WilMed - Tobacco Free - Support Group    READ MORE WilMed - Silver Service    READ MORE WilMed - Blood Drive, Wednesday, May 14, 2008    READ MORE WilMed - Dr. Talks    READ MORE WilMed - Smoking Cessation    READ MORE WilMed - Lamaze Classes    READ MORE WilMed - Blood Pressure Checks    READ MORE

WILMED HEALTHCARE, INC.

JOINT NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

EFFECTIVE DATE: April 14, 2003

VERSION: 1

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.

If you have any questions about this notice, please contact Jane Rosenmarkel, Privacy Officer, at (252) 399-8726.

THE PURPOSE OF THIS NOTICE

We understand that medical information about you and your health is personal. We are committed to protecting medical information about you. Your health information is contained in medical, billing and other records that are the physical property of the WilMed Healthcare. This notice applies to such records.

This notice will tell you about the ways in which WilMed Healthcare may use and disclose medical information about you. We also describe your rights and certain obligations we have regarding the use and disclosure of medical information.

We are required by law to:

• make sure that medical information that identifies you is kept private;
• give you this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices at WilMed Healthcare with respect to medical information about you; and
• follow the terms of the notice that is currently in effect.

WHO WILL FOLLOW THIS NOTICE.

This following persons and all WilMed Healthcare locations follow the terms of this joint notice of the privacy practices at WilMed Healthcare:

• All employees, staff and other WilMed Healthcare personnel.
• All independent physicians and health care professionals who provide services at WilMed Healthcare.
• All students, trainees or volunteers at WilMed Healthcare.
• Any persons or companies with whom we contract for services to help operate WilMed Healthcare and who have access to our patients’ medical information.
• Wilson Medical Center
• WilMed Nursing Care Center
• WilMed Home Care
• WilMed Healthcare Foundation

These persons, and locations may share medical information with each other for your treatment, WilMed Healthcare operations purposes and the purposes described in this notice. The independent health care professionals who provide care at WilMed Healthcare and who have agreed to follow the terms of this joint notice are not employees or agents of WilMed Healthcare, and WilMed Healthcare is not responsible for how they fulfill their professional responsibilities.

This notice applies to all of the records of your care and billing for care that are created at WilMed Healthcare, whether made by WilMed Healthcare personnel or your doctor or other independent health care personnel, who are responsible for their own actions. The independent health care personnel treating you may have and apply different policies or notices regarding confidentiality and disclosure of your medical information in their office or other locations outside WilMed Healthcare.

HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU.

The following categories describe different ways that we use and disclose medical information. For each category of uses or disclosures we explain what we mean and give some examples, but not every use or disclosure is listed.

• For Treatment. We may use medical information about you among the persons in WilMed Healthcare involved in your care to provide you with needed medical treatment, items or services. Different people in WilMed Healthcare may share medical information about you to coordinate what you need, such as prescriptions, lab work and surgery. We may use and disclose medical information to tell you about different ways to treat you, or health-related benefits or services that may be of interest to you. We also may need to disclose medical information about you to people outside WilMed Healthcare who may be involved in your medical care before or after you leave WilMed Healthcare, such as family members, other health care facilities, labs, home health agencies or medical equipment companies. We will only disclose medical information about you that identifies you to people or entities outside WilMed Healthcare, who are not currently involved in your care at WilMed Healthcare, with your consent, or if such disclosures are required or permitted by law. We may use and disclose medical information about you so that the treatment and services you receive at WilMed Healthcare may be billed and payment may be collected from you, an insurance company or health plan, or a third party. For example, we may give your health plan information about your treatment to obtain prior approval to determine coverage or so your health plan will pay us or reimburse you. We will only disclose medical information about you that identifies you to people or entities outside WilMed Healthcare with your consent, or if such disclosures are required or permitted by law. If you have consented to our disclosure of medical information for the purpose of obtaining payment for the care provided to you, such disclosure may also result in giving information to other family members who are insureds on your policy or to someone who helps pay for your care, and your consent authorizes such disclosure.
  
