The Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information (Privacy Rule) is a set of national standards for the protection of certain health information. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued the Privacy Rule to implement the requirement of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). It's primary goal is to assure that individuals' health information is properly protected while allowing the flow of health information needed to provide and promote high quality health care and to protect the public's health and well being. As required by HIPAA, we have prepared this explanation of how we are required to maintain the privacy of your personal health information (PHI) and how we may use and disclose your health information. Additional information regarding health information can be found at https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/index.html

Limits and Exceptions to Confidentiality

The law protects the privacy of all communications between a patient and medical provider. In most situations, communications between you and your clinician will be held in strict confidence unless you provide written permission to release information about your treatment, signing a written authorization form that meets certain legal requirements imposed by HIPAA. There are exceptions to the requirement for written authorization that typically relate to treatment, payment, or operations. We may disclose your medical records for each of the following purposes:

• Communication with other medical providers who are involved in your care

• Administrative communication within Elise Scott, M.D. PLLC and within our electronic health record

• Reminders directed to the email address or phone number you provided

• Communication with your pharmacy and/or insurance companies to facilitate your care

• Other actions to facilitate payment of charges: this includes billing the identified guarantor, phone calls and letters to discuss billing or payment issues, and provision of information to third parties to obtain payment when requests for payment have not been addressed.

Other situations where we are permitted or required to disclose information without your consent or authorization:

• Threat to safety of self or others: If a clinician believes that a patient presents an imminent danger to the health and safety of himself/herself or someone else, the clinician may be required to disclose information in order to take protective actions, including initiating hospitalization, warning the potential victim, if identifiable, and/or calling the police.

• Abuse or neglect of a child or vulnerable adult: Tennessee State law requires that every practitioner report suspected child or vulnerable adult abuse and/or neglect to the Tennessee Department of Human Services.

• Court proceedings: Release of your information for a court proceeding requires your authorization or a court order.

• Lawsuit: If you are involved in a lawsuit or a dispute, we may disclose PHI in response to a court or administrative order. We also may disclose PHI in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other legal process from someone else involved in the dispute, but only if efforts have been made to tell you about the request or to get an order protecting the information requested. We may also use or disclose your PHI to defend Elise Scott, M.D. PLLC if sued by a patient.

• Law Enforcement. We may release PHI if asked by a law enforcement officer for the following reasons: in response to a court order, subpoena, warrant, summons or similar process; to identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person; about the victim of a crime; about a death we believe may be the result of criminal conduct; about criminal conduct on our premises; and in emergency circumstances to report a crime, the location of the crime or victims, or the identity, description, or location of the person who committed the crime.

• National Security. We may release PHI to authorized federal officials for national security activities authorized by law. For example, we may disclose PHI to those officials so they may protect the President.

• Coroners, Medical Examiners, and Funeral Directors. We may release PHI to a coroner, medical examiner, or funeral director so that they can carry out their duties. 

Patient Rights

You have the following rights with respect to your PHI. You may exercise these rights at any time with a written request to your provider:

• The right to request an amendment to your record

• The right to request restrictions on what information from your Medical Records is disclosed to others

• The right to inspect and copy your record

• The right to an account of disclosures of your PHI

• The right to be informed of any known breach of PHI

• The right to restrict certain disclosures of PHI to a health plan if the patient pays out of pocket in full for the health care service

• The right to a paper copy of this Notice of Privacy Practices.

We are required to notify you by first class mail or by e-mail of any breach of your PHI as soon as possible, but in any event, no later than 60 days after we discover the breach. The notice will give you the following information: a short description of what happened; the date of the breach and the date it was discovered; the steps you should take to protect yourself from potential harm from the breach; the steps we are taking to investigate the breach, mitigate losses, and protect against further breaches; and contact information where you can ask questions and get additional information. 

We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your protected health information and to provide you with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to protected health information. This notice is effective as of January 1, 2011, and we are required to abide by the terms of the Notice of Privacy Practices currently in effect. We reserve the right to change the terms of our Notice of Privacy Practices and to make the new notice provisions effective for all protected health information that we maintain. You may request a written copy of the Notice of Privacy Practices from this office at any time. You have recourse if you feel that your privacy protections have been violated. You have the right to file written complaint with our office, or with the Department of Health & Human Services (Office of Civil Rights) about violations of the provisions of this notice. We will never retaliate against you for filing a complaint. 

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

Office of Civil Rights

200 Independence Ave, S.W.

Washington, D.C. 20201

(202) 619-0257

Toll Free: 1-877-696-6775