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Patient Information and Privacy Policy

OCCUPATIONAL AND REHABILITATION CENTER, PA (ORC)

ORC does not request, require or transmit protected Personal Health Information (PHI) through its website.  Protected Health Information (PHI) is collected at ORC’s physical locations in person.

NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION.  PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.

At Occupational and Rehabilitation Center, PA., we are committed to treating and using protected health information (“PHI”) about you responsibly.  This Notice of Privacy Practices (“Notice”) describes the personal information we collect, and how and when we use or disclose that information.  It also describes your rights as they relate to your PHI.  This Notice has been updated in accordance with the HIPAA Omnibus Rule and is effective March 1, 2013.  It applies to all PHI as defined by federal regulations.

As Required by Law: We may use or disclose your health information if we are required by law to do so.

Understanding Your Health Record/Information

Each time you visit Occupational and Rehabilitation Center; a record of your visit is made. Typically, this record contains your symptoms, examination and test results, diagnoses, treatment, and a plan for future care or treatment. This information may be used or disclosed to:

Plan your care and treatment.

Information obtained by a nurse, physician, or other member of your health care team will be recorded in your medical record and used to determine the course of treatment that should work best for you. To promote quality care, Occupational and Rehabilitation Center maintains a record of health information about you.  Occupational and Rehabilitation Center may also provide a subsequent healthcare provider with health information about you (e.g., copies of various reports) that should assist him or her in treating you in the future.

Occupational and Rehabilitation Center may use a prescription hub which provides electronic access to your medication history.  This will assist Occupational and Rehabilitation Center health care providers in understanding what other medications may have been prescribed for you by other providers.

Communicate with other providers who contribute to your care.

We may use information in your health record to assess the care and outcomes in your case and others like it. This information will then be used in an effort to continually improve the quality and effectiveness of the health care and service we provide.

Serve as a legal document.

Receive payment from you, your plan, or your health insurer.

A bill may be sent to you or a third-party payer. The information on or accompanying the bill may include information that identifies you, diagnosis, procedures, and supplies used.

Assess and continually work to improve the care we render and the outcomes we achieve.

Communication from Offices:  We may call your home or other designated location and leave a message on voice mail, in person, or by text, in reference to any items that assist Occupational and Rehabilitation Center in carrying out Treatment, Payment and Health Care Operations, such as appointment reminders, insurance items and any call pertaining to your clinical care. We may mail to your home or other designated location any items that assist Occupational and Rehabilitation Center in carrying out Treatment, Payment and Health Care Operations, such as appointment reminders, patient satisfaction surveys and patient statements.

Communication with Family/Personal Friends: Health professionals, using their best judgment, may disclose to a family member, other relative, close personal friend or any other person you identify, health information relevant to that person’s involvement in your care or payment related to your care.  When a family member(s) or a friend(s) accompany the patient into the exam room, it is considered implied consent that a disclosure of the patient medical data is acceptable.

Open treatment areas: Sometimes patient care is provided in an open treatment area. While special care is taken to maintain patient privacy, others may overhear some patient information while receiving treatment. Should you be uncomfortable with this, please bring this to the attention of our Privacy Officer.

Notification: We may use or disclose information to notify or assist in notifying a family member, personal representative, or another person responsible for your care, your location, and general condition.

Understanding what is in your record and how your health information is used helps you to: ensure its accuracy, better understand who, what, when, where, and why others may access your health information, and make more informed decisions when authorizing disclosure to others.

Comply with state and federal laws that require us to disclose your health information.

