Notice of Privacy Practices
When it comes to your health information, you have certain rights. This section explains your rights and some of Kittson Healthcare’s responsibilities to help you.
Your Rights
Get an electronic or paper copy of your medical record:
- You can ask to see or get an electronic or paper copy of your medical record and other health information we have about you. Ask us how to do this.
- We will provide a copy of a summary of your health information, usually within 30 days of your request. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee.
Ask us to correct your medical record
- You can ask us to correct health information about you that you think is incorrect or incomplete. Ask us how to do this.
- We may say “no” to your request, but we’ll tell you why in writing within 60 days.
Request confidential communications
- You can ask us to contact you in a specific way (for example, home or office phone) or to send mail to a different address.
- We will say “yes” to all reasonable requests.
Your Choices
For certain health information, you can tell us your choices about what we share. If you have a clear preference for how we share your information in the situations described below, talk to us. Tell us what you want us to do, and we will follow your instructions.
In these cases, you have both the right and choice to tell us to:
- Share information with your family, close friends, or others involved in your care.
- Share information in a disaster relief situation
- Include your information in a hospital directory
- Contact you for fundraising efforts.
If you are not able to tell us your preference, for example if you are unconscious, we may go ahead and share your information if we believe it is in your best interest. We may also share information when needed to lessen a serious and imminent threat to health or safety.
In these cases, we never share your information unless you give us written permission:
- Marketing purposes
- Sale of your information
- Most sharing of psychotherapy notes
In the case of fundraising:
- We may contact you for fundraising efforts, but you can tell us not to contact you again.
Our Uses and Disclosures
How do we typically use or share your health information? We typically use or share your health information in the following ways.
Treat you
- We can use your health information and share it with other professionals who are treating you.
- Example: A doctor treating you for an injury asks another doctor about your overall health condition.
Run our organization
- We can use and share your health information to run our practice, improve your care, and contact you when necessary.
Bill for your services
- We can use and share your health information to bill and get payment from health plans and other entities.
- Example: We give information about you to your health insurance plan so it will pay for your services.
Our Responsibilities
- We are required by law to maintain the privacy and security of your protected health information.
- We will let you know promptly if a breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your information.
- We must follow the duties and privacy practices described in this notice and give you a copy of it.
- We will not use or share your information other than as described here unless you tell us we can in writing. If you tell us we can, you may change your mind at any time. Let us know in writing if you change your mind.
For more information, see: www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/consumers/noticepp.html.
Changes to the Terms of this Notice
We can change the terms of this notice, and the changes will apply to all information we have about you. The new notice will be available upon request, in our office, and on our website.
This Notice of Privacy Practices applies to the following organizations:
Kittson Healthcare
Kittson Memorial Hospital Association
Kittson Memorial Healthcare Center
Kittson Healthcare Nursing Home
Kittson Healthcare Clinics
Kittson Healthcare Ambulance Service
Kittson Healthcare Home Healthcare and River’s Edge Assisted Living
