PHI about you.
6.     You have the right to a listing of disclosures we made.

1. You may file a complaint about our privacy practices.

We work with the physicians at our Facility to provide your care.  We may share PHI about you for treatment, payment, or health care operations with: University of Maryland School of Medicine (SOM); University Physicians, Inc. and its affiliated Faculty Practice Groups (UPI); and other physicians on our medical staff.  We are a separate legal entity from SOM, UPI, and our other physicians.  We maintain separate health and billing records.  You must contact SOM, UPI or your physician directly to obtain any PHI that they may keep about you. 

A.            WE HAVE A LEGAL DUTY TO PROTECT HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU.
We are committed to protecting the privacy of your PHI.  Federal and state laws require us to keep PHI about you private.  These laws also require us to tell you how we protect PHI about you, and how, when, and why we use PHI about you.  We may only use PHI as described in this Notice.  There are other laws that provide additional protections for PHI related to treatment for mental health, alcohol and other substance abuse.  We will follow the requirements of these laws for that kind of PHI.  We may change this Notice.  The new notice will apply to all PHI that we have.  If we change the Notice, we will post the revised notice at the Facility or on our website and make copies of the revised notice available.

B.            WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE PHI ABOUT YOU WITHOUT ASKING YOU IN THE FOLLOWING WAYS.

1. We may use and disclose PHI to treat you.

EXAMPLE: You have diabetes.  You break your leg.  Your doctor needs to know that you have diabetes because diabetes may slow the healing of your leg.  The dietitian needs to know that you have diabetes so that she gets you the right meals.  When you are ready to leave the facility, we may disclose PHI to a home health provider who will care for you at home.

2. We may use and disclose PHI to get paid for our services.

We may give your insurer PHI when we ask it to pay for your care.  We may disclose PHI to obtain payment from others responsible such as family members, and to get help in being paid (collection agencies).
EXAMPLE: You have high blood pressure.  We give your insurer information about your condition and services you receive (such as Laboratory tests or x-rays) so it will pay us.

3. We may use and disclose PHI for health care operations.

These "health care operations” help us improve the quality of care we provide to reduce costs, and to educate students.  Staff reviews PHI to educate caregivers and to plan services.  Staff shares PHI with accountants, lawyers and others who help us (business associates).  We provide PHI to outside organizations such as the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) who judge the quality of care we provide.
EXAMPLE:You had an unusual illness.  Later, staff who took care of you may discuss your illness with other staff so they will learn about the illness and how to treat it.

4. We may contact you to remind you of an appointment.
5. We may send you material about our services and providers.

We may use PHI to manage or coordinate your healthcare.  This may include telling you about treatments, services, and other healthcare providers you might be interested in.
EXAMPLE: If you are diagnosed with diabetes, we may tell you about nutritional and other counseling services that may be of interest to you.

6. We may contact you to raise money for the Facility.

We may disclose PHI about you to a foundation that will ask you to give money to the Facility.  We only release contact information and the dates you received treatment or services at the Facility.  If you do not want to be contacted in this way, you must notify in writing the office listed in C. 6 below.

7. We may list you in the Patient Directory.  We may share information with your family or with others involved in your care or payment for your care.  We may share information for disaster relief purposes.  Unless you ask us to, if you are an inpatient in Psychiatry at BWMC, we will not include you in the Patient Directory.

Unless you object:
●             We may share your name, room number, and condition with people who ask for you by name.
●             We may share with a family member, friend or other person you identify, PHI directly related to that person's involvement in your care or payment for that care.  We may share with them PHI so they will know where you are, your general condition or your death.
●             We may share with an agency (for example, American Red Cross) PHI about you when you are involved in a disaster.  Even if you object, we may share the PHI about you in an emergency.

If you would like to object to this use or disclosure of PHI about you, please CONTACT: Health Information Management Department at 410-787-4372.  If you are an inpatient in Psychiatry and want us to include you in the Hospital Patient Directory, CONTACT:   Patient Registration at 410-787-4452.