  1. Business Associates: We may contract with third parties to provide services on our behalf and disclose your health information to our business associate so that they can perform the job we’ve asked them to do. We require the business associate to appropriately safeguard your information.
  2. To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety: We may use your health information or share it with others when necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health or safety, or the health or safety of another person or the public.
  3. Coroners, Medical Examiners and Funeral Director: In the unfortunate event of your death, we may disclose your health information to a coroner or medical examiner. This may be necessary, for example, to determine the cause of death. We may also release this information to funeral directors as necessary to carry out their duties
  4. Deceased Individuals: In the unfortunate event of your death, we are permitted to disclose your PHI to your personal representative and your family members and others who were involved in the care or payment for your care prior to your death, unless inconsistent with any prior expressed preference that you provided to us. PHI excludes any information regarding a person who has been deceased for more than 50 years.
  5. Organ Procurement Organizations: Consistent with applicable law, we may disclose health information to organ procurement organizations, federally funded registries, or other entities engaged in the procurement, banking, or transplantation of organs for the purpose of tissue donation and transplant.
  6. Sale of your PHI: Occupational and Rehabilitation Center may not “sell” your PHI (i.e., disclose such PHI in exchange for remuneration) to a third party without your written authorization that acknowledges the remuneration unless such an exchange meets a regulatory exception.
  7. Health Oversight Activities: We may release your health information to government agencies authorized to conduct audits, investigations, and inspections of our facility. These government agencies monitor the operation of the health care system, government benefit programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and compliance with government regulatory programs and civil rights laws.
  8. Food and Drug Administration (FDA): We may disclose to the FDA health information relative to adverse events with respect to food, supplements, product and product defects, or post marketing surveillance information to enable product recalls, repairs, or replacement.
  9. Public Health: As required by law, we may disclose your health information to public health or legal authorities charged with preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability.
  10. Workers Compensation: We may disclose health information to the extent authorized by and to the extent necessary to comply with laws relating to workers compensation or other similar programs established by law.
  11. Law Enforcement: We may disclose health information for law enforcement purposes as required by law.
  12. Inmates and Correctional Institutions: If you are an inmate or you are detained by a law enforcement officer, we may disclose your health information to the prison officers or law enforcement officers if necessary to provide you with health care, or to maintain safety at the place where you are confined.
  13. Lawsuits and Disputes: We may disclose your health information if we are ordered to do so by a court that is handling a lawsuit or other dispute. We may also disclose your information in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful request by someone else involved in the dispute, but only if efforts have been made to tell you about the request or to obtain a court order protecting the information from further disclosure.

Your Health Information Rights

Although your health record is the physical property of Occupational and Rehabilitation Center, the information belongs to you. You have the right to request to:

  1. Access, inspect and copy your health record. Occupational and Rehabilitation Center will charge you a reasonable cost-based fee for the cost of supplies and labor of copying.
  2. Amend your health record which you believe is not correct or complete. Occupational and Rehabilitation Center is not required to agree to the amendment if Occupational and Rehabilitation Center did not create the information or if it is correct or complete.
  3. Obtain an accounting of disclosures of your health information.
  4. Communications of your health information by alternative means (e.g. e-mail) or at alternative locations (e.g. post office box).
  5. Place a restriction to certain uses and disclosures of your information. In most cases Occupational and Rehabilitation Center is not required to agree to these additional restrictions, but if Occupational and Rehabilitation Center does, Occupational and Rehabilitation Center will abide by the agreement (except in certain circumstances where disclosure is required or permitted, such as an emergency, for public health activities, or when disclosure is required by law). Occupational and Rehabilitation Center must comply with a request to restrict the disclosure of PHI to a health plan for purposes of carrying out payment or health care operations if the PHI pertains solely to a health care item or service for which we have been paid out of pocket in full.
  6. Revoke your authorization to use or disclose health information except to the extent that action has already been taken.
  7. Obtain a copy of your health care information in paper or a machine-readable electronic format.

Our Responsibilities

Occupational and Rehabilitation Center is required to:

  1. Maintain the privacy of your health information.
  2. Provide you with this Notice as to our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to information we collect and maintain about you.
  3. Abide by the terms of the Notice currently in effect.
  4. Notify you in writing if we are unable to agree to a requested restriction.
  5. Accommodate reasonable requests you may have to communicate health information by alternative means or at alternative locations.
  6. Notify you in writing of a breach where your unsecured PHI has been accessed, acquired, used or disclosed to an unauthorized person. “Unsecured PHI” refers to PHI that is not secured through the use of technologies or methodologies that render the PHI unusable, unreadable, or indecipherable to unauthorized individuals.

We reserve the right to change our practices and to make the new provisions effective for all PHI we maintain.  Should our information practices change, such revised Notices will be made available to you.

We will not use or disclose your health information without your written authorization, except as described in this Notice.

For More Information or to Report a Problem

If have questions and would like additional information, you may contact the Occupational and Rehabilitation Center Privacy Officer at:

Occupational and Rehabilitation Center, P.A.
6144 Gazebo Park Place S. Suite 101

Jacksonville, FL 32257

Email: Admin@ORCjax.com

If you are not satisfied with the manner in which this office handles a complaint, you may submit a formal complaint to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR):

By Mail:

Region 4 – Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center, Suite 16T70
Timothy Noonan, Regional Manager
61 Forsyth Street, S.W. Atlanta, GA 30303-8909

By Phone:

Voice Phone (800) 368-1019
FAX (404) 562-7881
TDD (800) 537-7697

By Email: OCRMail@hhs.gov

Online: OCR Online Complaint Portal

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