1. Uses and Disclosures of Protected Health Information

Your protected health information may be used and disclosed by your physician, our office staff, and others outside of our office who are involved in your care and treatment for the purpose of providing healthcare services to you. Your protected health information may also be used and disclosed to pay your healthcare bills and to support the operation of your physician's practice.

Following are examples of the types of uses and disclosures of your protected health information that your physician's office is permitted to make. These examples are not meant to be exhaustive, but to describe the types of uses and disclosures that may be made by our office.

Treatment

We will use and disclose your protected health information to provide, coordinate, or manage your healthcare and any related services. This includes the coordination or management of your healthcare with another provider. For example, we would disclose your protected health information, as necessary, to a home health agency that provides care to you. We will also disclose protected health information to other physicians who may be treating you. For example, your protected health information may be provided to a physician to whom you have been referred to ensure that the physician has the necessary information to diagnose or treat you. In addition, we may disclose your protected health information from time to time to another physician or healthcare provider (e.g., a specialist or laboratory) who, at the request of your physician, becomes involved in your care by providing assistance with your healthcare diagnosis or treatment to your physician.

Payment

Your protected health information will be used and disclosed, as needed, to obtain payment for your healthcare services provided by us or by another provider. This may include certain activities that your health insurance plan may undertake before it approves or pays for the healthcare services we recommend for you such as: making a determination of eligibility or coverage for insurance benefits, reviewing services provided to you for medical necessity, and undertaking utilization review activities. For example, obtaining approval for a hospital stay may require that your relevant protected health information be disclosed to the health plan to obtain approval for the hospital admission.

Healthcare Operations

We may use or disclose, as needed, your protected health information in order to support the business activities of your physician'spractice. These activities include, but are not limited to, quality assessment activities, employee review activities, training of medical students, licensing, fundraising activities, and conducting or arranging for other business activities. We will share your protected health information with third party “business associates” that perform various activities (for example, billing or transcription services) for our practice. Whenever an arrangement between our office and a business associate involves the use or disclosure of your protected health information, we will have a written contract that contains terms that will protect the privacy of your protected health information.

We may use or disclose your protected health information, as necessary, to provide you with information about treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you. You may contact our Privacy Officer to request that these materials not be sent to you.

Other Permitted and Required Uses and Disclosures That May Be Made Without Your Authorization or Opportunity to Agree or Object

We may use or disclose your protected health information in the following situations without your authorization or providing you the opportunity to agree or object. These situations include:

Required By Law

We may use or disclose your protected health information to the extent that the use or disclosure is required by law. The use or disclosure will be made in compliance with the law and will be limited to the relevant requirements of the law. You will be notified, if required by law, of any such uses or disclosures.

Public Health

We may disclose your protected health information for public health activities and purposes to a public health authority that is permitted by law to collect or receive the information. For example, a disclosure may be made for the purpose of preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability.

Communicable Diseases

We may disclose your protected health information, if authorized by law, to a person who may have been exposed to a communicable disease or may otherwise be at risk of contracting or spreading the disease or condition.

Health Oversight

We may disclose protected health information to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law, such as audits, investigations, and inspections. Oversight agencies seeking this information include government agencies that oversee the healthcare system, government benefit programs, other government regulatory programs, and civil rights laws.

Abuse or Neglect

We may disclose your protected health information to a public health authority that is authorized by law to receive reports of child abuse or neglect. In addition, we may disclose your protected health information if we believe that you have been a victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence to the governmental entity or agency authorized to receive such information. In this case, the disclosure will be made consistent with the requirements of applicable federal and state laws.

Food and Drug Administration

We may disclose your protected health information to a person or company required by the Food and Drug Administration for the purpose of quality, safety, or effectiveness of FDA-regulated products or activities, including to report adverse events, product defects or problems, biologic product deviations, to track products; to enable product recalls; to make repairs or replacements, or to conduct post marketing surveillance, as required.

Legal Proceedings

We may disclose protected health information in the course of any judicial or administrative proceeding, in response to an order of a court or administrative tribunal (to the extent such disclosure is expressly authorized), or in certain conditions in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process.

Law Enforcement

We may also disclose protected health information, so long as applicable legal requirements are met, for law enforcement purposes. These law enforcement purposes include:

• Legal processes and otherwise required by law.
• Limited information requests for identification and location purposes.
• Pertaining to victims of a crime.
• Suspicion that death has occurred as a result of criminal conduct.
• In the event that a crime occurs on the premises of our practice.
• Medical emergency (not on our practice's premises) and it is likely that a crime has occurred.

Coroners, Funeral Directors, and Organ Donation

We may disclose protected health information to a coroner or medical examiner for identification purposes, determining cause of death, or for the coroner or medical examiner to perform other duties authorized by law. We may also disclose protected health information to a funeral director, as authorized by law, in order to permit the funeral director to carry out their duties. We may disclose such information in reasonable anticipation of death. Protected health information may be used and disclosed for cadaveric organ, eye, or tissue donation purposes.

Research

We may disclose your protected health information to researchers when their research has been approved by an institutional review board that has reviewed the research proposal and established protocols to ensure the privacy of your protected health information.

