Health Services

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)


NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

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.

Protecting Your Personal and Health Information

Boise State University Health Services (UHS) is required by applicable federal and state laws to maintain the privacy of your health information. This notice explains our privacy practices, our legal duties, and your rights concerning your health information. While this policy is in effect, we are required by law to abide by its terms. If you have questions about any part of this notice or if you want more information about the privacy practices at UHS, please contact:

Tara Brooks
Manager, Patient Services
HIPAA Privacy Compliance Officer
University Health Services
1910 University Drive
Boise, ID 83725-1351
Phone (208) 426-1602
Fax (208) 426-3005

Terms

Protected Health Information (PHI): is considered to be any medical information that could in any way identify, or reasonably identify an individual patient.

Treatment, Payment, and Health Care Operations (TPO): activities related to the provision of medical care, and activities related to collecting payment from the patient or a third party, and health care operations. Health care operations encompass functions such as quality improvement, peer review, accreditation, licensing, contracting with insurers, business planning, auditing and general administration.

Minimum Necessary: the least amount of PHI that is required to achieve the desired purpose.

Uses and Disclosures of Health Information

We will not disclose your health information unless we are allowed or required by law to make the disclosure, or if you (or your authorized representative) give us written permission. With some infrequently occurring exceptions, any other disclosure of PHI requires your authorization. If there are other legal requirements under applicable state laws that further restrict our use or disclosure of your health information, we will comply with those legal requirements as well. Following are the types of disclosures we may make as allowed or required by law:

  • Treatment: We may use and disclose your health information for our treatment activities or for the treatment activities of a health care provider. Treatment activities include disclosing your health information to a provider in order for that provider to treat you.
  • Payment: We may use and disclose your health information for our payment activities, including the payment of claims from physicians, hospitals, and other providers for services delivered to you.
  • Health Care Operations: We are permitted to use and disclose your health information for our internal business operations. These uses and disclosures are necessary to run UHS and to make sure that all of our patients receive quality care.
  • Business Associates: We may also share your health information with third party "business associates" who perform certain activities for us. We require these business associates to certify that your health information has the same protections afforded by us.
  • Plan Sponsors: If you are enrolled in the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP), we may disclose your health information to the sponsor to permit it to perform administrative activities.
  • Underwriting: We may receive, use and disclose your health information for underwriting, premium rating or other activities relating to the creation, renewal or replacement of the contract for student health insurance.
  • To you or your authorized representative: Upon your written request, we will disclose your health information to you or your authorized representative. If you authorize us to do so in writing, we may use your health information or disclose it to the person or entity you name on your signed authorization. Once you provide us with a written authorization, you may revoke it in writing at any time. Your revocation will not affect any use or disclosure permitted by your authorization while it was in effect. In certain situations when disclosure of your information could be harmful for you or another person, we may limit the information available to you, or use an alternative means of meeting your request.
  • To your parents, if you are a minor: Some state laws concerning minors permit or require disclosure of protected health information to parents, guardian, and persons acting in a similar legal status. We will act consistently with the laws of Idaho and will make disclosures consistent with such laws.
  • Your family and friends: If you are unable to consent to the disclosure of your health information, such as in a medical emergency, we may disclose your personal information to a family member or friend to the extent necessary to help with your health care or with payment for your health care. We will only do so if we determine that the disclosure is in your best interest.
  • Scheduling and Appointment Reminders: We may contact you to provide appointment reminders or to cancel, change or schedule an appointment.
  • Marketing: We may use your personal information to contact you with information about health related products and services or about treatment alternatives that may be of interest to you.
  • Research, Death and Organ Donation: We may use your health information for research purposed in limited circumstances. We may disclose the health information of a deceased person to a coroner, medical examiner, funeral director, or organ procurement organization for certain purposes.
  • Public Health and Safety: We may disclose your health information if we believe disclosure is necessary to avert a serious and imminent threat to your health or safety or the health and safety of others. We may disclose your health information to appropriate authorities if we have reason to believe that you are a possible victim of abuse, neglect, domestic violence or other crimes.
  • Required by law: We must disclose your health information when we are required to do so by law.
  • Process and Proceedings: We may disclose your health information in response to a court or administrative order, subpoena, discovery request or other lawful process.
  • Law Enforcement: We may disclose limited information to law enforcement officials.
  • Military and National Security: We may disclose to military authorities the health information of Armed Forces personnel under certain circumstances. We may disclose to authorized federal officials health information required for lawful intelligence, counterintelligence, and other national security activities.