  
• For Health Care Operations. Our staff and business associates may use and disclose medical information about you to operate WilMed Healthcare. For example, we may use medical information to call out your name in the waiting room, place your medical record in a slot on or beside your room door or other incidental disclosures. We may also use or disclose information to review our treatment and services or to evaluate the qualifications and performance of our staff and physicians in caring for you. We may disclose information to authorities or entities who evaluate our qualifications and review our care to determine if we can be licensed, credentialed, or certified or approved under a private or government health plan. We may also combine the medical information we have about you and other patients with medical information from other facilities to compare how we are doing and see where we can make improvements in the care and services we offer. We will remove information that identifies you from this set of medical information so others may use it to study health care and health care delivery without learning who you are. We may contract and share information with other professionals or companies, such as medical record transcription services, consultants, financial advisors or legal counsel, to help us run WilMed Healthcare and who have agreed to keep your medical information confidential.
  
  
• Contacting You. Unless we have agreed in writing to your written request to handle these matters differently, we may use and disclose medical information to leave you a message or send you a letter concerning an appointment, to let you know lab results or prescriptions are ready, to ask you to call us concerning your care or concerning your patient account. We will use the contact information that you provide to us.
  
  
• Individuals Involved in Your Care and Disaster Relief. We may disclose medical information about you to a friend or family member who is involved in your medical care, unless you object. In addition, we may disclose medical information about you to an entity assisting in a disaster relief effort so that relief agencies and your family can be notified about your condition, status, and location. You can object to these disclosures by telling us that you do not wish any or all individuals involved in your care or relief agencies to receive this information. If you are not present or cannot agree or object, we will use our professional judgment to decide whether it is in your best interest to disclose relevant information to someone who is involved in your care or to an entity or person assisting in a disaster relief effort.
  
  
• Research. Under certain circumstances, we may use and disclose medical information about you for research purposes. For example, a research project may involve comparing the health and recovery of all patients who received one medication to those who received another for the same condition. We will obtain your written consent if the researchers will know who you are. Medical information about you that has had identifying information removed may be used for research without your consent.
  
  
• Fundraising Activities. We may disclose medical information to a business partner or a foundation related to WilMed Healthcare so that the business partner or the foundation may contact you in raising money for WilMed Healthcare. We only would release contact information, such as your name, address and phone number and the dates you received treatment or services at WilMed Healthcare. If you do not want WilMed Healthcare to contact you for such fundraising efforts, you must notify the Privacy Officer in writing. WilMed Healthcare does not disclose information to other persons or entities for their fund raising purposes.
  
  
• WilMed Healthcare Directory. Unless you tell us otherwise, we may include certain limited information about you in WilMed Healthcare directory while you are a patient of WilMed Healthcare. This information may include your name, location in WilMed Healthcare, your general condition (e.g., fair, stable, etc.) and your religious affiliation. The directory information, except for your religious affiliation, may also be released to people who ask for you by name. Your religious affiliation may be given to a member of the clergy, such as a priest or rabbi, even if they do not ask for you by name. This is so your family, friends and clergy can visit you in WilMed Healthcare and generally know how you are doing. If you do not want anyone to know this information about you, if you want to limit the amount of information that is disclosed, or if you want to limit who gets this information, you must notify the Privacy Officer in writing or indicate your choice on WilMed Healthcare's Patient Directory Instructions Form.
  
  

WHEN DISCLOSURE MAY BE REQUIRED BY LAW WITHOUT YOUR AUTHORIZATION:

The following are examples of when we may disclose medical information about you when required to do so by federal, state, or local law:

• To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety. We may use and disclose medical information about you when necessary to prevent or lessen a serious threat to your health and safety or the health and safety of the public or another person. Any disclosure, however, would be to someone reasonably able to help prevent the threat.
  
  
• Organ and Tissue Donation. If you are an organ or tissue donor, we are required by law to provide medical information about you upon request after your death to the person or entity who receives the organ or tissue donation.
  
  
• Workers’ Compensation. We may release without your consent medical information about a work related injury for which we are treating you for workers’ compensation or similar programs under appropriate circumstances.
  
  
• Public Health Risks. We may disclose without your consent medical information about you for public health activities. These activities generally include the following:
  • to prevent or control disease, injury, or disability;
  • to report cancer, births and deaths;
  • to report suspected abuse or neglect as required by law;
  • to report to the FDA or other appropriate authorities or persons adverse reactions to medications or problems with products;
  • workplace medical surveillance;
  • to notify people of recalls of products they may be using; and
  • to notify a person who may have been exposed to a disease or may be at risk for contracting or spreading a disease or condition.
  
