NextDayFioricet.com
- PRIVACY POLICY
Notice of Privacy Practices
HIPPA
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
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.
At
NextDayFioricet.com, we value your relationship,
and want you to know we respect your privacy.
We are committed to protecting your private
personal health information, and we will only
use and disclose your personal health information
as necessary to provide you with health care
products and services. Protected health information
(PHI) is any information that we possess, use
and disclose that identifies you and relates
to your past, current or future physical and
mental health condition or illness and the health
care products and services that have been provided
to you.
This
purpose of this "Notice of Privacy Practices"
(Notice) is to help you understand our legal
duties to protect your PHI and how we may use
and disclose your PHI in relation to your past,
present and future physical or mental health
condition or illness and its treatment. The
use and disclosure of your PHI will primarily
involve the health care products and services
that we provide you, such as dispensing your
prescriptions. Specifically, we will use and
disclose your PHI as necessary in providing
treatment to you, obtaining payment for health
care products and services provided to you and
other health care operations as described later
in this Notice. This Notice also describes your
legal rights related to your PHI that is in
our possession. We take the obligations described
in this Notice very serious, because we are
legally required to comply with this notice,
and because we respect you and your right to
privacy.
Your
PHI will only be used and disclosed as described
in this Notice. Should a situation requiring
use and disclosure of your PHI that is not described
in this Notice occur, we will obtain your written
authorization before the use and disclosure.
At some future date it may be necessary for
us to revise this Notice. If this occurs, we
will post the revised Notice in the pharmacy
and, if you request, provide a written Notice
to you.
The
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act of 1996 (HIPAA), provides you with several
rights related to your PHI. These rights are
summarized below. If you would like more information
about your rights, please ask to speak with
our Privacy Officer at the address or telephone
number above.
Right
to Receive Notice of Privacy Practices: You
have the right to receive this written Notice
of Privacy Practices describing how we will
protect your PHI and your rights related to
PHI. You are entitled to request this written
Notice at any time.
Right
to Request Limitation of Use and Disclosure
of PHI: You have the right to request a limitation
on our use and disclosure of your PHI. But please
be aware that we may not be able to agree to
your requested limitation if it results in our
not being able to provide health care products
and services to you or if we are required to
use and disclose the PHI under federal or state
law. All requests for limitation on the use
and disclosure of your PHI must be submitted
to our Privacy Officer in writing using a form
that we will provide to you.
Right
to Review and Receive a Copy of Records: You
have the right to review or receive photocopies
of our records that contain your PHI, to the
extent that these records are part of a designated
record set as defined by HIPAA. The most common
type of records are your prescriptions on file
with us, our patient profile for you and our
billing records for health care products and
services that have been provided to you. If
you wish to review or obtain a copy of a family
member's PHI you may need to complete a "Right
to Access and Consent for Release of PHI to
Patient's Authorized Representative". This
is of course subject to any limitations on use
and disclosure of PHI we have on file for that
family member. We will be pleased to allow you
to review such records meeting the requirements
of this Notice of Privacy Practices at no charge
during normal business hours. However, we may
charge you a reasonable, cost-based fee for
photocopies of the records, together with any
expenses for mailing, special courier, faxing
and supplies necessary to complete your records
request.
If
we are unable to provide our records to you,
we will provide you a written explanation of
why we are not able to provide the records.
Depending on the reason, you may submit a written
request for us to reconsider. All requests to
review or receive photocopies of our records
that contain your PHI must be submitted to our
Privacy Officer in writing using a form that
we will provide to you.
Right
to Request Amendments to Records: You have the
right to request changes in the content of your
PHI contained in our records where you believe
the content is incomplete, inaccurate or for
some other reason needs to be changed. We may
not be able to agree to your requested change
if we no longer have the records or if the requested
change would cause your PHI to become inaccurate.
If we are not able to agree to your requested
change we will notify you in writing as to why
we are not able to agree. You will then have
the right to submit to us a written statement
of disagreement, to which we may elect to further
respond in writing to you. All requests for
change to your PHI in our records must be submitted
to our Privacy Officer in writing using a form
that we will provide to you.
Right
to Request Confidential Communications: You
have the right to request that we communicate
with you about your PHI in a confidential manner
and only to locations (such as a post office
box) or by means (such as personal cellular
telephone) specified by you. All requests for
confidential communications must be submitted
to our Privacy Officer in writing and using
a form that we will provide to you.
Right
to an Accounting of Non-Treatment, Payment and
Operations (TPO) Disclosures: You have the right
to obtain an accounting of some of our disclosures
of your PHI made after April 14,2003. By accounting
we main a written record of these disclosures.
