HIPAA Privacy Policies

De-identified Information – Your PHI is altered so that it does not identify you and, even without your name, cannot be used to identify you.

Business Associate – To a business associate, who is someone Spathis Chiropractic contracts with to provide a service necessary for your treatment, payment for your treatment and/or health care operations (e.g., billing service or transcription service). Our office will obtain satisfactory written assurance, in accordance with applicable law, that the business associate will appropriately safeguard your PHI.

Personal Representative – To a person who, under applicable law, has the authority to represent you in making decisions related to your health care.

Public Health Activities – Such activities include, for example, information collected by a public health authority, as authorized by law, to prevent or control disease, injury or disability. This includes reports of child abuse or neglect.

Federal Drug Administration – If required by the Food and Drug Administration to report adverse events, product defects, problems, biological product deviations, or to track products, enable product recalls, repairs or replacements, or to conduct post marketing surveillance.

Abuse, Neglect or Domestic Violence – To a government authority, if Spathis Chiropractic is required by law to make such disclosure. If our office is authorized by law to make such a disclosure, it will do so if it believes the disclosure is necessary to prevent serious harm or if our office believes you have been the victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence. Any such disclosure will be made in accordance with the requirements of law, which may also involve notice to you of the disclosure.

Health Oversight Activities – Such activities, which must be required by law, involve government agencies involved in oversight activities that relate to the health care system, government benefit programs, government regulatory programs and civil rights law. Those activities include, for example, criminal investigations, audits, disciplinary actions, or general oversight activities relating to the community’s health care system.

Judicial and Administrative Proceeding – For example, Spathis Chiropractic may be required to disclose your PHI in response to a court order or a lawfully issued subpoena.

Law Enforcement Purposes – In certain instances, your PHI may have to be disclosed to a law enforcement official for law enforcement purposes. Law enforcement purposes include: (1) complying with a legal process (i.e., subpoena) or as required by law; (2) information for identification and location purposes (e.g., suspect or missing person); (3) information regarding a person who is or is suspected to be a crime victim; (4) in situations where the death of an individual may have resulted from criminal conduct; (5) in the event of a crime occurring on the premises of our office; and (6) a medical emergency (not on our office’s premises) has occurred, and it appears that a crime has occurred.

Coroner or Medical Examiner – Spathis Chiropractic may disclose your PHI to a coroner or medical examiner for the purpose of identifying you or determining your cause of death, or to a funeral director as permitted by law and as necessary to carry out its duties.

Organ, Eye or Tissue Donation – If you are an organ donor, Spathis Chiropractic may disclose your PHI to the entity to whom you have agreed to donate your organs.

Research – If Spathis Chiropractic is involved in research activities, your PHI may be used, but such use is subject to numerous governmental requirements intended to protect the privacy of your PHI such as approval of the research by an institutional review board, the de-identification of your PHI before it is used, and the requirement that protocols must be followed.

Avert a Threat to Health or Safety – Spathis Chiropractic may disclose your PHI if it believes that such disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public and the disclosure is to an individual who is reasonably able to prevent or lessen the threat.

Specialized Government Functions – When the appropriate conditions apply, Spathis Chiropractic may use PHI of individuals who are Armed Forces personnel: (1) for activities deemed necessary by appropriate military command authorities; (2) for the purpose of a determination by the Department of Veteran Affairs of eligibility for benefits; or (3) to a foreign military authority if you are a member of that foreign military service. Our office may also disclose your PHI to authorized federal officials for conducting national security and intelligence activities including the provision of protective services to the President or others legally authorized.

Inmates – Spathis Chiropractic may disclose your PHI to a correctional institution or a law enforcement official if you are an inmate of that correctional facility and your PHI is necessary to provide care and treatment to you or is necessary for the health and safety of other individuals or inmates.

Workers’ Compensation – If you are involved in a Workers’ Compensation claim, Spathis Chiropractic may be required to disclose your PHI to an individual or entity that is part of the Workers’ Compensation system.

