Notice of Privacy Practices

HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED

Niu Health Chiropractic may use and/or disclose your medical information for the following purposes:

Treatment: We may disclose your healthcare information in the provision, coordination, or management of your health care, including consultations between health care providers regarding your care and referrals for health care from one health care provider to another.

Payment: We may use and disclose protected health information to obtain reimbursement for the health care provided to you, including determinations of eligibility and coverage and other utilization review activities.

Regular Healthcare Operations: We may use and disclose protected health information to support functions of our practice related to treatment and payment, such as quality assurance activities, case management, receiving and responding to patient complaints, chiropractor reviews, compliance programs, audits, business planning, development, management and administrative activities.

Appointment Reminders: We may use and disclose protected health information to contact you to provide appointment reminders.

Treatment Alternatives: We may use and disclose protected health information to tell you about or recommend possible treatment alternatives or other health related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.

Health-Related Benefits and Services: We may use and disclose protected health information to tell you about health-related benefits, services, or medical education classes that may be of interest to you.

Individuals Involved in Your Care or Payment for Your Care: Unless you object, we may disclose your protected health information to your family or friends or any other individual identified by you when they are involved in your care or the payment for your care. We will only disclose the protected health information directly relevant to their involvement in your care or payment. We may also disclose your protected health information to notify a person responsible for your care (or to identify such person) of your location, general condition or death.

Business Associates: There may be some services provided in our organization through contracts with Business Associates. Examples include physician services in the emergency department and radiology, certain laboratory tests, and a copy service we use when making copies of your health record. When these services are contracted, we may disclose some or all of your health information to our Business Associate so that they can perform the job we have asked them to do. To protect your health information, however, we require the Business Associate to appropriately safeguard your information.

Organ and Tissue Donation: If you are an organ donor, we may release medical information to organizations that handle organ procurement or organ, eye or tissue transplantation or to an organ donation bank, as necessary to facilitate organ or tissue donation and transplantation.

Worker’s Compensation: We may release protected health information about you for programs that provide benefits for work related injuries or illness.

Communicable Diseases: We may disclose protected health information to notify a person who may have been exposed to a disease or may be at risk for contracting or spreading a disease or condition.

Health Oversight Activities: We may disclose protected health information to federal or state agencies that oversee our activities.

Law Enforcement: We may disclose protected health information as required by law or in response to a valid judge ordered subpoena. For example in cases of victims of abuse or domestic violence; to identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person; related to judicial or administrative proceedings; or related to other law enforcement purposes.

Military and Veterans: If you are a member of the armed forces, we may release protected health information about you as required by military command authorities.

Lawsuits and Disputes: We may disclose protected health information about you in response to a court or administrative order. We may also disclose medical information about you in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process.

Inmates: If you are an inmate of a correctional institution or under the custody of a law enforcement official, we may release protected health information about you to the correctional institution or law enforcement official. An inmate does not have the right to the Notice of Privacy Practices.

Abuse or Neglect: We may disclose protected health information to notify the appropriate government authority if we believe a patient has been the victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence. We will only make this disclosure if you agree or when required or authorized by law.

Fundraising: Unless you notify us you object, we may contact you as part of a fundraising effort for our practice. You may opt out of receiving fundraising materials by notifying the practice’s privacy officer at any time at the telephone number or the address at the end of this document. This will also be documented and described in any fundraising material you receive.

Coroners, Medical Examiners, and Funeral Directors: We may release protected health information to a coroner or medical examiner. This may be necessary to identify a deceased person or determine the cause of death. We may also release protected health information about patients to funeral directors as necessary to carry out their duties.

Public Health Risks: 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. The disclosure will be made for the purpose such as controlling disease, injury or disability.

Serious Threats: As permitted by applicable law and standards of ethical conduct, we may use and disclose protected health information if we, in good faith, 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.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA): As required by law, 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.

Research (inpatient): We may disclose information to researchers when an institutional review board that has reviewed the research proposal and established protocols to ensure the privacy of your health information has approved their research.

Marketing: As a service to our patients, it is our policy to occasionally send a health newsletter or a flyer regarding an upcoming health class offered on our premises. It is not our policy to disclose any personal health information about your condition for the purpose of these marketing mailings. We may send birthday cards or holiday greetings or health reminders to our patients. It is not our policy disclose any personal health information about your condition in these mailings.

Change of Ownership: In the event that Niu Health Chiropractic is sold or merged with another organization, your health information/record will become the property of the new owner.

Your Health Information Rights

• You have the right to request restrictions on certain uses and disclosures of your health information. Please be advised, however, that Niu Health Chiropractic is not required to agree to the restriction you requested.
• You have the right to have your health information received or communicated through an alternative method when sent to an alternate location other than the usual method of communication or delivery, upon your request.
• You have the right to inspect and copy health information.
• You have a right to request that Niu Health Chiropractic amend your protected health information. Please be advised, however, that Niu Health Chiropractic is not required to agree to amend your protected health information. If your request to amend your health information has been denied, you will be provided with an explanation of our denial reason(s) and information about how you can’t disagree with the denial.
• You have a right to receive an accounting of disclosures of your protected health information made by Niu Health Chiropractic.
• You have a right to a paper copy of this Notice of Privacy Practices at any time upon request

OUR RESPONSIBILITIES

We are required to maintain the privacy of your health information. In addition, we are required to provide you with a notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to information we collect and maintain about you. We must abide by the terms of this notice. We reserve the right to change our practices and to make the new provisions effective for all the protected health information we maintain. If our information practices change, a revised notice will be mailed to the address you have supplied upon request. If we maintain a Web site that provides information about our patient/customer services or benefits, the new notice will be posted on that Web site. Your health information will not be used or disclosed without your written authorization, except as described in this notice. Except as noted above, you may revoke your authorization in writing at any time.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO REPORT A PROBLEM

If you have questions about this notice or would like additional information, you may contact Christine Teaño Lipat, DC at the telephone or address below. If you believe that your privacy rights have been violated, you have the right to file a complaint with Niu Health Chiropractic or with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. We will take no retaliatory action against you if you make such complaints. The contact information for both is included here: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services , Office of the Secretary 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20201, Tel: (202) 619-0257 Toll Free: 1-877-696-6775 http://www.hhs.gov/contacts

NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES AVAILABILITY

You may obtain a copy upon request, and the notice will be maintained on the organization’s Web site (www.niuhealthchiropractic.com) for downloading.