8. We may use and disclose PHI about you under other circumstances without asking you.  These circumstances include:

AS REQUIRED BY LAWfederal, state, or local law.
HEALTH OVERSIGHT ACTIVITIESincluding audits, civil, administrative or criminal investigations, licensure or disciplinary actions and monitoring of compliance with law.
WORKERS COMPENSATIONor similar programs as required by the laws governing these programs.
RESEARCH PURPOSESif an Institutional Review Board has reviewed the request for the information and approved a waiver of authorization under standards set by law.
PUBLIC HEALTH ACTIVITIES                such as keeping birth or death records; controlling communicable disease; ensuring the safety of drugs and medical devices; tracking work related illness and injury; reporting abuse, neglect or domestic violence to government authorities.
ORGAN AND TISSUE PROCUREMENTto organ procurement, eye or tissue organizations; to aid organ or tissue donation and transplantation.
CORONERS, MEDICAL EXAMINERS, FUNERAL DIRECTORSto determine the cause of death; to permit them to carry out their duties.
LAWSUITS AND DISPUTESas required by law or an order of a court or agency that is handling a dispute.
LAW ENFORCEMENTto appropriate persons to prevent a serious and imminent threat to health or safety of a particular person, for national security and intelligence, to identify suspects, fugitives or witnesses, or victims of crime (with your consent in some circumstances), to report crimes on the premises.
MILITARY AND VETERANSas required by command authorities.
INMATESinformation for your health and the health and the safety of others.

WE MUST ASK YOU FOR PERMISSION FOR ANY OTHER USE
OR DISCLOSURE OF PHI ABOUT YOU.
In any other circumstances, we will ask for your written authorization before we use or disclose PHI about you.  Your authorization will be for a specific purpose.  If you give us authorization, you can later change your mind and cancel your authorization, but you must cancel your authorization in writing. Once we receive your cancellation, we will not disclose PHI about you, except for disclosures that were processed before we received your cancellation.

C.            YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO:

1. a copy of this Notice.

A copy of our current Notice is posted in patient registration areas.  You may also obtain a copy of the Notice by contacting Patient Registration at 410-787-4452 or by downloading a copy from the website at http://www.bwmc.umms.org.

2. see and COPY PHI about you.

Your request must be in writing.  We may charge you a fee to copy your record. In certain situations, we are not required to comply with your request, but we will tell you in writing why we will not grant your request and what you must do to request a review of our decision.

3. request different ways to communicate with you.

After registration, your request must be in writing.  We will honor reasonable requests.  For example, you may request that we contact you at your work address or phone number or by email.

4. request an amendment of PHI about you.

Your request must be in writing and include why you think the PHI is wrong.  We may deny your request, for example, if we think the PHI is accurate.  Even if we accept your request, we may not delete any information already in your medical record.  If we reject your request, we will tell you why; if you send us a written statement describing what you think is wrong, we will put that in the medical record.

5. ask us to restrict uses and disclosures of PHI about you.

Your request must be in writing.  We do not have to agree to your request.  The law may not let us agree.  If we do agree, we must comply with our agreement except when the information is needed to provide you with emergency treatment or to comply with the law.

6. a listing of disclosures we have made.

Your request must be in writing.  The list will not include information about some disclosures, such as disclosures for treatment, payment or health care operations, or disclosures you authorized.  If you request a list of disclosures more than once in 12 months, we can charge you a reasonable fee.

For items 2 - 6 above and for general inquiries, please contact: Director, Health Information Management Department, Baltimore Washington Medical Center, 301 Hospital Drive, Glen Burnie, 21061; for information call 410-787-4372.

D.            YOU MAY FILE A COMPLAINT ABOUT OUR PRIVACY PRACTICES.
If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint.  This complaint must be in writing and addressed to: Privacy Officer, Baltimore Washington Medical Center, 301 Hospital Drive, Glen Burnie, Maryland 21061.  You also have the right to complain to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.