Privacy Policy

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Woodlawn Volunteer Fire Company INC. [WVFC]
Notice of Privacy Practices
 

IMPORTANT:

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.

Woodlawn Volunteer Fire Company INC. is required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) to maintain the privacy of your protected health information (“PHI”). We are also required by law to provide you with the attached detailed Notice of Privacy Practices (“Notice”) explaining our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your PHI. 

Uses and Disclosures for Treatment, Payment or Healthcare Operations

[WVFC] may use or disclose your PHI without your authorization, for the following purposes:

Treatment

We can use your PHI for treatment provided to you by us and other medical personnel (including doctors and nurses who give orders to allow us to provide treatment to you). For example, we may share PHI via radio or telephone to the hospital or dispatch center as well as provide the hospital with a copy of the record we create in the course of providing you with treatment and transport. 

Payment

We may use and disclose your PHI to get reimbursed for the services that we provide to you.  This includes such things as submitting bills to insurance companies (either directly or through a third party billing company), managing billed claims and collecting outstanding accounts.  We may also disclose PHI to another healthcare provider or entity for the payment activities of the provider or entity that receives the PHI (such as your hospital).

Healthcare Operations

We may use or disclose your PHI for things such as quality assurance activities, licensing, and training programs to ensure that our personnel meet our standards of care and follow established policies and procedures, obtaining legal and financial services, conducting business planning, processing grievances and complaints. 

Fundraising

We may contact you when we are in the process of raising funds for [WVFC], or to provide you with information about our annual subscription program.  We may also share this information with another organization that may contact you to raise money on our behalf.  If The [WVFC] uses your PHI to conduct fundraising activities, you have the right to opt out of receiving such fundraising communications from the by contacting us. 

Other Uses and Disclosure of Your PHI We Can Make Without Authorization

[WVFC]  is also permitted to use or disclose your PHI without your written authorization the following situations:

• For healthcare fraud and abuse detection or for activities related to compliance with the law;
• To a family member, other relative, or close personal friend or other individual involved in your care;
• To a public health authority in certain situations (such as reporting a birth, death or disease, as required by law), as part of a public health investigation, to report child or adult abuse, neglect or domestic violence, to report adverse events such as product defects, or to notify a person about exposure to a possible communicable disease, as required by law;
• For health oversight activities including audits or other actions undertaken by the government (or their contractors) by law to oversee the healthcare 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;
• To avert a serious threat to the health and safety of a person or the public at large;
• For workers’ compensation purposes 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 authorized by law;
• If you are an organ donor, we may release health information to organizations that handle organ procurement or organ and as necessary to facilitate organ donation and transplantation.

Uses and Disclosures of Your PHI That Require Your Written Authorization

Any other use or disclosure of PHI, other than those listed above, will generally only be made with your written authorization. You make revoke this authorization at any time by contacting us.  The law specifically requires that we obtain your written authorization before using or disclosing your:  (a) psychotherapy notes, other than for the purpose of carrying out our own treatment, payment or health care operations purposes, (b) PHI for marketing when we receive payment to make a marketing communication; or (c) PHI when engaging in a sale of your PHI.