  
  
• Health Oversight Activities. We may disclose without your consent medical information to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law. These oversight activities include, for example, audits, investigations, inspections, and licensure. These activities are necessary for the government to monitor the health care system, government programs, and compliance with civil rights laws.
  
  
• Lawsuits and Disputes. If you are involved in a lawsuit or a dispute, we may disclose medical information about you in response to a court or administrative order. We also may disclose medical information about you in response to a subpoena or other lawful process by someone involved in the dispute by furnishing your medical records or information under seal to the court. The copies of your medical record under seal may only be opened by the parties to the case or their attorneys unless a judge orders otherwise.
  
  
• Law Enforcement. We may release without your consent medical information if asked to do so by a law enforcement official:
  • In response to a court order or court issued search warrant;
  • About a death or injury we believe may be the result of criminal conduct; or
  • About suspected criminal conduct at WilMed Healthcare.
  
  
  
• Coroners, Medical Examiners, and Funeral Directors. We may release without your consent medical information requested by a coroner or medical examiner. We may also release information about the identity of patients to funeral directors.
  
  
• Security, Intelligence Activities, and Protective Services. We may release without your consent medical information about you to authorized federal or state officials for intelligence, counterintelligence, and other governmental activities authorized by law. We may disclose without your consent medical information about you to authorize federal officials so they may provide protection to the President, other authorized persons or foreign heads of state, or to conduct special investigations.
  
  
• Inmates. If you are an inmate of a correctional institution or under the custody of a law enforcement official, we may release without your consent medical information about you to the correctional institution or law enforcement official with custody of you if necessary: (1) for WilMed Healthcare to provide you with health care; (2) to protect your health and safety; (3) to obtain payment; or (4) for operations of WilMed Healthcare. If you are in the custody of the Department of Correction (“DOC”) and the DOC requests your medical records, we are required to provide the DOC with access to your records.

OTHER SITUATIONS

• Behavioral Health Care. Regardless of the other parts of this Notice, any information relating to alcohol and drug diagnosis or treatment or other behavioral health care treatment, including psychotherapy notes, will not be disclosed outside WilMed Healthcare except as authorized by you in writing, pursuant to a court order, or as required by law. Private notes a licensed mental health professional has decided to make about a session with you, kept in his or her personal files, and designated as psychotherapy notes will not be disclosed to personnel working within WilMed Healthcare, other than to the person who wrote the notes, except for training purposes or to defend a legal action brought against WilMed Healthcare and/or members of WilMed Healthcare, unless you have properly authorized such disclosure in writing.
  
  
• Minors. A parent, guardian, or other person with authority to act for a minor may have access to and decide the use and disclosure of protected health information concerning a minor patient, except when:
  1. A custody order or agreement provides otherwise;
  2. A court order provides otherwise;
  3. There is a reasonable basis to suspect abuse or neglect of the minor and providing such information or authority to the parent, guardian, or other person acting for a minor is reasonably believed to present a risk of injury or harm to the minor; or
  4. The minor has the right to and does obtain health care on his or her own behalf as is permitted in the following cases:
     1. For outpatient diagnosis or treatment of emotional illness or substance abuse;
     2. For diagnosis or treatment of pregnancy (not abortion);
     3. For diagnosis or treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.
        
        In some limited circumstances, such as an emergency or if the parent or guardian contacts the Physician, the Physician may choose to disclose such information to the parent or guardian;
     4. The parent or guardian has agreed that such information will be confidential between the minor and the Physician who is providing or supervising the minor’s care.
  
  
  

OTHER USES OF MEDICAL INFORMATION.

Other uses and disclosures of medical information not addressed in this notice will be made only with your written permission or as required by law. If you provide us with permission to use or disclose medical information about you, you may revoke or discontinue that permission, in writing, at any time. Your revocation will be effective as of the end of the day on which you provide it in writing to the Privacy Officer. If you revoke your permission, we will no longer use or disclose medical information about you for the purposes that you had authorized in writing. You understand that we are unable to take back any disclosures we have already made with your permission, and that we cannot destroy or return our records.

YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU.