Some of our disclosures of your PHI are not
required by HIPAA to be included in the accounting.
Most notable among these are disclosures for
purposes of TPO. Other disclosures of your PHI
that are not required to be included in the
accounting are disclosures make directly to
you or that you have authorized, made to family,
friends and others who assist you with your
care (caregivers) and made for other purposes
allowed by HIPAA. Please consult with our Privacy
Officer for more information on the disclosures
not required to be included in the accounting.
We
are required to provide an accounting of disclosures
for the six (6) year period immediately prior
to the date of your request for the accounting;
however, your request for an accounting can
be for a shorter period of time and cannot precede
the HIPAA compliance date. You may obtain from
us, without charge, one accounting during a
twelve-month period. However, if you request
additional accountings during the same twelve
month period we may charge you a reasonable,
cost-based fee for printing or photocopying
of the accounting, together with any expenses
for mailing, special courier, faxing and supplies
necessary to fulfill your request for the accounting.
If it becomes necessary for us to charge you
for an accounting, we will notify you in advance
and allow you to withdraw or modify your request
for the accounting. All requests for an accounting
of our disclosures of your PHI must be submitted
to our Privacy Officer in writing.
Right
to File a Complaint: You have the right to file
a complaint if you believe that we have violated
your rights as described above, and to not fear
retaliation or adverse action by us against
you for exercising your right. You can file
the complaint with us directly, or with the
United States Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS). Please be assured that we will
work with you to resolve any complaint including
providing you with the address for filing a
complaint with HHS. If you have any concern
about our privacy practices or wish to file
a complaint, please contact our Privacy Officer
at the address or telephone number of our pharmacy.
If
you have any questions about any of your privacy
rights as described, please contact our Privacy
Officer at the address or telephone number listed
at the beginning of this document.
Normal
Pharmacy Activities Resulting in Uses and Disclosures
of your PHI.
The
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act of 1996 (HIPAA), requires that this "Notice"
describe how we may use and disclose your protected
health information (PHI). These uses and disclosures
are summarized below, but if you would like
more information about any of these please contact
our Privacy Officer at the address or telephone
number of our pharmacy.
Treatment:
HIPAA regulations define treatment as "the
provision, coordination, or management of health
care and related services by one or more health
care providers, including the coordination or
management of health care by a health care provider
with a third party; consultation between health
care providers relating to a patient; or the
referral of a patient for health care from one
health care provider to another". We will
maintain records that contain your PHI and we
will use and disclose your PHI as necessary
to provide health care products and services
to carry out and support your treatment. As
a pharmacy, we will use and disclose your PHI
as necessary to maintain your patient profile,
which includes information about you, your medical
condition, medications and prescription devices
that you use, any allergies that you may have
and other information, such as any health insurance
that you may have. We will use and disclose
your PHI in dispensing prescription medicines
and related products and services, including
counseling you and your caregivers about proper
use of your medications. We will also use your
patient profile to watch for medication related
problems, such a drug interactions and overuse
or under use of your medications that may present
a risk to you. We may discuss such problems
with your other health care professionals, such
as your physician or dentist, and through such
discussions, we may use and disclose your PHI.
And of course, we will use and disclose your
PHI to you and your caregivers (if you allow
us), in our discussions with you and your caregivers
about your treatment.
Payment:
HIPAA regulations define payment, in relation
to health care providers such as pharmacies,
as activities to obtain reimbursement for the
health care products and services that we provide
to you. These activities include primarily billing
you directly or someone who pays for your health
care, such as a family member or health insurance
company, for health care products and services
that we provide to you. Activities related to
billing may include claims management, collections
and related health care data processing. Depending
on who pays for the health care products and
services that we provide you, other activities
may include eligibility determination; drug
coverage determination; medical necessity under
a health plan; appropriateness of care, or justification
of charges; including prior authorization of
drugs and services; prospective and retrospective
drug utilization review services. Some examples
of PHI that may be used and disclosed to collect
payment are:
Name,
Address, Birth date, Gender, Social Security
Number, Insurance Member ID Number, Relationship
to Insured Health Plan Information and Health
Care Provider Information
We
will use and disclose your PHI to carry out
the above activities as necessary or required
to obtain payment for the health care products
and services that we provide to you. In relation
to this, public and private health care insurance
programs that may provide or pay for your health
care can conduct audits, inspections and investigations
of us in relation to our activities and your
activities. We may be required to disclose your
PHI to these programs for purposes of audits,
inspections and investigations. Health care
operations: HIPAA defines health care operations
as those activities necessary and related to
our providing of health care products and services
to you. These activities include, but may not
be limited to, the following:
-
Conducting quality assessment and improvement
activities, case management, disease management
and care coordination, contacting of health
care providers and patients with information
about treatment alternatives and related functions
that do not include treatment.
