Notice of Privacy Practices
Tweedie Counseling
325 E 31st Street Unit 26 Kansas City, MO 64108
catie@tweediecounseling.com
816-422-2056
tweediecounseling.com
This notice went into effect on November 1, 2023.
NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
This Notice describes how health information may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information, please review it carefully.
Tweedie Counseling’s pledge regarding health information: Tweedie Counseling understands that health information about you and your health care is personal. Tweedie Counseling is committed to protecting health information about you. Tweedie Counseling creates a record of the care and services. Tweedie Counseling needs this record to provide you with quality care and to comply with certain legal requirements. This notice applies to all of the records of your care generated by this mental health care practice. This notice will tell you about the ways in which Tweedie Counseling may use and disclose health information about you. It also describes your rights to the health information Tweedie Counseling will keep about you, and certain obligations that it has regarding the use and disclosure of your health information. Tweedie Counseling is required by law to:
· Make sure that protected health information (“PHI”) that identifies you is kept private.
· Give you this notice of Tweedie Counseling’s legal duties and privacy practices with respect to health information.
· Follow the terms of the notice that is currently in effect.
· Tweedie Counseling can change the terms of this Notice, and such changes will apply to all information I have about you. In this circumstance, a new Notice will be available upon request.
How Tweedie Counseling may use and disclose health information about you: The following categories describe different ways that Tweedie Counseling uses and discloses health information. This section will explain the meaning behind this and try to give some examples. Not every use or disclosure in a category will be listed. However, all of the ways Tweedie Counseling is permitted to use and disclose information will fall within one of the categories.
For Treatment Payment, or Health Care Operations: Federal privacy rules (regulations) allow health care providers who have direct treatment relationship with the patient/client to use or disclose the patient/client’s personal health information without the patient’s written authorization, to carry out the health care provider’s own treatment, payment, or health care operations. Tweedie Counseling may also disclose your protected health information for the treatment activities of any health care provider. This too can be done without your written authorization. For example, if a clinician were to consult with another licensed health care provider about your condition, Tweedie Counseling would be permitted to use and disclose your personal health information, which is otherwise confidential, in order to assist the clinician in diagnosis and treatment of your mental health condition.
Disclosures for treatment purposes are not limited to the minimum necessary standard. Because clinicians and other health care providers need access to the full record and complete information in order to provide quality care. The word “treatment” includes, among other things, the coordination and management of health care providers with a third party, consultations between health care providers and referrals of a patient for health care from one health care provider to another.
Lawsuits and Disputes
If you are involved in a lawsuit, Tweedie Counseling may disclose health information in response to a court order. Tweedie Counseling may also disclose health information about your child in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process by someone else involved in the dispute, but only if efforts have been made to tell you about the request or to obtain an order protecting the information requested. If a court of law or other legally authorized body orders Tweedie Counseling to disclose confidential or privileged information without your consent and such disclosure could cause harm to you or others, Tweedie Counseling will request that the court withdraw the order or limit the order as narrowly as possible or maintain the records under seal, unavailable for public inspection.
Certain uses and disclosures require your authorization:
1. Psychotherapy Notes. Tweedie Counseling keeps “psychotherapy notes” as that term is defined in 45 CFR § 164.501, and any use or disclosure of such notes requires your authorization unless the use or disclosure is: a. For Tweedie Counseling’s use in treating you. b. For Tweedie Counseling’s use in training or supervising mental health practitioners to help them improve their skills in group, joint, family, or individual counseling or therapy. c. For Tweedie Counseling’s use in defending employees in legal proceedings instituted by you. d. For use by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to investigate Tweedie Counseling’s compliance with HIPAA. e. Required by law and the use or disclosure is limited to the requirements of such law. f. Required by law for certain health oversight activities pertaining to the originator of the psychotherapy notes. g. Required by a coroner who is performing duties authorized by law. h. Required to help avert a serious threat to the health and safety of others.
2. Marketing Purposes. As a psychotherapist, Tweedie Counseling will not use or disclose your PHI for marketing purposes.