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

• Right to Inspect and Copy. You have the right to inspect and receive a copy of medical information that may be used to make decisions about your care, unless your treating physician determines that providing you with such information would be injurious to your physical or mental well-being. When we deny your request to inspect and receive a copy of your medical information on this basis, you may request that the denial be reviewed. Another licensed health care professional chosen by WilMed Healthcare will review your request and the denial. The person conducting the review will not be the person who denied your request. We will do what this reviewer decides.
  
  To inspect and receive a copy of your medical information, you must submit your request in writing to WilMed Healthcare Privacy Officer. If you request a copy of the information, we may charge a fee for the costs of copying, mailing, or other supplies associated with your request and may collect the fee before providing the copy to you. If you agree, we may provide you with a summary of the information instead of providing you with access to it, or with an explanation of the information instead of a copy. Before providing you with such a summary or explanation, we first will obtain your agreement to pay the fees, if any, for preparing the summary or explanation.
  
  
• Right to Amend. If you feel that medical information we have about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask us to amend the information. To request an amendment, your request must be made in writing and submitted to our Privacy Officer. In addition, you must provide a reason that supports your request.
  
  We may deny your request for an amendment:
  • If it is not in writing;
  • Does not include a reason to support the request;
  • Was created by a provider other than WilMed Healthcare, unless the provider who created the information is no longer available to consider or make the amendment;
  • Is not part of the medical information kept by WilMed Healthcare;
  • Is not part of the information that you would be permitted to inspect and copy; or
  • We have determined the information to be accurate and complete.
  
  
  
• Right to an Accounting of Disclosures. You have the right to request a list of certain disclosures we have made of medical information about you other than for treatment, payment, health care operations or that you have authorized.
  
  To request this list or accounting of disclosures, you must submit your request in writing to our Privacy Officer and state whether you want the list on paper or electronically. Your request must state a time period that may not be longer than six years and may not include dates before April 14, 2003. Your request should indicate in what form The first list you request within a 12-month period will be free. For additional lists, we may charge you for the costs of providing the list. We will notify you of the cost involved, and you may choose to withdraw or modify your request at that time before any costs are incurred. We may collect the fee before providing the list to you.
  
  
• Right to Request Restrictions. Except where we are required to disclose the information by law, you have the right to request a restriction or limitation on the medical information we use or disclose about you to individuals or entities outside of WilMed Healthcare and on the use of psychotherapy notes within WilMed Healthcare by someone other than the person who wrote the notes.
  
  We are not required to agree to your request to restrict use or disclosure of your information within WilMed Healthcare or among the health care professionals currently involved in your care at WilMed Healthcare except with regard to psychotherapy notes. If we do agree, we will comply with your requested restriction unless the information is needed to provide you emergency treatment or to provide information as required by law. Except as required or permitted by law, we will only disclose your confidential medical information to persons outside WilMed Healthcare who are not currently involved in your care at WilMed Healthcare, with and in accordance with your authorization.
  
  To request restrictions, you must make your request in writing to our Privacy Officer. In your request, you must tell us: (1) what information you want to limit; (2) whether you want to limit our use, disclosure, or both; and (3) to whom you want the limits to apply, for example, disclosures to your spouse.
  
  
• Right to Request How We Communicate with You. You have the right to request that we communicate with you about medical matters in a certain way or at a certain location. For example, you can ask that we only contact you at work or by mail, or at a mailing address other than your home address.
  
  To request certain types of communications, you must make your request in writing to our Privacy Officer and specify how or where you wish to be contacted. We will not ask you the reason for your request. We will accommodate all reasonable requests.
  
  
• Right to a Paper Copy of This Notice. You have the right to a paper copy of this notice or any revised notice. You may ask us to give you a copy of this notice at any time. Even if you have agreed to receive this notice electronically, you are still entitled to a paper copy of this notice.
  
  You may obtain a copy of this notice at our website, www.WilMed.org.
  
  To obtain a paper copy of this notice, contact the Privacy Officer at (252) 399-8726.
  
  

CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE

We reserve the right to change this notice and to make the revised or changed notice effective for medical information we already have about you as well as any information we receive in the future. We will post a copy of the current notice in WilMed Healthcare. The notice will remain in effect for each subsequent visit unless changed. If the notice changes, a copy will be available to you upon request.

COMPLAINTS

If you have a complaint about your privacy rights, you may file a written complaint with WilMed Healthcare or with the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. To file a complaint with WilMed Healthcare, contact our Privacy Officer at (252) 399-8726.

You will not be penalized for filing a complaint.