-
Conducting or arranging for medical review,
legal services and auditing functions, including
fraud and abuse detection and compliance programs.
-
Our pharmacy management and general administrative
activities, including, but not limited to, activities
relating to implementation of and compliance
with the requirements of HIPAA.
We
will use and disclose your PHI to carry out
the above activities as necessary or required,
and especially to monitor and improve the quality
of the health care products and services that
are provided to you by us and other health care
professionals.
In
addition to treatment, payment and health care
operations as described above, we may use and
disclose your PHI for the following purposes:
Business
associates: The health care system is very complex
and as such we may not be able to provide health
care products and services to you without the
involvement of other businesses or persons.
Depending on what these other businesses or
persons do for us, they may become "business
associates" as defined by HIPAA. In many
situations it will be necessary for us to provide
your PHI to these business associates so that
they can carry out the activities that we need
to have performed in order to provide you health
care products and services. For patients that
have health insurance that includes a pharmacy
benefit, one of our most common business associates
is a health insurance company or a pharmacy
benefits company that processes claims we submit
for payment for health care products and services
on your behalf. We have written contracts with
all of our business associates to whom we provide
your PHI so that they can carry out their activities
on our behalf. In an effort to provide you a
level of comfort, you should know, these contracts
require our business associates to give us their
assurance that they, like us, will protect the
privacy of your PHI.
Communications
with you concerning your health and treatment:
We want to do whatever we can to assist you
with maintaining your health and obtaining the
most benefit from your treatment. We routinely
monitor your prescription medications for appropriateness
and take other steps to help you use your medication
properly. For example, if you forget to obtain
a refill of your medication, we may contact
you to remind you to obtain the refill. We may
also call you or send you materials regarding
products and services that we believe may be
of benefit to you. In the event that a pharmaceutical
manufacturer or the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) is to issue a medication recall, we may
contact you if you are taking the medication
subject to the recall.
Federal
and state government agencies: We may disclose
your PHI to federal and state government agencies
for a variety of purposes, most of which are
directed at monitoring health care quality and
safety, government programs related to health
care and our compliance with laws applicable
to health care. For example, the United State
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) monitors
the distribution and use of controlled substances,
while the FDA monitors adverse drug events.
We may disclose your PHI to such agencies where
required by the agency so that the agency can
carry out its required activities. Related to
this, some private businesses, such as the manufacturers
of medications and medical devices, are legally
required to conduct post marketing surveillance
in order to ensure the safety of their products.
Disclosing your PHI for such surveillance may
be necessary. A number of state agencies also
conduct health care quality and safety activities,
for which we may disclose your PHI. For example,
some states maintain a controlled substance
monitoring program and require that we report
to the state the prescriptions for controlled
substances that we dispense to you.
Federal
and state government health care insurance programs:
If you apply for and receive benefits from federal
and state health care programs, such as Medicare
or Medicaid, your PHI may be disclosed to the
agency granting these benefits. If you are employed
by a business that is required to carry workers'
compensation insurance, and you are injured
in such a way that the workers' compensation
plan covers your health care, it may be necessary
to disclose you PHI to the workers' compensation
plan. Such plans have a right to conduct audits,
inspections and investigations of our activities
and your activities, and where required, we
will disclose your PHI for these activities.
Public
health and safety: There are several federal
and state laws that require health care providers
to report to various government agencies matters
related to public health. If your physical or
mental health condition and illness is of a
nature that requires that it be reported, then
we will disclose your PHI to the appropriate
government agency in order to comply with these
laws. In addition to reporting about physical
and mental health conditions and illnesses,
we may also disclose your PHI to government
agencies in other situations where we are required
to submit reports, such as suspected domestic,
child or elder abuse or neglect.
Law
enforcement activities: A number of federal,
state and local government agencies are charged
with enforcing the health care and drug laws,
and other laws in relations to the health care
products and services that we may provide to
you. In addition, as a state licensed pharmacy,
a variety of federal, state and local health
care agencies, such as the state board of pharmacy,
regulate our activities. These agencies may
engage in a number of activities designed to
monitor and improve federal and state health
care programs and systems, including conducting
of inspections and investigations of our activities
and the health care products and services that
we provide to our patients. At any time we are
required by federal or state laws, or by court
order, subpoena of other legal mandate, to disclose
your PHI we will do so as necessary.
