Privacy Policy

Privacy Policies

Confidentiality of Client Medical Records

Medical records are protected under Federal Confidentiality Regulations and Florida Statues (Title 42, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 2, titled “Confidentiality of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Patient Records” and with Chapter 397.419(7), paragraphs 397.6751(2)(a)(c), Florida Statues and Section 397.752, Florida Statutes, regarding confidential client information.

The Delray Center will not acknowledge the presence of a client or release any information pertaining to the client’s care without a completed signed release of information.

The Delray Center may not acknowledge the presence or affiliation of a person in the treatment program unless the client consents to the acknowledgement or affiliation in writing; staff are directed to release information by a legal court order; disclosure is made to medical personnel in a medical emergency or to qualified personnel for research, audit, or program evaluation.

Limits of Confidentiality

Violation of the Federal law and regulations by a program/staff is a crime. Suspected violations may be reported to appropriate authorities in accordance with Federal regulations.

Federal law and regulations do not protect any information about a crime committed by a patient either at the program or against any person who works for the program or about any threat to commit such a crime.

Federal laws and regulations do not protect any information about suspected child abuse or neglect from being reported under state law to the appropriate state or local authorities.

In the event that a client poises imminent harm to self or others, The Delray Center will take every step necessary to protect a client and notify a possible victim that might be harmed by a client’s threat.

Notice of Privacy Practices for Protected Health Information

Our Legal Duty

Information regarding your health care, including payment for health care, is protected in part by a federal law called the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, (HIPPA).

This notice of privacy practices describes how your protected health information (PHI) may be used and disclosed and how you can access this information. Please review this notice carefully because the privacy of your PHI is important.

We are required by applicable federal and state laws to maintain the privacy of your protected health information. PHI is information that may identify you and that relates to your past, present, or future physical or mental health/condition and related health care services. We will not use or disclose PHI about you without your written authorization – except as described in this notice.

We are required to give this notice about privacy practices, our legal duties, and your rights concerning your PHI. We must follow the privacy practices that are described in this notice while it is in effect. This notice took effect on August 4, 2005 and will remain in effect until we replace it. We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and the terms of this notice at any time provided such changes are permitted by applicable federal law. In the event we make a change in our privacy practice, we will change this notice and provide it to you.

Uses and Disclosures of Health Information

We use and disclose protected information about you for treatment, payment, and healthcare/program operations as follows:

Your Authorization

In addition to our use of your PHI for treatment, payment or healthcare/program operations you may give us written authorization to use your PHI or to disclose it for any purpose. If you give us an authorization, you may revoke it in writing at any time (except where required by court-ordered services). Your revocation will not affect any use or disclosure permitted by your authorization while it was in effect. Unless you give us written authorization, we cannot use or disclose your PHI for any reason except those described in this notice.

Treatment

We may use or disclose your PHI to the referral source for purposes of treatment planning and coordination, reporting compliance/non-compliance issues, and referral to another additional service provider.

Payment

We may use or disclose your PHI to obtain payment for services we provide to you. This may include such activities as verification of coverage and billing/collection activities and related data processing.

Healthcare / Program Operation

We may use or disclose your PHI in connection with our healthcare program operations. This may include such activities as quality assessment and improvement activities, reviewing the competence and/or qualifications of healthcare/program professionals, evaluating provider performance, conducting training programs, and accreditation, certification, licensing and/or credentialing activities.

Required by Law

We may use or disclose your PHI when we are required to do so by law – including judicial and administrative proceedings.

Abuse or Neglect

We may disclose your PHI to appropriate authorities if we reasonably believe that you are a possible victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence or the possible victim of other crimes. We may also disclose your PHI to the extent necessary to avert a serious threat to your health or safety or the health or safety of others including, if we have good reason to believe that you are engaging in child or elder abuse.

National Security

We may disclose to authorized federal officials PHI required for lawful intelligence, counterintelligence, or other national security activities. We may disclose to correctional institutions or law enforcement officials having lawful custody of PHI under certain circumstances.

Appointment Reminders and Termination Notices

We may use or disclose your PHI to provide you with appointment reminders or to advise you that you are at risk for program termination. Such activities may include voicemail messages and letters.

Concerns 

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may make a complaint by contacting the CEO of this company or the Secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services. No client will be retaliated against for filing a complaint.

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)

This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully. This notice is effective as of April 15, 2003.

Treatment, Payment and Health Care Operations

The Delray Center uses and discloses your protected health information for treatment, payment, and health care operations. Some examples of when our office may use or disclose your health care information for these purposes include:

• Sharing test results with other health care providers for confirmation of a diagnosis;

• Providing your diagnosis or other information about your health to your insurance provider or our billing service to obtain payment for the health care services we provide;

• Reviewing information as part of our quality improvement program.

