Notice of Privacy Practices - Hospice of Spokane

This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information.

Use and Disclosure of Health Information
Hospice of Spokane (The Hospice) may use your health information for purposes of providing you treatment, obtaining payment for your care and conducting health care operations. Your health information may be used or disclosed only after The Hospice has obtained your written consent. The Hospice has established a policy to guard against unnecessary disclosure of your health information.

To Provide Treatment. The Hospice may use your health information to coordinate care within The Hospice and with others involved in your care, such as your attending physician, members of The Hospice interdisciplinary team and other health care professionals who have agreed to assist The Hospice in coordinating care. For example, physicians involved in your care will need information about your symptoms in order to prescribe appropriate medications. The Hospice may also disclose your health care information to individuals outside of The Hospice involved in your care, including designated family members, designated surrogates, clergy whom you have designated, pharmacists, suppliers of medical equipment or other health care professionals that The Hospice uses in order to coordinate your care.

To Obtain Payment. The Hospice may include your health information in invoices to collect payment from third parties for the care you may receive from The Hospice. For example, The Hospice may be required by your health insurer to provide information regarding your health care status so that the insurer will reimburse you or The Hospice. The Hospice may also need to obtain prior approval from your insurer and may need to explain to the insurer your need for hospice care and the services that will be provided to you.

To Conduct Health Care Operations. The Hospice may use and disclose health care information for its own operations in order to facilitate the function of The Hospice and as necessary to provide quality care to all The Hospice clients. Health care operations include such activities as:

Quality assessment and improvement activities.
Activities designed to improve health or reduce health care costs.
Protocol development, case management and care coordination.
Contacting health care providers and clients with information about treatment alternatives and other related functions that do not include treatment.
Professional review and performance evaluation.
Training programs including those in which students, trainees or practitioners in health care learn under supervision.
Training of non-health care professionals.
Accreditation, certification, licensing or credentialing activities.
Review and auditing, including compliance reviews, medical reviews, legal services and compliance programs.
Business planning and development including cost management and planning related analyses and formulary development.
Business management and general administrative activities of The Hospice.
Fundraising for the benefit of The Hospice and certain marketing activities.
For example, The Hospice may use your health information to evaluate its staff performance, combine your health information with that of other Hospice clients in evaluating how to serve all Hospice clients more effectively, disclose your health information to Hospice staff and contracted personnel for training purposes, use your health information to contact you as a reminder regarding a visit to you, or contact you or your family as part of general fundraising and community information mailings (unless you tell us you do not want to be contacted).

For Fundraising Activities. The Hospice may use information about you including your name, address, phone number and the dates you received care at The Hospice in order to contact you or your family to raise money for The Hospice. The Hospice may also release this information to a related Hospice foundation. If you do not want The Hospice to contact you or your family, notify the Director of Development (1-509-456-0438 or 1-888-459-0438) and indicate that you do not wish to be contacted.

Federal privacy rules allow The Hospice to use or disclose your health information without your consent or authorization for a number of reasons:
When Legally Required. The Hospice will disclose your health information when it is required to do so by any Federal, State or local law.

When There Are Risks To Public Health. The Hospice may disclose your health information for public activities and purposes in order to:

Prevent or control disease, injury or disability, report disease, injury, vital events such as birth or death and the conduct of public health surveillance, investigations and interventions.
To report adverse events, product defects, to track products or enable product recalls, repairs and replacements and to conduct post-marketing surveillance and compliance with requirements of the Food and Drug Administration.
To notify a person who has been exposed to a communicable disease or who may be at risk of contracting or spreading a disease.
To an employer about an individual who is a member of the workforce as legally required.

To Report Abuse, Neglect Or Domestic Violence. The Hospice is allowed to notify government authorities if The Hospice believes a patient is the victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence. The Hospice will make this disclosure only when specifically required or authorized by law or when the client agrees to the disclosure.

To Conduct Health Oversight Activities. The Hospice may disclose your health information to a health oversight agency for activities including audits, civil administrative or criminal investigations, inspections, licensure or disciplinary action. The Hospice, however, may not disclose your health information if you are the subject of an investigation and your health information are not directly related to your receipt of health care or public benefits.

In Connection With Judicial And Administrative Proceedings. The Hospice may disclose your health information in the course of any judicial or administrative proceeding in response to an order of a court or administrative tribunal as expressly authorized by such order or in response to a subpoena, discovery request or other lawful process, but only when The Hospice makes reasonable efforts to either notify you about the request or to obtain an order protecting your health information.

For Law Enforcement Purposes. The Hospice may disclose your health information to a law enforcement official for law enforcement purposes as follows:

As required by law for reporting of certain types of wounds or other physical injuries pursuant to the court order, warrant, subpoena or summons or similar process.
For the purpose of identifying or locating a suspect, fugitive, material witness or missing person.
Under certain limited circumstances, when you are the victim of a crime.
To a law enforcement official if The Hospice has a suspicion that your death was the result of criminal conduct including criminal conduct at The Hospice.
In an emergency in order to report a crime.

To Coroners And Medical Examiners. The Hospice may disclose your health information to coroners and medical examiners for purposes of determining your cause of death or for other duties, as authorized by law.

To Funeral Directors. The Hospice may disclose your health information to funeral directors consistent with applicable law and, if necessary, to carry out their duties with respect to your funeral arrangements. If necessary to carry out their duties, the Hospice may disclose your health information prior to and in reasonable anticipation of your death.

For Organ, Eye Or Tissue Donation. The Hospice may use or disclose your health information to organ procurement organizations or other entities engaged in the procurement, banking or transplantation of organs, eyes or tissue for the purpose of facilitating the donation and transplantation.

