Home Care Partners Privacy Notice

At Home Care Partners, we are fully committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of your health care information. This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully.

Uses and Disclosures

Information Collected

Home Care Partners collects various types of non-public personal health and financial information, also known as “Protected Health Information” (PHI), in order to provide services to you for the purposes or treatment, payment and health care operations (TPO). Examples of this include:

Personal information: During the application process information is collected including: name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, gender, marital status, living arrangement, medical doctor, emergency contact and income.
Medical information: Information such as diagnoses of physical and mental health conditions is collected during the routine application and assessment processes.

Uses of Shared Information

During the routine course of providing services to you, Home Care Partners will need to share information both within and outside the agency for the purposes of treatment, payment and health care operations (TPO). Personal health and financial information will be shared only with proper authorization as required by law, or as expressly required or permitted by law without written authorization. Examples include:

For treatment: Information may be shared with outside service providers as a part of the treatment process to complete referrals for community-based services at the request of the client, or as required by law.
For payment: Personal information will be furnished to a government agency that is providing full or partial funding for an individual’s home care services, including client name, address, date of birth, Social Security number and other data, such as income.
For health care operations: Information will be shared between Home Care Partners staff to ensure proper scheduling and delivery of home care services, appropriate case management services, accurate billing for and payment of services, and to ensure that the agency’s quality improvement activities are adequate.

As a part of our business practices, we limit the collection and use of client information to the minimum necessary to deliver our services. Uses and disclosures of private health care and financial information for non-TPO purposes will be made only with an individual’s written authorization and the individual may revoke such authorization in writing at any time.

How Information is Protected

The agency maintains physical and electronic safeguards, as well as processes and procedures, to assure that only authorized employees or agents are able to access protected health care information. Employee access to information is provided on a need-to-know basis for purposes such as billing, scheduling, quality improvement, administration, and the provision of case management services.

Information Shared with Non-Affiliated Third Parties

Home Care Partners may engage in business with associates that requires the exchange of protected health care information. All business associates are required to abide by applicable federal and state laws as they relate to the protection of health care information. Examples would include: 1) the electronic time verification service that is used to monitor home care aide work time; and 2) government entities that provide funding to the agency.

Additionally, the agency may reveal information under the following circumstances:

When required by law to use or disclose such information;
For public health activities (such as reporting disease outbreaks);
To report abuse, neglect or domestic violence to the appropriate authorities;
For government healthcare oversight activities (such as fraud and abuse investigations);
For judicial and administrative proceedings (such as in response to a court order);
For law enforcement purposes (such as providing limited information to locate a missing person);
To authorities charged with determining the identity or cause of death of a decedent;
For research studies that meet all privacy law requirements;
To avoid a serious and imminent threat to health or safety;
To contact you about alternative treatments; and
To create a collection of information that can no longer be traced back to you.

Uses and Disclosures Requiring You to have an Opportunity to Object

We may disclose a limited amount of your PHI under certain circumstances if we inform you about the disclosure in advance and you do not object, as long as the disclosure is not prohibited by law. Examples include:

Patient Directory: We maintain a roster of current clients to direct incoming calls and queries to appropriate staff.
Family Members and Other Caregivers: We may share information with people directly involved in your care, or payment for your care, such as relatives and friends.

If there is an emergency situation and you cannot be given the opportunity to object, disclosure may be made if it is consistent with your prior expressed wishes and disclosure is determined to be in your best interests. You must be informed and given an opportunity to object to further disclosure as soon as you are able to do so.

Other Uses for Which a Separate Notice is required

From time-to-time, the agency may engage in fundraising activities. It is possible that clients and/or family members may be contacted in relation to this type of activity. An individual may request to opt out of such activities by providing written notice to the agency.

Your Rights Regarding Your Protected Health Information

As specified in law, clients and/or their legal representative have rights with respect to protected health information, including:

The right to request restrictions on certain uses and disclosures of protected health care information. It should be noted that the agency is not required to agree to a requested restriction, unless otherwise noted.
The right to receive confidential communications of protected health care information.
The right to inspect and copy protected health care information
The right to amend protected health care information.
The right to receive an accounting of disclosures of protected health care information.
The right to receive a copy of this notice upon request.

To exercise one or more of these rights, a client may contact their case manager.

Agency Duties

Home Care Partners is required by law to maintain the privacy of protected health care information and to provide individuals with notice of its legal duties and privacy practices with respect to protected health care information.

The agency is required to abide by the terms of the notice currently in effect. The agency reserves the right to change this notice and to make the new notice provisions effective for all protected health information that it maintains. In that event, an updated notice will be provided to all current clients.

Complaints and Contact

Individuals may complain to Home Care Partners if they believe that their privacy rights have been violated. All complaints should be submitted in writing to: HIPAA Compliance Officer, Home Care Partners, 1234 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite C-1002, Washington, D.C. 20005. Additionally, by law, individuals have the right to complain to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. An individual will not be retaliated against for filing a complaint.

Any general questions or concerns related to this notice may be directed to Home Care Partners HIPAA Compliance Officer at 202 638-2382.

Effective Date

This notice is effective February 1, 2003.