HIPAA Policy

 

Notice of Privacy Practices

THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.

C₂N Diagnostics, LLC is committed to ensuring the confidentiality and security of your protected health information. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), C₂N Diagnostics is required by law to maintain the privacy of your protected health information (PHI), and to provide you with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices regarding PHI.  PHI includes information that we have created or received regarding your health, your health care, and/or payment for your health care. C₂N Diagnostics is committed to the protection of your PHI and will make reasonable efforts to ensure the confidentiality of your PHI, as required by law.  

We are required to:

  • Keep your PHI private, except as indicated below.

  • Let you know promptly if a breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your PHI.

  • Use or share your PHI as described and permitted by law unless you tell us otherwise in writing. You may change your mind at any time if you let us know in writing.

  • Follow the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices (Notice) currently in effect.

  • Provide you with a copy of this Notice. 

Uses and Disclosures of PHI 

We may use PHI for the purposes of treatment, payment, and health care operations, in most cases without your written permission. Some of the uses and disclosures described below may be limited or restricted by state laws or other legal requirements, for example, the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA).  Please contact our Privacy Officer, using the contact information provided at the end of this Notice, for specific information regarding your state. Examples of our use of your PHI include: 

For Treatment

This includes such things as obtaining verbal and written information about your medical treatment and laboratory tests from you as well as from others, such as your doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals who provide you with health care services and/or are involved in the coordination of your care, such as providing your physician with your laboratory test results. We may use and disclose PHI to contact you as a reminder that you have an appointment with us and may use and disclose PHI to tell you about health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.  We may also disclose your PHI to a hospital or another medical facility involved with your care and treatment. 

For Billing for Our Services

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 and collecting outstanding accounts. 

For Health Care Operations

This includes quality assurance activities, accuracy of results, licensing and training programs to ensure that our personnel meet our standards of care and follow established policies and procedures, accreditation functions, as well as certain other operational or management functions. C₂N Diagnostics may also disclose PHI to other health care providers or health plans that are involved in your care for their health care operations. For example, we may provide PHI to coordinate health care or health benefits. 

Use and Disclosure of PHI Without Your Authorization 

We are permitted to use your PHI without your written authorization or opportunity to object, in certain situations and unless prohibited by a more stringent state law, for the following purposes: 

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

  • To our business associates in order for them to perform certain business functions or provide certain business services to us.  For example, we may use another company to perform billing services on our behalf.  All of our business associates are required to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of your PHI;

  • For health care and legal compliance activities;

  • To give a family member, other relative, close family friend, or other individual involved in your care, your health care information if we obtain your verbal agreement to do so 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;

  • We may disclose the PHI of minors to their parents or legal guardians;

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

  • To a government authority, including social services, if we reasonably believe that an individual is a victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence;

  • 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 authorize 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;

  • To your personal representative, as established under applicable law, or to an administrator, executor, or other authorized individual associated with your estate;

  • As may be required by federal, state, or local law. 

Any other uses or disclosures 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, except to the extent that we have already used or disclosed your medical information, including laboratory results, in reliance on that authorization. 

In addition to the above, C₂N Diagnostics may use and disclose health information that has been “de-identified” in accordance with HIPAA by removing certain identifiers making it unlikely that you could be identified. C₂N Diagnostics also may disclose limited health information, contained in a “limited data set”.  The limited data set does not contain any information that can directly identify you.  

Individual Rights – You have rights with respect to your PHI, including: 

The Right to Access, Copy, or Inspect Your PHI

This means you may inspect and copy the health information about you that we maintain.  We will normally provide you with access to this information within thirty (30) days of your request.  You have the right to access and receive your PHI in an electronic format if it is readily producible in such a format.  You also have the right to direct C₂N Diagnostics to transmit a copy of your PHI to another  person you designate, provided such request is in writing, signed by you, and clearly identifies the designated recipient and where to send the copy of your PHI. We may also charge you a reasonable, cost-based fee, as state law permits, to provide you a copy of any health information you have the right to access.  In limited circumstances, we may deny you access to your health information, and you may appeal certain types of denials.  We have forms available to request your PHI and we will provide you with a written response if we deny your access and let you know your appeal rights.  You also have the right to receive confidential communications of your PHI.  If you wish to inspect or obtain a copy of your health information, you should contact us. 

The Right to Amend Your PHI

You have the right to ask us to amend health information we may have about you.  We will generally amend your information within 60 days of your request and will notify you when we have amended the information.  We are permitted by law to deny your request to amend your health information only in certain circumstances, like when we believe the information you have asked to amend is correct.  In the event that we do not approve your request for an amendment, we will provide an explanation of the reasoning for our denial and allow you to submit a statement of disagreement. We will include that statement and your request to amend certain information in your record. If you wish to request an amendment of the medical information we have about you, please contact us to obtain an amendment request form.           

The Right to Request an Accounting

You may request an accounting from us of certain disclosures of your PHI we have made in the six (6) years prior to the date of your request.  We are not required to give you an accounting of information we have used or disclosed for purposes of treatment, payment or health care operations or when we share your PHI with our business associates such as our billing company.  We are also not required to give you an accounting of our uses of PHI for which you have already given us written authorization.  If you wish to request an accounting, contact us at the contact information below. 

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 PHI we have about you.  We are not required to agree to any restrictions you request, but any restrictions agreed to by us in writing are binding on us.         

The Right to Request How We Provide Confidential Communications to You

We may communicate your laboratory test results to you by mail, telephone, or e-mail.  You may ask us to send information to your work address or another address instead of your home address and you may also request that we call you at work or another location instead of at home.  You must make this request in writing to us using the contact information provided in this Notice.  You do not have to explain the reason for your request and we are required to follow your request if it is reasonable. 

Other Uses and Disclosures Require Your Written Authorization

Uses and disclosures not described in this Notice will be made only as allowed by law or with your written authorization.  You may revoke your authorization in writing at any time.  The revocation will take place after we receive it, but it will not affect uses or disclosures that have already been made. 

Revisions to the Notice

We reserve the right to change the terms of this Notice at any time and the changes will be effective immediately and will apply to all PHI we maintain.  Any material changes to this Notice will be promptly posted in our facilities and posted to our website.  You can get a copy of the latest version of this Notice by contacting us using the contact information provided in this Notice. Please review our website periodically to ensure that you are aware of any such updates. 

Your Legal Rights and Complaints

You also have the right to file a complaint to us, or 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 Secretary. Should you have any questions, comments or complaints, you may direct all inquiries to C₂N Diagnostics’s Privacy Officer using the contact information provided in this Notice. 

Our Legal Duties and Rights

The law requires us to protect the privacy of your PHI and to provide this Notice of our practices.  We reserve the right to change our health information practices and the terms of this Notice.  We reserve the right to make the changed Notice effective for health information we already have about you and for new information we receive.  The Notice will be placed prominently in our facilities and on our website.  You can request a paper copy of this Notice by contacting our office at the address below. 

For more information from C₂N Diagnostics, please contact

C₂N Diagnostics
Attn: HIPAA Privacy Officer
Center for Emerging Technologies
20 South Sarah Street
Saint Louis, MO 63108
Phone: 1-877-226-3424

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.  You will not be retaliated against for filing a complaint.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Office for Civil Rights
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Room 509F, HHH Building
Washington, D.C. 20201 

For your regional office, please visit: https://www.hhs.gov/ocr/about-us/contact-us/index.html