This Notice of Privacy Practices (“NPP” or “Notice”) describes how CareMore Health (“CareMore Health”) may use and disclose your protected health information (“PHI”), our obligations to protect your PHI, your privacy rights in accessing such information, and how you may contact us.

 

CareMore Health is the trade name of and refers to the healthcare delivery and services organizations consisting of the following companies, which may provide healthcare services to you:

 

• CareMore Medical Partners, P.C.
• Fox Medical Partners of Nevada, P.C. dba CareMore Medical Partners of Nevada, P.C.
• CareMore Medical Partners of California, P.C.
• CareMore Health Management Services, LLC
• CareMore Health of Arizona, Inc.
• CareMore Health of California, Inc.
• CareMore Health of Nevada, Inc.

 

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) protects the PHI we obtain and create in providing care and services to you. Your PHI may include the medical information we receive from you or your providers, such as your symptoms, test results, diagnoses, treatment, health notes, and billing and payment information relating to these services.

 

In general, we will only use or disclose your PHI as described in this Notice in relation to your healthcare treatment, payment, and/or our operations, or as required by law. If we believe any additional use or disclosure of your PHI is necessary that goes beyond these use cases, we will not use or disclose your PHI without your authorization.

 

Protected Health Information is information about you, including demographic information, that may identify you and that relates to your past, present, or future physical health or condition, treatment or payment for health care services. This Notice also describes your rights to access and control your protected health information.

 

USES AND DISCLOSURES OF PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION:

Your protected health information may be used and disclosed by our health care providers, our staff, and others outside of our office that are involved in your care and treatment for the purpose of providing health care services to you, to support our business operations, to obtain payment for your care, and any other use authorized or required by law. We make reasonable efforts to limit uses and disclosures of PHI to the minimum necessary.

 

TREATMENT:

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. For example, your protected health information may be provided to a health care provider to whom you have been referred to ensure the necessary information is accessible to diagnose or treat you.

 

PAYMENT:

Your protected health information may be used to bill or obtain payment for your health care services. This may include certain activities that your health insurance plan may undertake before it approves or pays for your services, such as:  making a determination of eligibility or coverage for insurance benefits and reviewing services provided to you for medical necessity.

 

 

HEALTH CARE OPERATIONS:

We may use or disclose, as needed, your protected health information in order to support the business activities of this office. These activities include, but are not limited to, improving quality of care, providing information about treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services, developing or maintaining and supporting computer systems, legal services, and conducting audits and compliance programs, including fraud, waste and abuse investigations.

 

USES AND DISCLOSURES THAT DO NOT REQUIRE YOUR AUTHORIZATION:

We may use or disclose your protected health information in the following situations without your authorization: as required by law; for public health purposes; for health care oversight purposes; for abuse or neglect reporting; pursuant to Food and Drug Administration requirements; in connection with legal proceedings; for law enforcement purposes; to coroners, funeral directors and organ donation agencies; for certain research purposes; for certain criminal activities; for certain military activity and national security purposes; for workers’ compensation reporting; relating to certain inmate reporting; and other required uses and disclosures.  Under the law, we must make certain disclosures to you upon your request, and when required by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate or determine our compliance with the requirements of HIPAA. State laws may further restrict these disclosures.

 

USES AND DISCLOSURES THAT REQUIRE YOUR AUTHORIZATION:

Other permitted and required uses and disclosures will be made only with your consent, authorization, or opportunity to object unless permitted or required by law. We will not use or disclose your PHI for marketing purposes without your authorization. We may not sell your protected health information without your authorization. Your protected health information will not be used for fundraising. If you provide us with an authorization for certain uses and disclosures of your information, you may revoke such authorization, at any time, in writing, except to the extent that we have taken an action in reliance on the use or disclosure indicated in the authorization.

 

In addition, federal and state law require special privacy protections for certain highly confidential information about you (“Highly Confidential Information”), including the subset of your protected health information that: (1) is maintained in psychotherapy notes; (2) is about mental illness, and developmental disabilities; (3) is about alcohol or drug abuse or addiction; (4) is about HIV/AIDS testing, diagnosis or treatment; (5) is about communicable disease(s), including venereal disease(s); (6) is about genetic testing; (7) is about child abuse and neglect; (8) is about domestic abuse of an adult; or (9) is about sexual assault.

 

In order for your Highly Confidential Information to be disclosed for a purpose other than those permitted or required by state or federal law, your written authorization is required.

 

COMMUNICATIONS FOR TREATMENT AND HEALTHCARE OPERATIONS:

 

If you choose to communicate with us via unsecure electronic communication, such as regular email or SMS text message, we may direct you to contact us via a secure mechanism such as an online app, in our care centers, or over the phone.

In addition, if you provide your email address or cell phone number when you consent to our services, we may communicate with you via phone call, emails or SMS text messages related to appointment reminders, benefit offerings, or other general informational communications. For your convenience, these messages may be sent unencrypted.

Before using or agreeing to use of any unsecure electronic communication to communicate with us, note that there are certain risks, such as interception by others, misaddressed/misdirected messages, shared accounts, messages forwarded to others, or messages stored on unsecured, portable electronic devices. By choosing to correspond with us via unsecure electronic communication, you acknowledge that there may be associated risks with this communication. Additionally, you should understand that use of email or other electronic communications is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Email communications should never be used in a medical emergency.