Criminal Activity

Consistent with applicable federal and state laws, we may disclose your protected health information if we believe that the use or disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public. We may also disclose protected health information if it is necessary for law enforcement authorities to identify or apprehend an individual.

Military Activity and National Security

When the appropriate conditions apply, we may use or disclose protected health information of individuals who are Armed Forces personnel:

• For activities deemed necessary by appropriate military command authorities.
• For the purpose of a determination by the Department of Veterans Affairs of your eligibility for benefits.
• To a foreign military authority if you are a member of that foreign military service.

We may also disclose your protected health information to authorized federal officials for conducting national security and intelligence activities, including for the provision of protective services to the President or others legally authorized.

Uses and Disclosures of Protected Health Information Based upon Your Written Authorization

Other uses and disclosures of your protected health information will be made only with your written authorization, unless otherwise permitted or required by law as described below. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time. If you revoke your authorization, we will no longer use or disclose your protected health information for the reasons covered by your written authorization. Please understand that we are unable to take back any disclosures already made with your authorization.

Other Permitted and Required Uses and Disclosures That Require Providing You the Opportunity to Agree or Object

We may use and disclose your protected health information in the following instances. You have the opportunity to agree or object to the use or disclosure of all or part of your protected health information. If you are not present or able to agree or object to the use or disclosure of the protected health information, then your physician may, using professional judgment, determine whether the disclosure is in your best interest.

Facility Directories

Unless you object, we will use and disclose in our facility directory your name, the location at which you are receiving care, your general condition (such as fair or stable), and your religious affiliation. All of this information, except religious affiliation, will be disclosed to people that ask for you by name. Your religious affiliation will be only given to a member of the clergy, such as a priest or rabbi.

Others Involved in Your Healthcare or Payment for Your Care

Unless you object, we may disclose to a member of your family, a relative, a close friend, or any other person you identify, your protected health information that directly relates to that person’s involvement in your healthcare. If you are unable to agree or object to such a disclosure, we may disclose such information as necessary if we determine that it is in your best interest based on our professional judgment.

We may use or disclose protected health information to notify or assist in notifying a family member, personal representative, or any other person that is responsible for your care of your location, general condition, or death. Finally, we may use or disclose your protected health information to an authorized public or private entity to assist in disaster relief efforts and to coordinate uses and disclosures to family or other individuals involved in your healthcare.

2. Your Rights

Following is a statement of your rights with respect to your protected health information and a brief description of how you may exercise these rights.

Inspect and Copy Your Protected Health Information

You have the right to inspect and obtain a copy of protected health information about you for as long as we maintain the protected health information. This includes medical and billing records and any other records that your physician and the practice use for making decisions about you. As permitted by federal or state law, we may charge you a reasonable copy fee for a copy of your records.

Under federal law, however, you may not inspect or copy the following records:

• Psychotherapy notes.
• Information compiled in anticipation of, or use in, a civil, criminal, or administrative action or proceeding.
• Laboratory results subject to law that prohibits access to protected health information.

Depending on the circumstances, a decision to deny access may be reviewable. Please contact our Privacy Officer if you have questions about access to your medical record.

Request a Restriction of Your Protected Health Information

You have the right to request that we restrict the use or disclosure of any part of your protected health information for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations. You may also request that certain parts of your protected health information not be disclosed to family members or friends involved in your care.

Your request must specify the restriction and to whom it applies. While your physician is not required to agree to a restriction, if they do agree, we will honor the restriction except when needed to provide emergency treatment.

Request Confidential Communications

You have the right to request that we communicate with you through alternative means or at an alternative location. We will accommodate reasonable requests and may ask for details such as payment handling or an alternative contact method. Requests must be submitted in writing to our Privacy Officer.

Request to Amend Your Protected Health Information

You have the right to request an amendment to your protected health information for as long as we maintain this information. If we deny your request, you have the right to file a statement of disagreement, and we may prepare a rebuttal, which will be provided to you.

Please contact our Privacy Officer if you have questions about amending your medical record.

Receive an Accounting of Certain Disclosures

You have the right to receive an accounting of certain disclosures of your protected health information, excluding disclosures made for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations; to you; with your authorization; for a facility directory; to family or friends involved in your care; for national security or intelligence; to law enforcement; or as part of a limited data set.

This right applies to disclosures made after June 1, 2024. The right to receive this information is subject to certain exceptions and limitations.

Obtain a Paper Copy of This Notice

You have the right to obtain a paper copy of this notice from us upon request, even if you have agreed to receive it electronically.

3. Complaints

Your Anagen account information is password-protected for your privacy and security. We implement reasonable safeguards to protect the security of the data you send us through physical, administrative, and technical procedures. In certain areas of our websites, Anagen uses industry-standard SSL encryption to enhance the security of data transmissions.

While we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure the security of the information you transmit to us, and so we urge you to take every precaution to protect your personal data. No data transmission over the Internet or through mobile devices can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. There is no guarantee that information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards.

It is your responsibility to protect the security of your login information. Change your passwords often and use a combination of letters and numbers.

You may complain to us or to the Secretary of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights have been violated by us. You may file a complaint with us by notifying our Privacy Officer of your complaint. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint. You may contact your doctor if you have any other questions about privacy practices.

You may contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@anagen.xyz.

Last Updated: This Policy was last updated December 5, 2024.