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Notice of Privacy Practices

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) Act was passed into law in August 1996. Bloomfield Township Fire Department is in full compliance with this law. One key provision is the Notice Of Privacy Practices that must be distributed to all patients that access the EMS system in Bloomfield Township. This notice describes how a patient’s information may be disclosed and defines the patient’s rights as they pertain to their medical information. Please review it carefully. If you have any questions about this Notice, please contact our privacy officer, Lt. Richard Watson, at 248.433.7745.

Bloomfield Township Fire Department is required by law to maintain the privacy of certain confidential health care information, known as Protected Health Information or PHI, and to provide you with a notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your PHI. Bloomfield Township Fire Department is also required to abide by the terms of the version of this Notice currently in effect.

Uses and Disclosures of PHI

Uses and Disclosures Without Authorization: Bloomfield Township Fire Department may use PHI for the purposes of treatment, payment, and health care operations, without your authorization. Examples of our use of your PHI:

For treatment. This includes such things as obtaining verbal and written information about your medical condition and treatment from you as well as from others, such as doctors and nurses who give orders to allow us to provide treatment to you. We may give your PHI to other health care providers involved in your treatment, and may transfer your PHI via radio or telephone to the hospital or dispatch center.

For payment. This includes any activities we must undertake in order to get reimbursed for the services we provide to you, including such things as submitting bills to insurance companies, making medical necessity determinations and collecting outstanding accounts.

For health care operations. This includes quality assurance activities, licensing, and training programs to ensure that our personnel meet our standards of care and follow established policies and procedures, as well as certain other management functions.

Other Uses and Disclosure of PHI Without Your Authorization

Bloomfield Township Fire Department is permitted to use PHI without your written authorization, or opportunity to object, in certain situations, and unless prohibited by a more stringent state law, including:

For the treatment, payment or health care operations activities of another health care provider who treats you;

For health care and legal compliance activities;

To a family member, other relative, or close personal friend or other individual involved in your care if we obtain your verbal agreement to do so or if we give you an opportunity to object to such a disclosure and you do not raise an objection, and in certain other circumstances where we are unable to obtain your agreement and believe the disclosure is in your best interests;

To a public health authority in certain situations as required by law (such as to report abuse, neglect or domestic violence;

For health oversight activities including audits or government investigations, inspections, disciplinary proceedings, and other administrative or judicial actions undertaken by the government (or their contractors) by law to oversee the health care system;

For judicial and administrative proceedings as required by a court or administrative order, or in some cases in response to a subpoena or other legal process;

For law enforcement activities in limited situations, such as when responding to a warrant;

For military, national defense and security and other special government functions;

To avert a serious threat to the health and safety of a person or the public at large;

For workers’ compensation purposes, and in compliance with workers’ compensation laws;

To coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors for identifying a deceased person, determining cause of death, or carrying on their duties as authorized by law;

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 organ donation and transplantation;

For research projects, but this will be subject to strict oversight and approvals;

We may also use or disclose health information about you in a way that does not personally identify you or reveal who you are.

Uses and Disclosures With Your Authorization

Any use or disclosure of PHI, other than those listed above, will only be made with your written authorization. You may revoke your authorization at any time, in writing. However, we cannot take back any uses or disclosures that have already occurred in reliance on your authorization.

Patient Rights

As a patient, you have a number of rights with respect to your PHI, including those listed below. If you wish to exercise any of these rights or have any questions about them, you should contact our privacy officer.

The right to access, copy, or inspect your PHI. You have the right to inspect and copy most of the medical information about you that we maintain. We will normally provide you with access to this information within 30 days of your request. We may also charge you a reasonable fee for you to copy any medical information that you have the right to access. In limited circumstances, we may deny you access to your medical information, and you may appeal certain types of denials. We have available forms to request access to your PHI and we will provide a written response if we deny you access and let you know your appeal rights.

The right to amend your PHI. You have the right to ask us to amend written medical information that we may have about you. You must provide a reason that supports your request for an amendment. We are permitted by law to deny your request to amend your medical information only in certain circumstances, like when we believe the information you have asked us to amend is correct. We will notify you that we have either granted or denied it (and provide an explanation of the reason for denial), usually within 60 days of your request. We will also notify you when we have amended the information.

The right to request an accounting. You may request an accounting from us of certain disclosures of your medical information that we have made in the six years prior to the date of your request. We are not required to give you an accounting of certain types of disclosures, such as disclosures for purposes of treatment, payment or health care operations, disclosures to business associates, like our billing company or a medical facility from/to which we have transported you, or disclosures for which you have already given us written authorization. The first accounting you request within a 12-month period is free. For additional accountings, we may charge you for the costs of providing the list.

The right to request that we restrict the uses and disclosures of your PHI. You have the right to request that we restrict how we use and disclose your medical information that we have about you. Bloomfield Township Fire Department is not required to agree to any restrictions you request, but any restrictions agreed to by in writing are binding on Bloomfield Township Fire Department.

The right to request confidential communications of your PHI. 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. We will not ask you the reason for your request. We will accommodate all reasonable requests.

Internet, Electronic Mail, and the Right to Obtain Copy of Paper Notice on Request. If we maintain a web site, we will prominently post a copy of this Notice on our web site. If you allow us, we may forward you this Notice by electronic mail instead of on paper and you may always request a paper copy of the Notice.

Revisions to the Notice

Bloomfield Township Fire Department reserves the right to change the terms of this Notice at any time, and the changes will be effective immediately and will apply to all protected health information that we maintain. Any material changes to the Notice will be promptly posted in our facilities and posted to our web site, if we maintain one. You can get a copy of the latest version of this Notice by contacting our privacy officer.

Your Legal Rights and Complaints

You also have the right to complain to us, or to the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights have been violated. We will not retaliate against you in any way for filing a complaint with us or to the government. Should you have any questions, comments or complaints you may direct all inquiries to our privacy officer.

Privacy Officer Contact Information

Lt. Richard Watson
EMS Coordinator
Bloomfield Township Fire Department
4200 Telegraph Road
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302
Phone: 248.433.7745
Fax: 248.433.7787

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Charter Township of Bloomfield
4200 Telegraph Road
P.O. Box 489
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303-0489
248.433.7700

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