 

YOUR RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO YOUR PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION:

Although, the health and billing records we create and store belong to us, the PHI generated in these records, generally belongs to you. As such, you have the following rights listed below.

 

To exercise any right, you may submit your request in writing to:

CareMore Health Management Services, LLC

c/o Compliance and Privacy Departments

12900 Park Plaza Drive, Suite 700

Cerritos, CA 90703

 

Or via email to privacy@caremore.com

 

You have the right to obtain a copy of your protected health information in electronic form and to direct us to transmit such copy to a person or entity you designate.

 

You may request access to or an amendment of your protected health information.

 

You have the right to request a restriction on the use or disclosure of your protected health/personal information. Your request must be in writing and state the specific restriction requested and to whom you want the restriction to apply. We are not required to agree to a restriction that you may request, except if the requested restriction is on a disclosure to a health plan for a payment or health care operations purpose regarding a service that has been paid in full out-of-pocket.

 

You have the right to request to receive confidential communications from us by alternative means or at an alternate location. We will comply with all reasonable requests submitted in writing which specify how or where you wish to receive these communications.

 

You have the right to request an amendment of your protected health information. If we deny your request for amendment, you have the right to file a statement of disagreement with us. We may prepare a rebuttal to our statement and we will provide you with a copy of any such rebuttal.

 

You have the right to receive an accounting of certain disclosures of your protected health information that we have made, in paper or electronic form, except for certain disclosures which were pursuant to an authorization, for purposes of treatment, payment, healthcare operations (unless the information is maintained in an electronic health record); or for certain other purposes.

 

You have the right to designate a personal representative (such as a family member or legal guardian) to exercise your rights and make choices about your protected health information.

 

You have the right to obtain a paper copy of this Notice, upon request, even if you have previously requested its receipt electronically by e-mail.

 

OUR RESPONSIBILITIES

CareMore is committed to protecting the privacy of PHI we create or obtain about you. We are required by law to make sure your PHI is protected, give you this NPP, which describes our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your PHI; and follow the terms of this NPP.

 

As such, the privacy practices described in this NPP will be followed by all CareMore professionals, employees, medical staff, trainees, contractors, and consultants.

 

We must follow the duties and privacy practices described in this Notice.  We will maintain the privacy of your protected health information and notify affected individuals following a breach of unsecured protected health information.

 

 

BREACH OF HEALTH INFORMATION:

We will notify you if a reportable breach of your unsecured protected health information is discovered. Notification will be made to you no later than 60 days from discovery of the breach and will include a brief description of how the breach occurred, the protected health information involved, and contact information for you to ask questions.

 

HEALTH INFORMATION EXCHANGE

We may take part in or make possible the electronic sharing or pooling of your PHI through participation in a health information exchange (“HIE”) or an equivalent electronic platform for the sharing or pooling of PHI. If you need medical treatment from another participating healthcare provider, HIEs allow the other provider to electronically gather relevant medical information from our records. If you have received care from another participating healthcare provider, HIEs allow us to electronically gather the relevant portions of your medical information or PHI from their records. This improves your overall quality of care by reducing delays and by helping to ensure that the providers involved in your care have the most current healthcare information available to them. You may elect to opt- out, or back in again, at any time by submitting your request to us in writing. Please contact us at privacy@caremore.com to opt-out.

 

REVISIONS TO THIS NOTICE:

We reserve the right to revise this Notice and to make the revised Notice effective for protected health information we already have about you as well as any information we receive in the future. You are entitled to a copy of the Notice currently in effect.  Any significant changes to this Notice will be posted on our website located at www.caremore.com. You then have the right to object or withdraw your consent or authorization as provided in this Notice.

 

COMPLAINTS:

Complaints about this Notice or how we handle your protected health information should be directed to our HIPAA Privacy Officer. If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may discuss your concerns with us by delivering a written complaint to:

CareMore Health Management Services, LLC

c/o Compliance and Privacy Departments

12900 Park Plaza Drive, Suite 700

Cerritos, CA 90703

 

Or via email to privacy@caremore.com

 

If you are not satisfied with the manner in which a complaint is handled you may submit a formal complaint to the Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights by sending a letter to 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201, calling 1-877-696-6775, or visiting www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.

 

If you have any questions about this Notice, please contact our Privacy Office at privacy@caremore.com or our Ethics Connection Hotline at 1-866-699-9015.

 

CONTACTING YOU:

We, including our affiliates and/or vendors, may contact you by phone call or text message. This contact is strictly for treatment purposes, to communicate health-related benefits, and services, and is done in compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). You have the right to opt-out of these communications at any time.

 

Privacy of Mobile Contact Information

 

 

We maintain the privacy of your mobile contact information and do not share it with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. While information may be shared with subcontractors to provide support services, such as customer service, we will not share your specific text messaging opt-in data or consent with any other organization or company, except for those directly providing services for us.

 

 

If you wish to be placed on our internal Do Not Call list, you may call toll-free at 1-866-699-9015.

 

Email Communication

 

We may provide email links to facilitate communication. Information collected through email may be shared with our member services department, other associates, or third parties that perform services on our behalf.

 

Please note that, unless otherwise indicated, email communication through our website is not completely secure and confidential. Non-encrypted email may be accessed and viewed by other Internet users without your knowledge and permission while in transit to us.

 

 

** NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY OF LANGUAGE ASSISTANCE SERVICES AND AUXILIARY AIDS AND SERVICES **

 

Free language assistance services are available to you. Please access THIS LINK for more information.