Disaster Relief Efforts – Spathis Chiropractic may use or disclose your PHI to a public or private entity authorized to assist in disaster relief efforts.

Marketing - Face to face communication directly with the patient or promotional gifts of nominal value do not require authorization. All other situations require separate authorization.

Required by Law – If otherwise required by law, but such use or disclosure will be made in compliance with the law and limited to the requirements of the law.

Population Management - This includes the aggregation of data across multiple information technology resources and analysis of that data to facilitate health care delivery across the general population or a group of individuals.

Revoke any Authorization, in writing, at any time. To request a revocation, you must submit a written request to Spathis Chiropractic's Privacy Officer: Dr. Peter C. Spathis 903 E. Clinton St., Ste. 103, Howell, MI 48843.

Request restrictions on certain use and/or disclosure of your PHI as provided by law. However, Spathis Chiropractic is not obligated to agree to any requested restrictions. To request restrictions, you must submit a written request to our office’s Privacy Officer. In your written request, you must inform our office of what information you want to limit, whether you want to limit our office’s use or disclosure, or both, and to whom you want the limits to apply. If our office agrees to your request, our office will comply with your request unless the information is needed in order to provide you with emergency treatment.

Receive confidential communications of PHI by alternative means or at alternative locations. You must make your request in writing to our office’s Privacy Officer. Our office will accommodate all reasonable requests.

Inspect and copy your PHI as provided by law. To inspect and copy your PHI, you must submit a written request to Spathis Chiropractic’s Privacy Officer. In certain situations that are defined by law, our office may deny your request, but you will have the right to have the denial reviewed. Our office may charge you a fee for the cost of copying, mailing or other supplies associated with your request.

Amend your PHI as provided by law. To request an amendment, you must submit a written request to Spathis Chiropractic’s Privacy Officer. You must provide a reason that supports your request. Our office may deny your request if it is not in writing, if you do not provide a reason in support of your request, if the information to be amended was not created by our office (unless the individual or entity that created the information is no longer available), if the information is not part of your PHI maintained by our office, if the information is not part of the information you would be permitted to inspect and copy, and/or if the information is accurate and complete. If you disagree with our office’s denial, you have the right to submit a written statement of disagreement.

Receive an accounting of non-routine disclosures of your PHI as provided by law. To request an accounting, you must submit a written request to Spathis Chiropractic’s Privacy Officer. The request must state a time period which may not be longer than six years and may not include the dates before April 14, 2003. The request should indicate in what form you want the list (such as a paper or electronic copy). The first list you request within a 12 month period will be free, but our office may charge you for the cost of providing additional lists in that same 12 month period. Our office will notify you of the costs involved and you can decide to withdraw or modify your request before any costs are incurred.

Receive a paper copy of this Privacy Notice from Spathis Chiropractic upon request.

To file a complaint with Spathis Chiropractic, please contact Spathis Chiropractic’s Privacy Officer. All complaints must be in writing.

If your complaint is not satisfactorily resolved, you may file a complaint with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. Our Privacy Officer will furnish you with the address upon request.

To obtain more information, or have your questions about your rights answered, please contact Spathis Chiropractic’s Privacy Officer.

Is required by law to maintain the privacy of your PHI and to provide you with this Privacy Notice upon request.

Is required to abide by the terms of this Privacy Notice.

Reserves the right to change the terms of this Privacy Notice and to make the new Privacy Notice provisions effective for all of your PHI that it maintains.

Will not retaliate against you for making a complaint.

Must make a good faith effort to obtain from you an Acknowledgment of receipt of this Notice.

Will post this Privacy Notice in its lobby and on Spathis Chiropractic’s web site.

SPATHIS CHIROPRACTIC
903 E. Clinton St., Ste 103, Howell, MI 48843
Tel: (517) 552-0890
Fax: (517) 552-0891