Other Uses and Disclosures

The Delray Center may also use or disclose your protected health information, in compliance with guidelines outlined by law, for the following purposes:

  • Providing you with information related to your health
  • Contacting you regarding appointments, information about treatment alternatives, or other
    health related services
  • Incidental uses or disclosures (e.g., listing your name on a sign-in sheet, etc.)
  • Compliance with all laws (including reports of suspected abuse, neglect or violence)
  • Providing certain specified information to law enforcement or correctional institutions
  • Providing information to a coroner, medical examiner, funeral director or organ procurement
    organization
  • Public health activities when requested by a public health authority or the FDA. Responding to health oversight agencies
  • Responding to court or administrative tribunal orders, subpoenas, discovery requests or other lawful process
  • Research activities
  • When necessary to avert a serious threat to health or safety
  • Military affairs, veterans affairs, national security, intelligence, Department of State, or presidential protective service activities;
  • Providing information to public or private disaster relief agencies; or Information to a family member, other relative, or close personal friend when: notification of your location, general condition or death; to assist in your health care (e.g. pick-up prescriptions or other documents, note followup care instructions, etc.)

Authorization for Other Uses

The Delray Center will make other uses and disclosure of your protected health information only after obtaining your written authorization. If you authorize a use contained in this notice , you may revoke your authorization at any time, by notifying us in writing that you wish to revoke your authorization.

Your Rights Regarding the Privacy of Your Health Information 

Subject to limitations outlined by law, you have certain rights related to use and disclosure of your protected health information, including the right to:

  • Request restrictions on certain uses and disclosures. However, The Delray Center is not obligated to agree to requested restrictions;
  • Receive confidential communications or protected health information;
  • Inspect and copy your protected health information with some limited exceptions;
  • Amend your health information;
  • Receive an accounting of disclosures of your health information;
  • Obtain a copy of this notice.

Delray Center Duties Regarding the Privacy of Your Health Information Concerns

Subject to limitations outlined by law, The Delray Center has certain duties related to your protected health information, including:

TheDelrayCenter is required by law to maintain the privacy of protected health information and to provide individuals with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to protected health information.

The Delray Center is required to abide by the terms of the privacy notice that is currently in effect.

The Delray Center reserves the right to change a privacy practice described in this notice and to make such change effective for all protected health information. Revised notice will be posted in our office and available upon request

Concerns

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may make a complaint by contacting the CEO at this treatment agency or the Department of Children and Families.

Telemedicine Services

Telemedicine involves the use of electronic communication to enable health care providers at different locations to share individual patient medical information for the purpose of improving patient care. Providers may include primary care practitioners, specialists, and/or sub-specialists. The information may be used for diagnosis, therapy, follow-up and/or education, and may include any of the following:

Patient medical records
Medical images
Live two-way audio and video
Output data from medical devices and sound and video files

Electronic systems used will incorporate network and software security protocols to protect the confidentiality of patient identification and imaging data will include measures to safeguard the data and to ensure its integrity against intentional and unintentional corruption.

Expected Benefits

As with any medical procedure, there are potential risks associated with the use of telemedicine. These risks include, but may not be limited to:

  • In rare cases, information transmitted may not be sufficient (e.g) poor resolution of images) to allow for appropriate medical decision making by the physician and consultant(s); 
  • Delay in medical evaluation and treatment could occur due to deficiencies or failures of the equipment;
  • In very rare instances, security protocols could fail, causing a breach of privacy of personal medical information;
  • In rare cases, a lack of access to complete medical records may result in adverse drug interactions or allergic reactions or other judgment errors;

By consenting to telemedicine services, patients acknowledge that they consent to the following:

  1. Understanding that the laws that protect privacy and the confidentiality of medical information also apply to telemedicine, and that no information obtained in the use of telemedicine will be disclosed to researched or other entities without my consent.
  2. Understanding that patients have the right to withhold or withdraw consent to the use of telemedicine in the course of care at any time, without affecting the right to future treatment.
  3. Understanding that patients have the right to inspect all information obtained and recorded in the course of a telemedicine interaction, and may receive copies of this information for a reasonable fee.
  4. Understanding that a variety of alternative methods of medical care may be available, and that they may choose one or more of these at any time.
  5. Understanding that telemedicine may involve electronic communication of personal medical information to other medical practitioners who may be located in other areas, including out of state.
  6. Understanding that it is the patient’s duty to inform their provider of electronic interactions regarding care that they may have with other healthcare providers.

Online Privacy Policy

What personal data we collect and why we collect it 

Comments 

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Analytics

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

 

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