Legal
disputes: Lawsuits and other legal disputes
are common today, and depending on the issues,
may involve your PHI that we possess. In the
event that you are involved in a lawsuit or
other legal proceeding, whether as a plaintiff
or a defendant, and without regard to the basis
for the lawsuit, such as medical malpractice
or divorce, we will disclose your PHI when required
to comply with a court order, subpoena, discovery
proceeding, such as a deposition, or other legal
mandate served upon us. We will attempt to notify
you prior to the disclosure if you are not the
party to the legal dispute requesting your PHI
so that you and your attorney can determine
whether you want to take legal actions to prevent
disclosure of your PHI.
Disclosures
for the benefit of you and others: Events can
occur where we would use and disclosure your
PHI for your benefit and to prevent or reduce
the risk of harm to you. For example, if you
are in a car accident and are unconscious in
a hospital emergency room and the emergency
room medical staff calls us with a request for
your PHI, we may disclose it for the purpose
of assisting in your prompt medical treatment.
The same is true if a family member, friend
or caregiver contacts us in an emergency situation,
or where an emergency situation is not present,
but we have reason to believe you are at risk
of harm or serious injury and we believe that
disclosing your PHI will assist them in caring
for you. We may also disclose your PHI upon
your death to a funeral director, embalmer,
medical examiner or coroner's office to assist
them in carrying out their legal responsibilities
related to your death. Finally, we may disclose
your PHI where necessary to protect the health
and safety of others.
Disclosures
for national security and intelligence: We are
legally required to disclose your PHI when necessary
to national security and intelligence and counter-intelligence
activities. Any disclosure for these purposes
would be made only to authorized government
officials.
Disclosures
if you are in the military or a veteran: We
may disclose your PHI, if you are a member of
any branch of the armed services, whether on
active or reserve status. If you are a veteran,
we may release your PHI. Particularly if you
are receiving health care products and services
from the Veterans Services. Any disclosure for
these purposes would be made only to authorized
government officials.
Disclosures
of a miscellaneous nature: We may be required
to disclose your PHI if you are placed into
custody of a federal or state correctional system
if necessary to protect the health and safety
of you and others. Health care is an area where
much research is being conducted, and we may
disclose your PHI for purposes of a research
project, but only if we are satisfied that the
research project has been approved by a responsible
institutional review board and the research
project has established adequate methods to
protect your privacy. Much health care research
is sponsored through organizations that conduct
fundraising activities, and we may inquire with
you using your PHI to determine your interest
in participating in or otherwise supporting
a fundraising activity. Finally, given the national
need for organ donations, we may disclose your
PHI to organizations that manage organ transplantation
programs.
If
you have any questions about any of the uses
and disclosures of your PHI as described above,
Please contact our Privacy Officer at the address
or telephone number listed at the beginning
of this document.
Uses
and Disclosures not Contained in this Notice
If
a use and disclosure of your PHI is not contained
in this Notice, we will obtain your written
authorization before the use and disclosure.
You may have the right to refuse to authorize
the use and disclosure, or if you grant the
authorization, to revoke the authorization at
any time. If such authorization is requested,
we will provide you with a form that describes
the proposed use and disclosure and your rights
related to the requested authorization.
HIPAA
requires that we give you this "Notice
of Privacy Practices" and make a good faith
effort to obtain your written acknowledgment
that you were given this notice. Upon giving
you this Notice, you will be asked to sign a
document acknowledging that you received this
notice. We appreciate your cooperation in reviewing
this notice and in giving us your written acknowledgment.
HIPAA
also requires that this Notice, at a minimum,
cover the following three areas.
-
How we will use and disclose your personally
identifiable health information.
-
Your rights with respect to your personally
identifiable health information.
-
Our legal duties to protect the confidentiality
of your personally identifiable health information.
In
preparing this Notice, we made every effort
to comply with this HIPAA requirement. In addition,
you should be aware that the Federal regulation
HIPAA does not take precedence over State Law
when the State Law is stricter. You may have
additional protections under State Law.
Please
consult our Privacy Officer if you have any
questions or want more information concerning
your health care and privacy rights under HIPAA
or the laws of our state, or our privacy practices.
Also, you should consult our Privacy Officer
if you wish to file a complaint about our privacy
practices or if you believe we have violated
any of your rights as described in this Notice.
Thank
you for allowing us the privilege of being your
pharmacy, we look forward to providing you with
high quality health care products and services
that will help to keep you healthy.
Customer
Service
E-mail:
info@NEXTDAYFIORICET.com
Our Customer Care Specialists are available
during hours of operation: Monday - Friday 9am
to 6 pm (EST).
Customer Service: Call
(888) 881-7457
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Us Feedback
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If you have comments or believe that we can
improve our service in any way, please e-mail
us at:
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