Permitted Uses and Disclosures Treatment, Payment and Health Care Operations

Federal law allows a hospital to use and disclose PHI, for the purposes of treatment, payment and health care operations, without your consent or authorization. Examples of the uses and disclosures that we, as a hospital, may make under each section are listed below:

• Treatment. Treatment refers to the provision and coordination of health care by a doctor, hospital or other health care provider. We will use and disclose your protected health information to provide, coordinate, or manage your health care and any related services. This includes the coordination or management of your health care with a third party when necessary. For example, we would disclose your protected health information, as necessary, to a home health agency that provides care to you. We will also disclose protected health information to other physicians who may be treating you. For example, your protected health information may be provided to a physician to whom you have been referred to ensure that the physician has the necessary information to diagnose or treat you.

In addition, we may disclose your protected health information from time-to-time to another hospital or health care provider (e.g., a specialist or laboratory) who, at the request of your physician, becomes involved in your care by providing assistance with your health care diagnosis or treatment.

• Payment. Your protected health information will be used, as needed, to obtain payment for your health care services from any external entity or third party payors. This may include certain activities that your health insurance plan may undertake before it approves or pays for the health care services we recommend for you such as; making a determination of eligibility or coverage for insurance benefits, reviewing services provided to you for medical necessity, and undertaking utilization review activities. For example, obtaining approval for a hospital stay may require that your relevant protected health information be disclosed to the health plan to obtain approval for the hospital admission.

• Health Care Operations. We may use or disclose, as-needed, your protected health information in order to support the business activities of this hospital. These activities include, but are not limited to, quality assessment activities, employee review activities, training of medical students, licensing, and conducting or arranging for other business activities.

For example, we may disclose your protected health information to medical students participating in approved training programs at our hospital. We may also call you by name in the waiting room. We may use or disclose your protected health information, as necessary, to contact you to remind you of appointments, to obtain information prior to a visit, to check on your progress following a procedure, or other various reasons.

We will share your protected health information with third party “business associates” that perform various activities (e.g., billing, transcription services) for the hospital. Whenever an arrangement between our hospital and a business associate involves the use or disclosure of your protected health information, we will have a written contract that contains terms that will protect the privacy of your protected health information.

We may use or disclose your protected health information, as necessary, to provide you with information about health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you. We may also use and disclose your protected health information for other marketing activities. For example, your name and address may be used to send you a newsletter about the services we offer. We may also send you information about products or services that we believe may be beneficial to you. You may contact our Privacy Officer to request that these materials not be sent to you.