THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND/OR DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION.

PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY. UPDATED 8/1/24

WHO WILL FOLLOW THIS NOTICE?

This notice describes the information privacy practices followed by our employees, staff, and other personnel as required by 45 CFR 164.520.

This Notice of Privacy Practices applies to the following entities:

·      Rangely Hospital District dba: Rangely Community Medical Health and Wellness Center

·      Rangely Hospital District dba: Rangely District Hospital

·      Rangely Family Medicine

·      Rangely Pharmacy

·      Eagle Crest Assisted Living

YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU

You have the following rights regarding the health information we maintain about you:

·      Right to receive a copy of this Privacy Notice on paper, electronically, or both.

·      Right to inspect and copy your Personal Health Information.

·      Right to amend or correct your paper or Electronic Medical Record.

·      Right to request confidential communication.

·      The right to request restrictions or ask us to limit the information we share.

·      The right to obtain a list of those with whom we've shared your information.

·      The right to choose someone to act for you.

·      The right to file a complaint if you believe your Privacy Rights have been violated.

YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION

This notice is provided to you as a description of the information privacy practices followed by Rangely District Hospital’s employees, staff, and other personnel as required by 45 CRF 164.520.  This notice is also available on via our website (rangelyhospital.org).

This notice applies to your personal health information and may include information created and received by Rangely District Hospital, Rangely Family Medicine, Rangely Pharmacy, or Eagle Crest Assisted Living.  This information may be in the form of written or electronic records. Paper and Electronic Medical Records may consist of information about your health history, health status, symptoms, examinations, test results, diagnoses, treatments, procedures, prescriptions, related billing activity, and similar types of health-related information.

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE PRIVACY

In accordance with the HIPAA Privacy Rule Final Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care, we have implemented additional protections for your reproductive health information.  These protections aim to ensure your privacy and confidentiality regarding reproductive health care services.

·         Use and Disclosure Limitations: We will not use or disclose your protected health information (PHI) related to reproductive health care for purposes prohibited under the Final Rule. This includes any disclosures that could be used to identify, investigate, or prosecute individuals for seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating reproductive health care services that are legal in the jurisdiction where the care is provided.

·         Attestations: In certain situations, we may be required to collect attestations confirming that requests for your PHI are not for prohibited purposes related to reproductive health care. This additional step helps safeguard your sensitive health information.

·         Your Rights: You have the right to request additional privacy protections for your reproductive health information. We will accommodate reasonable requests to enhance the confidentiality of this sensitive data.

HOW WE MAY USE AND/OR DISCLOSE HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU:

We may use and/or disclose patient health information for the following purposes:

·      Treatment: We may use your health information to provide medical treatment or services. We may disclose your health information to doctors, nurses, technicians, staff, or other personnel involved in caring for you and your health.

For example, your doctor treating you for a heart condition may need to know if you have other health problems that could complicate your treatment. The doctor may use your medical history to decide the best treatment for you. The doctor may also tell another doctor about your condition to help determine the most appropriate care for you.

Department personnel in our organization may share information about you and disclose information to people who do not work for Rangely District Hospital, Rangely Family Medicine, Rangely Pharmacy, or Eagle Crest Assisted Living to coordinate your care, such as phoning in prescriptions to your pharmacy, scheduling lab work, and ordering X-rays. Family members and other health care providers may be part of your medical care outside this office and may require information about you that we have. We will request your permission before sharing health information with your family or friends unless you cannot consent to such disclosures due to your health condition. In situations where you cannot consent (due to your incapacity or medical emergency), we may use our professional judgement to determine that disclosing your health information to your family member or friend is in your best interest. In that situation, we will disclose only health information relevant to the person's involvement in your care and provide updates on your progress and prognosis.

·      For Payment: We may use and disclose your medical information about the treatment and services you receive at Rangely District Hospital, Rangely Family Medicine, Rangely Pharmacy, and/or Eagle Crest Assisted Living so that it may be billed and collected from you, an insurance company, or a third party.

For example, we may need to give your health plan information about a service you received here so your insurance or health plan will process payment or reimbursement of the service. We may also tell your health plan about a treatment you will receive to obtain prior approval or to determine whether your plan will pay for the service.

·      For Health Care Operations: We may use and disclose health information about you to operate Rangely District Hospital, Rangely Family Medicine, Rangely Pharmacy, and/or Eagle Crest Assisted Living Medicine and make sure that you and our other patients receive quality care. We may utilize your health information to evaluate the performance of our staff in caring for you. We may also evaluate health information about our patients to help us decide what additional services we should offer, how we can become more efficient, or whether specific new treatments or procedures are adequate.

We may disclose your health information to health plans that provide you insurance coverage and other healthcare providers that care for you. Our disclosures of your health information to plans and other providers may help these plans and providers provide or improve care, reduce cost, coordinate and manage health care and services, train staff, and comply with the law.

·      For Special Situations: We may use or disclose health information about you for the following purposes, subject to all applicable legal requirements and limitations:

·      To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety: We may use and disclose health information about you when necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or the health and safety of the public or another person.

·      Law Enforcement Purposes: Covered entities may disclose protected health information to law enforcement officials for law enforcement purposes under the following six circumstances, and subject to specified conditions: (1) as required by law (including court orders, court-ordered warrants, subpoenas) and administrative requests; (2) to identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person; (3) in response to a law enforcement official's request for information about a victim or suspected victim of a crime; (4) to alert law enforcement of a person's death, if the covered entity suspects that criminal activity caused the death; (5) when a covered entity believes that protected health information is evidence of a crime that occurred on its premises; and (6) by a covered health care provider in a medical emergency not occurring on its premises, when necessary to inform law enforcement about the commission and nature of a crime, the location of the crime or crime victims, and the perpetrator of the crime.

