| Computerized
Diagnostic Imaging Centers
&
Riverside Radiology Medical Group, Inc.
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION
ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN
GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW THIS
NOTICE CAREFULLY.
To our patients: We are
required by law to maintain the privacy of your medical
information and to provide you with notice of our
legal duties and privacy practices. We are required
to abide by the terms of the Notice of Privacy Practices
currently in effect. We reserve the right to change
those terms and any changes made will be effective
for all medical information we maintain, in accordance
with federal law. A copy of a revised notice will
be available from our web site at www.rivrad.com or
at any of our imaging centers or from our Privacy
Coordinator. You may also address questions regarding
our privacy practices, your privacy rights, or requests
for additional information regarding your privacy.
Who will Follow These Practices?
This Notice applies to the information privacy practices
followed by our employees, staff and other office
personnel.
Permitted Uses and Disclosures
We may use and disclose your medical information in
the ordinary course of our business. We have described
some of these uses and disclosures in the following
paragraphs:
o Treatment: We will provide
your doctor or other healthcare providers with the
results of the diagnostic imaging exams we perform.
We may contact you before the exam to remind you of
your appointment or to talk with you about preparing
for the exam. We normally will call you at the contact
number that you provide us. If you are not available
or your voice mail answers, we will leave a brief
message reminding you of the place and the time of
your appointment. If applicable, we will ask you to
call us regarding your exam preparations.
o Payment: We will bill
your insurance company, you directly, or another person
that may be responsible for payment of your account.
We may need to contact your health plan to see if
they will pay for the exams your doctor has ordered.
Throughout this process, we may have to release details
of your exam and medical condition, if your health
plan or other payor requires this information to make
payment.
o Health Care Operations:
We often have to use specific patient information
to conduct our normal business operations. For example,
we routinely review past exams performed to maintain
quality assurance goals. One type of review we may
conduct includes selecting images for review by another
radiologist. We may select your billing information
for review by our internal compliance team or by external
auditors. In addition, we may use specific patient
information to demonstrate our skills to an accreditation
body. Accreditation is important to our patients and
us because the process causes us to demonstrate some
degree of proficiency in conducting examinations and
maintaining the quality of our equipment.
Disclosures Without Authorization
We may use and disclose medical information about
you, without your specific authorization, as follows:
o Disclosures Required by Law:
We may be required by federal, state, or local law
to disclose your medical information.
o Public Health Activities:
We may disclose your medical information to a public
agency, such as the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA), or any other public health agency,
at their request.
o Victims of Abuse, Neglect or Domestic
Violence: We may be required to disclose
your medical information, if we feel that you have
been abused or neglected.
o Health Oversight Activities:
We may be required to disclose your medical information
to Medicare or a related agency if they select your
case for a medical review.
o Judicial and Administrative Proceedings:
We may have to disclose your medical information,
if we receive a subpoena from a judge or administrative
tribunal.
o Law Enforcement: We may
have to disclose your medical information in conjunction
with a criminal investigation by a federal or state
law enforcement agency.
o Serious Threats to Health or Safety:
We may be required to disclose your medical information,
if in our opinion, doing so will help avert a serious
threat to the public.
o Military Personnel: We
may disclose your medical information to the appropriate
command authorities.
o Workers Compensation:
We may disclose your medical information to comply
with laws regarding Workers’ Compensation.
o Family and Friends: We
may disclose information about you to your family
members or friends if we obtain your written agreement.
In situations where you are not capable of giving
consent (because you are not present or due to your
incapacity or medical emergency), we may also disclose
health information to your family or friends when
they provide us verification of your social security
number. We may also use our professional
judgment and experience to make reasonable inferences
that it is in your best interest to allow another
person to act on your behalf to pick up your records
(i.e. reports, films).
Your rights regarding your health information
You have certain rights with respect to your medical
information.
o Requesting Restrictions:
You may ask us to limit our use or disclosure of your
protected health information. We are not required
to agree to your request, but if we agree to it, we
will abide by your request, except as required by
law, in emergencies or when the information is necessary
to treat you. Your request must: 1) be in writing
2) describe the information that you want restricted,
3) state if the restriction is to limit our use or
disclosures, and 4) state to whom the restriction
applies. You may revoke your restriction at any time
by contacting our Privacy Coordinator as noted on
the last page. We may ask to reschedule your exam
while we consider your request.
o Confidential Communication:
You may ask that we communicate with you in a particular
way or at a certain location, to maintain your confidentiality.
Your request must be in writing, tell us how you intend
to satisfy your financial responsibility, and specify
an alternate way that we can contact you confidentially.
You do not have to give a reason for your request.
In certain circumstances, we may require payment in
full at the time you have your exam. You may revoke
your request at any time by contacting our Privacy
Coordinator as noted on the first page. We may ask
to reschedule your exam while we consider your request.
o Inspect and Copy: You
may request access to inspect and copy your medical
information maintained in our records, including medical
and billing records. Your request must be in writing.
We will act on your request for inspections within
5 working days after we receive the request. We will
act on your request for copies within 15 days after
we receive the request. If we must deny your request,
we will send you a written denial. If this happens,
you may request a review of the denial. We may charge
you a fee for providing copies. If that is the case,
we will advise you of the cost of those copies, at
the time that we arrange for you to pick them up or
have them delivered to you.
We will compute these costs using state guidelines.
You may also have to pay for the cost of postage or
shipping, depending on how you ask that we get these
copies to you.
o Amendment: You may ask
us to amend your health information if you believe
that it is incorrect or incomplete. Your request must
be in writing and must include a reason to support
the amendment. Your request may be denied if we believe
that the information is complete and accurate, if
the information is not part of the medical information
that you would be permitted to inspect or copy, or
if we did not create the information. You also have
the option of submitting your own amendment. This
amendment must be in writing and cannot be longer
than 250 words per item that you are trying to correct.
We will then include this amendment when we release
the medical records in question.
o Accounting of Disclosures:
You may request a list of non-routine disclosures
that we have made of your medical information over
the previous six (6) years. This does not include
disclosures we make for your treatment, to seek payment
for ourselves, or for our normal business operations
as noted in the section on permitted uses and disclosures,
or for those you authorize in writing. You may not
request an accounting for dates of service prior to
April 14, 2003. Your first request within a 12-month
period is free, but we may charge for additional lists
within the same 12-month period.
o File a Complaint: If
you believe that we have violated your privacy rights,
you may file a complaint directly with our Privacy
Coordinator using the contact information at the bottom
of this page or with the Department of Health and
Human Services. You will not be penalized for complaining.
Patient Authorization for Certain Disclosures:
We will request your written authorization for uses
and disclosures of your medical information that we
did not identify in this notice or for those not otherwise
permitted by law. These disclosures include your requests
or provide exam results to your attorney, for exams
related to life insurance or disability insurance
applications, or for pre-employment physicals, among
others. You may revoke your authorization in writing
at any time by contacting our Privacy Coordinator
using the contact information on this page. You may
demand a copy of your authorization at any time.
If you have any questions regarding this notice or
our health information privacy policies, please contact
the Privacy Coordinator at:
Privacy Coordinator
Computerized Diagnostic Imaging Centers Riverside
Radiology Medical Group, Inc.
2020 Iowa Avenue, Suite 103 Riverside, CA 92507
(951)781-2270 |