• Effective date of notice: 07/12/13
  • NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
  • Indiana Lasik Centers
  • Privacy Officer
  • P.O. Box 549
  • Wabash, IN 46992

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.

ILC respects its legal obligation to keep health information that identifies you as private. ILC is obligated by law to give you notice of its privacy practices. This Notice describes how ILC protects your health information and what rights you have regarding it.

TREATMENT, PAYMENT, AND HEALTH CARE OPERATIONS

The most common reason why ILC uses or discloses your health information is for treatment, payment or health care operations. Examples of how ILC uses or discloses information for treatment purposes are: setting up an appointment for you; testing or examining your eyes; prescribing glasses, contact lenses, or eye medications and faxing them to be filled; showing you low vision aids; referring you to another doctor or clinic for eye care or low vision aids or services, or getting copies of your health information from another professional that you may have seen before us. Examples of how ILC uses or discloses your health information for payment purposes are: asking you about your health care plans, or other sources of payment; preparing and sending bills or claims, or collecting unpaid amounts (either ourselves or through a collection agency or attorney). “Health care operations” mean those administrative and managerial functions that ILC has to do in order to run its office. Examples of how ILC uses or discloses your health information for health care operations are: financial or billing audits; internal quality assurance; personnel decisions; participation in managed care plans; defense of legal matters; business planning; and outside storage of our records.
ILC routinely uses your health information inside its office for these purposes without any special permission. If ILC needs to disclose your health information outside of its office for these reasons, it usually will not ask you for special written permission.

ILC will ask for special written permission in the following situations; contact lens prescriptions; access to medical records by the patient, access to medical records of a minor, mental health records, communicable diseases records, alcohol and drug abuse records, and health records to accident and sickness insurance companies.

USES & DISCLOSURES FOR OTHER REASONS WITHOUT PERMISSION

In some limited situations, the law allows or requires ILC to use or disclose your health information without your permission. Not all of these situations will apply to ILC; some may never come up at ILC at all. Such uses or disclosures are:

  • when a state of federal law mandates that certain health information be reported for a specific purpose;
  • for public health purposes, such as contagious disease reporting, investigation or surveillance and for notices to and from federal Food and Drug  administration regarding drugs or medical devices, coordinating care in event of a disaster through Disaster Relief Organizations.
  • disclosures to governmental authorities about victims of suspected abuse, neglect or domestic violence;
  • uses and disclosures for health oversight activities, such as for the licensing of doctors; for audits by Medicare or Medicaid, or for investigation of possible violations of health care laws;
  • disclosures for judicial and administrative proceedings, such as in response to subpoenas or orders of courts or administrative agencies;
  • disclosures for law enforcement purposes, such as to provide information about someone who is or is suspected to be a victim of a crime; to provide information about a crime at our office, or to report a crime that happened somewhere else;
  • disclosure to a medical examiner to identify a dead person or to determine the cause of death; to funeral directors to aid in burial, or to organizations that handle organ or tissue donations;
  • uses or disclosures for health related research;
  • uses and disclosures to prevent a serious threat to health or safety;
  • uses or disclosures for specialized government functions, such as for the protection of the president or high ranking government officials; for lawful national intelligence activities; for military purposes, or for the evaluation and health of members of the Foreign Service;
  • disclosures of de-identification information;
  • disclosures relating to worker’s compensation programs;
  • disclosures of a “limited data set” for research, public health, or health care operations;
  • incidental disclosures that are an unavoidable by-product of permitted uses or disclosures;
  • disclosures to “business associates” who perform health care operations for us and who commit to respect the privacy of your health information;

Unless you object, ILC will also share relevant information about your care with your family or friends who are helping you with your eye care.

APPOINTMENT REMINDERS

ILC may call or write to remind you of scheduled appointments, or that it is time to make a routine appointment. ILC may also call or write to notify you of other treatments or services available at its office that may help you. Unless you tell ILC otherwise, ILC will mail you an appointment reminder on a post card, and/or leave you a reminder message on your home answering machine or with someone who answers your phone if you are not home.

FUNDRAISING AND MARKETING

ILC may use or disclose to a business associate or to an institutionally related foundation, demographic information and dates of care relating to you without your authorization. Upon receiving any written fundraising communication, you may elect to “opt out” of any further such communication. Any such elect shall be treated as a revocation of authorization. To make such election send a written request to the ILC privacy officer at the address shown above. Your authorization will be obtained prior to ILC sending any marketing material to you that will result in financial remuneration to ILC.

OTHER USES AND DISCLOSURES

ILC will not make any other uses or disclosures of your health information unless you sign a written authorization. The content of the authorization is determined by federal law. Sometimes, ILC may initiate the authorization process if the use or disclosure is its idea. Sometimes, you may initiate the process if it is your idea for ILC to send your information to someone else. Typically, in this situation you will give ILC a properly completed authorization.