For Research Purposes. The Hospice may, under very select circumstances, use your health information for research. Before The Hospice discloses any of your health information for such research purposes, the project will be subject to an extensive approval process. The Hospice will ask your permission if any researcher will be granted access to your individually identifiable health information.

In The Event Of A Serious Threat To Health Or Safety. The Hospice may, consistent with applicable law and ethical standards of conduct, disclose your health information if The Hospice, in good faith, believes that such disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to your health or safety or to the health and safety of the public.

For Specified Government Functions. In certain circumstances, the Federal regulations authorize The Hospice to use or disclose your health information to facilitate specified government functions relating to military and veterans, national security and intelligence activities, protective services for the President and others, medical suitability determinations and inmates and law enforcement custody.

For Worker’s Compensation. The Hospice may release your health information for worker’s compensation or similar programs.

Other than is stated above, The Hospice will not disclose your health information other than with your written authorization. If you or your representative authorizes The Hospice to use or disclose your health information, you may revoke that authorization in writing at any time.

You have the following rights regarding your health information that The Hospice maintains:

Right to request restrictions. You may request restrictions on certain uses and disclosures of your health information. You have the right to request a limit on The Hospice’s disclosure of your health information to someone who is involved in your care or the payment of your care. However, The Hospice is not required to agree to your request. If you wish to make a request for restrictions, please contact the Privacy Officer. If you paid out-of-pocket (or in other words, you have requested that we not bill your health plan) in full for a specific item or service, you have the right to ask that your Protected Health Information with respect to that item or service not be disclosed to a health plan for purposes of payment or health care operations, and we will honor that request.
Right to receive confidential communications. You have the right to request that The Hospice communicate with you in a certain way. For example, you may ask that The Hospice only conduct communications pertaining to your health information with you privately with no other family members present. If you wish to receive confidential communications, please contact the Privacy Officer. The Hospice will not request that you provide any reasons for your request and will attempt to honor your reasonable requests for confidential communications.
Right to inspect and copy your health information. You have the right to inspect and copy your health information, including billing records. A request to inspect and copy records containing your health information may be made to the Privacy Officer. If you request a copy of your health information, The Hospice may charge a reasonable fee for copying and assembling costs associated with your request.
Right to an electronic copy of your medical records. If your Protected Health Information is maintained in an electronic format (known as an electronic medical record or an electronic health record), you have the right to request that an electronic copy of your record be given to you or transmitted to another individual or entity. The Hospice will make every effort to provide access to your Protected Health Information in the form or format you request, if it is readily producible in such form or format. If the Protected Health Information is not readily producible in the form or format you request, your record will be provided in a readable hard copy form. The Hospice may charge you a reasonable, cost-based fee for the labor associated with transmitting the electronic medical record.
Right to amend health care information. If you or your representative believes that your health information records are incorrect or incomplete, you may request that The Hospice amend the records. This request may be made as long as the information is maintained by The Hospice. A request for an amendment of records must be made in writing to The Privacy Officer. The Hospice may deny the request if it is not in writing or does not include a reason for the amendment. The request also may be denied if your health information records were not created by The Hospice, if the records you are requesting are not part of The Hospice’s records, if the health information you wish to amend is not part of the health information you or your representative are permitted to inspect and copy; or if, in the opinion of the Hospice, the records containing your health information are accurate and complete.
Right to receive notice of a breach. The Hospice will notify you if a breach of your unsecured protected health information has occurred.
Right to an accounting. You or your representative have the right to request an accounting of disclosures of your health information made by The Hospice for any reason other than for treatment, payment or health operations. The request for an accounting must be made in writing to the Privacy Officer. The request should specify the time period for the accounting starting on April 14, 2003. Accounting requests may not be made for periods of time in excess of seven years. The Hospice would provide the first accounting you request during any 12-month period without charge. Subsequent accounting requests may be subject to a reasonable cost-based fee.
Right to a paper copy of this notice. You or your representative has a right to a separate copy of this Notice at any time even if you or your representative has received this Notice previously. To obtain a separate paper copy, please contact The Privacy Officer. The Hospice client or a representative may also obtain a copy of the current version of The Hospice’s Notice of Privacy Practices at its website, www.hospiceofspokane.org.

Duties of Hospice of Spokane
The Hospice is required by law to maintain the privacy of your health information and to provide to you and your representative this Notice of its duties and privacy practices. The Hospice is required to abide by terms of this Notice as may be amended from time to time. The Hospice reserves the right to change the terms of its Notice and to make the new Notice provisions effective for all health information that it maintains. A copy of the current Notice of Privacy Practices will be posted on the website www.hospiceofspokane.org. You or your personal representative has the right to express complaints to The Hospice and to the Secretary of Health and Human Services if you or your representative believes that your privacy rights have been violated. Any complaints to The Hospice should be made in writing to The Privacy Officer. The Hospice encourages you to express any concerns you may have regarding the privacy of your information. You will not be retaliated against in any way for filing a complaint.

SMS Message Policy
Hospice of Spokane maintains strict privacy policies, ensuring that personal information of our clients, family members, vendors and staff is not sold, rented, released, or traded to others without prior consent or a legal obligation.

If/when Hospice of Spokane decides to send SMS (text) messages, you will have the option to Opt-In or Opt-Out by visiting our website.

Contact Person
The Hospice’s contact person for all issues regarding patient privacy and your rights under the Federal privacy standards is the Privacy Officer, Hospice of Spokane, PO Box 2215, Spokane, WA 99210-2215, or Phone (509) 456-0438.