3. Sale of PHI. As psychotherapists, Tweedie Counseling will not sell your PHI in the regular course of its business.
Certain uses and disclosures do not require your authorization. Subject to certain limitations in the law, Tweedie Counseling can use and disclose your PHI without your Authorization for the following reasons:
1. When disclosure is required by state or federal law, and the use or disclosure complies with and is limited to the relevant requirements of such law.
2. For public health activities, including reporting suspected child, elder, or dependent adult abuse, or preventing or reducing a serious threat to anyone’s health or safety.
3. For health oversight activities, including audits and investigations.
4. For judicial and administrative proceedings, including responding to a court or administrative order, although my preference is to obtain an Authorization from you before doing so.
5. For law enforcement purposes, including reporting crimes occurring om premises of Tweedie Counseling.
6. To coroners or medical examiners, when such individuals are performing duties authorized by law.
7. For research purposes, including studying and comparing the mental health of patients who received one form of therapy versus those who received another form of therapy for the same condition.
8. Specialized government functions, including, ensuring the proper execution of military missions; protecting the President of the United States; conducting intelligence or counter-intelligence operations; or, helping to ensure the safety of those working within or housed in correctional institutions.
9. For workers’ compensation purposes. Although Tweedie Counseling’s preference is to obtain an Authorization from you, Tweedie Counseling may provide your PHI in order to comply with workers’ compensation laws.
10. Appointment reminders and health related benefits or services. I may use and disclose your PHI to contact you to remind you that you have an appointment with me. I may also use and disclose your PHI to tell you about treatment alternatives, or other health care services or benefits that I offer.
Certain uses and disclosures require you to have the opportunity to object:
1. Disclosures to family, friends, or others. Tweedie Counseling may provide your PHI to a family member, friend, or other person that you indicate is involved in your care or the payment for your health care, unless you object in whole or in part. The opportunity to consent may be obtained retroactively in emergency situations.
You have the following rights with respect to your PHI:
1. The Right to Request Limits on Uses and Disclosures of Your PHI. You have the right to ask Tweedie Counseling not to use or disclose certain PHI for treatment, payment, or health care operations purposes. Tweedie Counseling is not required to agree to your request and may say “no” if it would affect your mental health.
2. The Right to Request Restrictions for Out-of-Pocket Expenses Paid for In Full. You have the right to request restrictions on disclosures of your PHI to health plans for payment or health care operations purposes if the PHI pertains solely to a health care item or a health care service that you have paid for out-of-pocket in full.
3. The Right to Choose How Tweedie Counseling Send PHI to You. You have the right to ask Tweedie Counseling to contact you in a specific way (for example, home or office phone) or to send mail to a different address, and Tweedie Counseling will agree to all reasonable requests.
4. The Right to See and Get Copies of Your PHI. Other than “psychotherapy notes,” you have the right to get an electronic or paper copy of your medical record and other information that Tweedie Counseling has about you. Tweedie Counseling will provide you with a copy of your record, or a summary of it, if you agree to receive a summary, within 30 days of receiving your written request.
5. The Right to Obtain a List of the Disclosures Tweedie Counseling Has Made. You have the right to request a list of instances in which Tweedie Counseling has disclosed your PHI for purposes other than treatment, payment, or health care operations, or for which you provided me with an Authorization. Tweedie Counseling will respond to your request for an accounting of disclosures within 60 days of receiving your request. The list Tweedie Counseling will give you will include disclosures made in the last six years unless you request a shorter time. Tweedie Counseling will provide the list to you at no charge.
6. The Right to Correct or Update Your PHI. If you believe that there is a mistake in your PHI, or that a piece of important information is missing from your PHI, you have the right to request that Tweedie Counseling correct the existing information or add the missing information. Tweedie Counseling has the right to say “no” to this request and, if appropriate, will do so within 60 days of receipt of written request.
7. The Right to Get a Paper or Electronic Copy of this Notice. You have the right get a paper copy of this Notice, and you have the right to get a copy of this notice by e-mail. And, even if you have agreed to receive this Notice via e-mail, you also have the right to request a paper copy of it.
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