If ILC initiates the process and asks you to sign an authorization form, you do not have to sign it. If you do not sign the authorization, ILC cannot make the use or disclosure. If you do sign an authorization, you may revoke it at any time unless ILC has already acted in reliance upon it. Revocations must be in writing. Send them to the ILC privacy officer at the address shown above.

YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION

The law gives you many rights regarding your health information. You can:

  • ask ILC to restrict its uses and disclosures for purposes of treatment (except emergency treatment), payment or health care operations.   ILC does not have to agree to this, but if it agrees, ILC must honor the restrictions that you want. To ask for a restriction, send a written request to the ILC privacy officer at the address shown above.
  • You can, however, request that ILC restrict the disclosure of your PHI to a health plan if you have paid out-of-pocket fully and ILC must honor it.
  • Have access to an electronic copy of your healthcare records when PHI is maintained in electronic format.
  • ask ILC to communicate with you in a confidential way, such as by phoning you at work rather than at home or by mailing health information to a different address. ILC will accommodate these requests if they are reasonable. If you want to ask for confidential communications, send a written request to the ILC privacy officer at the address shown above.
  • Be notified if a breach of confidentiality occurs that involves your PHI.
  • ask to see or to get photocopies of your health information. By law, there are a few limited situations in which ILC can refuse to permit access or copying. For the most part, however, you will be able to review or have a copy of your health information within 30 days of asking us.  You may have to pay for photocopies in advance. If ILC denies your request, it will send you a written explanation and instructions about how to get an impartial review of its denial if one is legally available. By law, ILC can have one 30-day extension of time for us to give you access or photocopies if we send you a written notice of extension. If you want to review or get photocopies of your health information, send a written request to the ILC privacy officer at the address shown above.
  • l  ask ILC to amend your health information if you think it is incorrect or incomplete. If ILC agrees, it will amend the information within 60 days from date requested. ILC will send the corrected information to persons whom it knows received the wrong information, and others whom you specify. If ILC does not agree, you can write a statement of your position, and ILC will include it with your health information along with any rebuttal it may write. Once your statement of position and/or ILC’s rebuttal is included in your health information, it will send it along whenever it makes a permitted disclosure of your health information. By law, ILC can have one 30-day extension to consider a request for amendment if it notifies you in writing of the extension. If you want to amend your health information, send a written request, which includes your reasons for the amendment, to the ILC privacy officer shown above.
  • get a list of the disclosures ILC has made of your health information within the past six years (or a shorter period). By law, the list will not include: disclosures for purposes of treatment, payment of health care operations; disclosures with your authorization; incidental disclosures; disclosures required by law; and some other limited disclosures. You are entitled to one such list per year without charge. If you want more frequent lists, you will have to pay for them in advance. ILC will usually respond to your request within 30 days of receiving it, but by law we can have one 30-day extension of time if ILC notifies you of the extension in writing. If you want a list, send a written request to the ILC privacy officer at the address shown above.
  • get additional paper copies of this Notice of Privacy Practices upon request. It does not matter whether you previously received one. If you want additional paper copies, send a written request to the privacy officer at the address shown above.

ONLINE ADVERTISING

ILC uses all features of Google Analytics for display advertisers that include obtaining user specific cookie data. This includes the source, medium and keyword used to visit our website. Google Analytics nor ILC will use visitor specific data in any way related to Google Analytics, Google Adwords or remarketing. ILC uses remarketing with Google Analytics and Google Adwords to display content specific banner advertisements to visitors who have previously visited our website when those visitors are on Google Display Network websites.

ILC uses first-party (Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (DoubleClick cookie) together to inform, optimize and serve ads based on a visitor’s past visits to our website. As Adwords advertisers, we will not:

  • Run ads that collect personally identifiable information (PII) including, but not limited to, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers and credit card numbers
  • Create a remarketing list or ad text that specifically targets users in prohibited ways as outlined in the Google Adwords policies for advertisers.

Visitors can opt out of Google Analytics for display advertisers and other Google Display Network ads by visiting the Ads Preferences Manager. Google does not allow another advertiser to use remarketing lists without consent. Google reserves the right to display to users which remarketing lists they are on, along with the corresponding domain name.

When creating remarketing lists and ads, ILC can’t use any sensitive information about visitors to our website, including health and medical information.

OUR NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

By law, ILC must abide by the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices until it chooses to change it. ILC reserves the right to change this notice at any time as allowed by law. If ILC changes this Notice, the new privacy practices will apply to your health information that it already has, as well as to such information that ILC may generate in the future. If ILC changes its Notice of Privacy Practices, it will post the new notice in its office, have copies available in its office, and post it on its Web site if applicable.

COMPLAINTS

If you think ILC has not properly respected the privacy of your health information, you are free to complain to ILC or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. ILC will not retaliate against you if you make a complaint. If you want to complain to ILC, send a written complaint to the ILC privacy officer at the address shown above. If you prefer, you can discuss your complaint in person or by phone.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

If you want more information about ILC’s privacy practices, write the ILC privacy officer at the address shown at the beginning of this Notice.