Patient Rights

You have the right to review and receive a copy of your health information as provided in 45 CFR 164.524. We may charge you a nominal fee for providing you with copies of your health information. We may also require that you provide a written request for any and all records you would like to receive. This right does not include the right to obtain copies of the following records: psychotherapy notes, information compiled in reasonable anticipation of, or use in, a civil, criminal or administrative action or proceeding; and protected health information that is subject to other state or federal laws that prohibit us to release such information. We may also limit your access to your health information if we determine that providing the information could possibly harm you or another person. If we limit access based upon the belief that it could harm you or another person, you have the right to request a review of that decision.

  • Amendment: You have the right to request that we amend your health information as provided in 45 CFR 164.526. Your request must be in writing, and it must identify the information that you think is incorrect and explain why the information should be amended. We may decline your request for certain reasons, including but not limited to; if you ask us to change information that we did not create. If we decline your request to amend your records, we will provide you with a written explanation. You may respond with a statement of disagreement to be appended to the information you wanted amended. If we accept your request to amend the information, we will make reasonable efforts to inform others, including people you have authorized, of the amendment and to include the changes in any future disclosures of that information.
  • Accounting of disclosures: You have the right to receive a report of instances in which we, or our business associates, disclose your health information for purposes other than for treatment, payment, health care operations as provided in 45 CFR 164.528. You are entitled to such an accounting for the six (6) years prior to your request. We will provide you with the date on which we made a disclosure, the name of the person or entity to whom we disclosed your health information, a description of the health information we disclosed, the reason for the disclosure, and applicable information. If you request this list more than once in a 12 month period, we may charge you a reasonable fee for creating and sending these additional reports.
  • Restriction Requests: You have the right to request that we place additional restrictions on our use or disclosure of your health information for treatment, payment, health care operations or to persons you identify as provided by 45 CFR 164.522 (a). However, we are not required to agree to requested restriction and therefore we may be unable to agree to your request restrictions. If we are able to agree to requested restrictions, we will abide by our agreement (except in an emergency).
  • Confidential Communication: You have the right to request that we communicate with you in confidence about your health information by alternative means or to an alternative location as provided by 45 CFR 164.522 (b). If you advise us that disclosure of all or any part of your health information could endanger you, we will comply with any reasonable request provided you specify an alternative means of communication.
  • Electronic Notice: If you received this notice on our web site or by electronic mail (e-mail), you are also entitled to receive this notice in written form. Please contact us using the information listed at the beginning of this notice to obtain this document in written form.

Changes to this Notice of Privacy Practices

Boise State University Health Services reserves the right to amend this Notice of Privacy Practices at any time in the future and to make the new Notice provisions effective for all health information that it maintains. We will promptly revise your Notice and will post it on our web site and a copy will be available upon your request. Until such time, Boise State University Health Services is required by law to comply with the current version of this Notice.

Complaints

If you feel any of your rights listed in this Notice have been violated, please contact:

Tara Brooks
Manager, Patient Services
HIPAA Privacy Compliance Officer
University Health Services
1910 University Drive
Boise, ID 83725-1351
Phone (208) 426-1602
Fax (208) 426-3005

You may also submit a written complaint to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. There will be no retaliation for filing a complaint.

Office for Civil Rights, Region X-Seattle
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Linda Yuu Connor, Regional Manager
2201 Sixth Avenue - M/S: RX-11
Seattle, WA 98121-1831
Phone: (206) 615-2297
Fax: (206) 615-2296

Effective date of this notice: August 27, 2012