Effective Date: April 14, 2003
The Lancaster General
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.

To whom does this notice apply?

This notice describes the privacy practices of an organized health care arrangement (as defined by law) consisting of Lancaster General Hospital and each member of its Medical & Dental Staff, (the physicians and their physician assistants, nurses, etc.).  The notice applies when you are receiving any inpatient or outpatient services at any location of Lancaster General Hospital, including but not limited to its Duke Street location, the Lancaster General Health Campus, The Lancaster General Women & Babies Hospital, Walter L. Aument Medical Center, Willow Lakes Medical Center, Crooked Oak Medical Center, and Kissel Hill Medical Center.  This notice also describes the privacy practices of organizations directly related to Lancaster General Hospital, including Lancaster General Hospital-Susquehanna Division (including all of its Medical Staff members), Lancaster General Medical Group (including all of its physicians), the Visiting Nurse Association of Lancaster County, Inc., Maple Farm Nursing Center, and Lancaster General Services. The persons and entities described in this paragraph participating in the organized health care arrangement will share protected health information about you with each other only as necessary to carry out treatment, payment or health care operations.

We know that information about you and your health is personal.  We will protect your medical information.  We keep a record of the care and services you receive through Lancaster General.  The law requires us to keep this record. We also use it to give you quality care.  This notice applies to all records of your care created by Lancaster General. Records include those made by health care staff or your doctor.

State and Federal Law requires us to keep private any identifiable medical information. We must also give you this explanation of our duties and practices relating to your medical information. And we must follow the terms of the current notice.

We reserve the right to change this notice.  Information we already have about you or that we may receive in the future is covered if we decide to change this notice. We will post a copy of the most recent notice at Lancaster General sites that provide health care. It will always be posted on our Web site at www.LancasterGeneral.org. You can ask for a copy at any time.

HOW LANCASTER GENERAL MAY USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR MEDICAL INFORMATION

For Treatment: We may use and reveal your medical information to give you treatment or services. All Lancaster General health care providers may disclose your medical information to manage your care. This could include prescriptions, lab work and X-rays. Also, we may disclose your medical information with others who may be involved in your medical care after you leave.  This could include disclosing your medical information to a doctor, nursing home, or home health agency that is providing follow-up care.

For Payment: We may use and disclose your medical information relating to the billing and payment of treatment and services you received through Lancaster General. Payment may be collected from you, an insurance company or another party.  For example, we may need to give your health plan information about surgery you received at the hospital so they will either pay us or repay you.  We may also tell your health plan about a treatment you are going to receive. This helps us get pre-approval. We can also determine if your plan will cover the treatment.

For Health Care Operations: We may use and disclose medical information about you to manage our organizations and make sure that everyone gets quality care.  For example, we may use this information to look at our treatment and services and to see how well our staff cared for you.  We may also combine medical information about many patients to decide if we need or do not need services and to determine if new treatments work.  We may also disclose information with doctors, nurses, technicians, medical students, and other Lancaster General staff for educational purposes.  We may also combine the medical information we have with medical information from other health care providers to see how we are doing and where we can improve.  We may remove identifiable information so others may study health care and health care delivery. 

For other uses and disclosures see “OTHER WAYS WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR MEDICAL INFORMATION”

YOUR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

Right to Inspect and Copy.  In most cases, you can inspect and /or get a copy of your official medical and billing records. You may be charged a fee for this service. 

Right to Amend.  If you feel that your official medical and billing records are wrong or incomplete, you may ask us to make changes.  

Right to an Accounting of Disclosures.  You have the right to ask for an "accounting of disclosures."  This is a list of the releases we made of your official medical and billing records for reasons other than treatment, payment or related healthcare operations purposes.  We may charge a fee for this information.

Right to Request Restrictions. You have the right to ask us not to use your medical information in certain ways.  Lancaster General does not have to agree. If we do agree, we will do what you ask unless the information is needed for your emergency medical treatment.

Right to Request Confidential Communications.  You can ask that we contact you about medical matters in a specific way.  For example, you can ask that we only call you at work, or contact you through the mail.

Right to Obtain a Paper Copy of This Notice.  You may ask for a paper copy of this notice even if you have agreed to accept this notice electronically.

OTHER WAYS WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR MEDICAL INFORMATION

Appointment Reminders.  We may use and disclose medical information to remind you of a medical appointment.

Treatment Alternatives.  We may use and disclose medical information to tell you about treatment options that might interest you.  

Health-Related Benefits and Services.  We may use and disclose medical information to tell you about health-related benefits or services that may interest you. 

Fundraising Activities.  We may use certain information (name, address, telephone number, dates of service, age, and gender) to raise money for Lancaster General.   Lancaster General and its business units may contact you for its fundraising purposes.

Marketing.  We may contact you to provide information about treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services offered by Lancaster General. We may contact you if we think these offers might interest you.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA).    We may use or disclose medical information to the FDA regarding negative events involving food, supplements, product and product defects, or post-marketing observation information. The FDA may use this information to help with products recalls, repairs, or replacements.

Hospital Directory.  We may include limited information about you in the hospital directory while you are a patient at the hospital.  This information may include your name, location in the hospital, your general condition (e.g., fair, stable, etc.).  The directory information may be released to people who ask for you by name. This is so your family and friends can visit you in the hospital and find out how you are.  If you would like to be excluded from the hospital directory, notify the Admitting Office.

Individuals Involved in Your Care or Payment for Your Care.  We may release medical information about you to a friend or family member helping with your care.  We may also give information to someone who helps pay for your care.  We may tell your family or friends your general condition and that you are in the hospital. We may disclose medical information about you with a disaster relief group. This would help your family to learn about your condition, how you are doing and where you are.

Research. We may disclose your health information to researchers when an Institutional Review Committee has approved their work. This Committee must have looked over the proposal and set up standards to make sure your information stays private.

As Required By Law.  We will disclose medical information about you when federal, state or local laws require us. We may release medical information about you to federal officials for intelligence, counterintelligence, and other national security measures authorized by law. 

Public Safety. We may disclose your medical information to prevent or lessen a threat to the health or safety of one or more persons.