·      Reproductive Health Information: We will not disclose your reproductive health information to law enforcement for purposes that could lead to civil or criminal proceedings related to reproductive health care services that are legal where the care was provided, except as required by law.

·      Research: We may use and/or disclose your medical information for research purposes. Most research projects, however, are subject to a unique approval process. Most research projects require your permission if a researcher will be involved in your care or will have access to your name, address, or other information that identifies you. However, the law does allow some research to be done using your medical information without requiring your authorization.

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

·      Coroners, Medical Examiners, and Funeral Directors: We may release
health information to a coroner or medical examiner, for example, to identify a deceased person or determine the cause of death.

·      Military, Veterans, National Security, and Intelligence: Military command or other government authorities may request access to personal health information of members of the armed forces, national security, or intelligence communities, including foreign military authorities as related to foreign military personnel, as per 45 CFR 164.512

·      Workers' Compensation: We may release your health information for workers' compensation or similar programs. These programs provide benefits for work-related injuries or illnesses.

·      Public Health Risks: We may disclose health information about you for public health reasons to prevent or control disease, injury, or disability. The Privacy Rule permits covered entities to disclose protected health information, without authorization, to public health authorities who are legally authorized to receive such reports for the purpose of preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability. Examples of public health authority include State and local health departments, FDA, CDC, and OSHA.

·      Health Oversight Activities: We may disclose health information to a health oversight agency for audits, investigations, inspections, or licensing purposes. These disclosures may be necessary for specific state and federal agencies to monitor the health care system, government programs, and compliance with civil rights laws.

·      Judicial and Administrative Proceedings: Covered entities may disclose protected health information in a judicial or administrative proceeding if the information is requested through an order from a Court or Administrative Tribunal. Such information may also be disclosed in response to a subpoena or other lawful process if certain assurances regarding notice to the individual or a protective order are provided.

·      Information Not Personally Identifiable: We may use or disclose health information about you in a way that does not personally identify you or reveal who you are.

·      Family and Friends: We may disclose health information about you to your family members or friends upon written authorization. We may also disclose health information to your family or friends if we can infer from the circumstances that you would not object based on our professional judgment. For example, we may assume you agree to our disclosure of your personal health information to your spouse when you bring your spouse with you into the exam room or the hospital during treatment or while treatment is discussed. In situations where you cannot consent (due to your incapacity or medical emergency), we may use our professional judgement to determine that disclosing your health information to your family member or friend is in your best interest. In that situation, we will disclose only health information relevant to the person's involvement in your care and provide updates on your progress and prognosis. 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 filled prescriptions, medical supplies, or X-ray, etc.

OTHER USES AND/OR DISCLOSURES OF HEALTH INFORMATION

We will not use or disclose your health information for any purpose other than those identified in the previous sections without your specific written authorization. Disclosures requiring your permission include disclosures to your partner, spouse, and children.

Rangely District Hospital may reach out to you for marketing regarding changes in service, events (such as open houses and fundraising activities), and exciting news from time to time.  If you would like to opt out of these communications, please reach out to the Marketing Director, Raquel Petersen, in writing at rpetersen@rdhosp.org.  Rangely District Hospital will not sell your personal health information.

We will not use or disclose your health information for the following purposes without your specific, written authorization:

·      Any disclosure of your psychotherapy notes, substance abuse, mental health, or other specially protected information.

·      If you authorize us to use or disclose health information about you, you may revoke that authorization, in writing, at any time. If you withdraw your consent, we will no longer use or disclose information about you for the reasons covered by your written authorization. However, we cannot remove any uses or disclosures previously made with your permission.

·      In some instances, we may need specific, written authorization from you to disclose certain types of specially protected information such as psychotherapy notes, HIV, substance abuse, mental health, and genetic testing information for purposes such as treatment, payment, and healthcare operations.

·      We may disclose your Protected Health Information to disaster relief organizations that seek your Protected Health Information to coordinate your care or notify family and friends of your location or condition in a disaster. We will provide you with an opportunity to agree or object to such a disclosure whenever we can do so.

·      Reproductive Health Information: We require specific, written authorization from you to disclose any information related to your reproductive health care, except as required for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations, or as otherwise permitted or required by law.

COMPLIANCE WITH REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE PRIVACY RULE

We are committed to complying with the HIPAA Privacy Rule Final Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care. This includes: Updating our policies and procedures to reflect the new protections for reproductive health care privacy.

·      Training our staff on the new requirements and protections.

·      Implementing technical safeguards to protect reproductive health information in our electronic health record systems.

·      Regularly reviewing and updating our practices to ensure ongoing compliance with the Final Rule.

CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE

We reserve the right to change this notice and make the revised or changed notice effective for past, present, and future medical information we have about you.

We will post the current notice at our location(s) with its effective date on the top center title page. You are entitled to a copy of the notice currently in effect. This notice is prominently posted in our facilities and the public spaces of our admission areas.

If you have questions or concerns regarding your privacy or this notice, please contact our Privacy Officer, Andrew Jordan, by calling (970)675-5011 or in person at 225 Eagle Crest Drive, Rangely, CO 81648.

COMPLAINTS

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services at:

U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights

200 Independence Ave. S.W.

Washington DC 20201

Phone 877-696-6775

https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/filing-a-complaint/index.html

To file a complaint with Rangely Hospital District, contact:

Compliance Department

225 Eagle Crest Drive

Rangely, CO

81648

Phone: (970)675-5011

Email: agranger@rdhosp.org

You will not be retaliated against for filing a complaint.