Press release

Notice of Privacy Practices

 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.

Johnson County Ambulance District (JCAD) is required by law to keep your protected health information (PHI) private. PHI is information that could reasonably be used to identify you. We are also required by law to make available to your this Notice of Privacy Practices (“Notice”) explaining our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your PHI. We respect your privacy, and treat all healthcare information about our patients with care under strict policies of confidentiality that our staff is committed to following at all times. 

This Notice describes your legal rights, advises you of our privacy practices, and lets you know how Johnson County Ambulance District (JCAD)is permitted to use and disclose PHI about you. 

Internet, Email and the Right to Obtain Copy of Paper Notice: A copy of the Notice of Privacy Practices is available on our web site www.jocoamb.com. If you request, we will forward you this Notice by electronic email instead of on paper and you may always request a paper copy of the Notice.

Revisions to the Notice: JCAD is required to abide by the terms of the version of this Notice currently in effect.  However, JCAD reserves 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 that we maintain. Any material changes to the Notice will be promptly posted in our business office and on our web site. 

Your Rights Regarding Your PHI: As a patient, you have a number of rights with respect to yourprotected health information (PHI). To make requests of your rights listed below your should provide a written request to our HIPAA Compliance Officer.

Your Legal Rights and Complaints: You have the right to complain to us, or to the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, if you believe that your privacy rights have been violated. You will not be retaliated against in any way for filing a complaint with us or to the government. 

Should you have any questions, comments or complaints, you may direct all inquiries to our HIPAA Compliance Officer. Individuals will not be retaliated against for filing a complaint. 

Uses and Disclosures of Your PHI We Can Make Without Your Authorization

JCAD may use or disclose your PHI for the following purposes: 

Treatment. JCAD may use or share PHI about you to make sure you get the care you need. This includes information we give to other healthcare personnel to whom we transfer your care and includes transfer of PHI via radio or telephone to the hospital or dispatch center as well as providing the hospital with a copy of the written care record we create. 

Payment. JCAD may use or share PHI about you so that it can get reimbursed for the services that we provide to you. This includes submitting bills and PHI to insurance companies and other payers. 

Healthcare Operations. JCAD may use or share PHI about you to run and operator out business. This includes quality assurance activities, licensing, training programs, and conducting business.

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

- For the treatment activities of another healthcare provider; 

- To another healthcare provider or entity for the payment activities of the provider or entity that receives the information (such as your hospital or insurance company);

- To another healthcare provider (such as the hospital to which you are transported) for the healthcare operations activities of the entity that receives the information as long as the entity receiving the information has or has had a relationship with you and the PHI pertains to that relationship;

 - To a family member, other relative, or close personal friend or other individual involved in your care if we obtain your verbal agreement to do so or if we give you an opportunity to object to such a disclosure and you do not raise an objection. We may also disclose health information to your family, relatives, or friends if we infer from the circumstances that you would not object. In situations where you are incapable of objecting (because you are not present or due to your incapacity or medical emergency), we may, in our professional judgment, determine that a disclosure to your family member, relative, or friend is in your best interest. In that situation, we will disclose only health information relevant to that person's involvement in your care; 

- For healthcare fraud and abuse detection or for activities related to compliance with the law;

- 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 government investigations, inspections, disciplinary proceedings, and other administrative or judicial 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, such as when there is a warrant for the request, or when the information is needed to locate a suspect or stop a crime; 

- 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;

- 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 authorized by law; and

- 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.

Uses and Disclosures of Your PHI That Require Your Written Consent

Any other use or disclosure of PHI, other than those listed above, will only be made with your written authorization (the authorization must specifically identify the information we seek to use or disclose, as well as when and how we seek to use or disclose it). 

You may revoke your authorization at any time, in writing, except to the extent that we have already used or disclosed medical information in reliance on that authorization. 

Your Rights Regarding Your PHI: 

Right to access, copy or inspect your PHI. You have the right to inspect & copy most of the PHI that we collect and maintain about you. In limited circumstances, we may deny you access to your PHI, and you may appeal certain types of denials.  We will provide a written response if we deny you access and let you know your appeal rights. We will normally provide you with access to this information within 30 days of your written request. If we maintain your PHI in electronic format, then you have a right to obtain a copy of that information in an electronic format. In addition, if you request that we transmit a copy of your PHI directly to another person, we will do so provided your request is in writing, signed by you (or your representative), and you clearly identify the designated person and where to send the copy of your PHI. We may also charge you a reasonable cost-based fee for providing you access to your PHI, subject to the limits of applicable state law. 

Right to request an amendment of your PHI. You have the right to ask us to amend PHI that we maintain about you. When required by law to do so, we will 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 medical information in certain circumstances, such as when we believe that the information you have asked us to amend is correct. 

Right to request an accounting of uses and disclosures of your PHI. You may request an accounting from us of disclosures of your PHI. You have the right to receive an accounting of certain disclosures of your PHI made within six (6) years immediately preceding your request. But, we are not required to provide you with an accounting of disclosures of your PHI: (a) for purposes of treatment, payment, or healthcare operations; (b) for disclosures that you expressly authorized; (c) disclosures made to you, your family or friends, or (d) for disclosures made for law enforcement or certain other governmental purposes. 

Right to request restrictions on uses and disclosures of your PHI. You have the right to request that we restrict how we use and disclose your PHI for treatment, payment or healthcare operations purposes, or to restrict the information that is provided to family, friends and other individuals involved in your healthcare. However, we are only required to abide by a requested restriction under limited circumstances, and it is generally our policy that we will not agree to any restrictions unless required by law to do so. JCAD is required to abide by a requested restriction when you ask that we not release PHI to your health plan (insurer) about a service for which you (or someone on your behalf) have paid JCAD in full. We are also required to abide by any restrictions that we agree to. Notwithstanding, if you request a restriction that we agree to, and the information you asked us to restrict is needed to provide you with emergency treatment, then we may disclose the PHI to a healthcare provider to provide you with emergency treatment. A restriction may be terminated if you agree to or request the termination. Most current restrictions may also be terminated by JCAD as long we notify you. If so, PHI that is created or received after the restriction is terminated is no longer subject to the restriction. But, PHI that was restricted prior to the notice to you voiding the restriction must continue to be treated as restricted PHI. 

Right to notice of a breach of unsecured protected health information. If we discover that there has been a breach of your unsecured PHI, we will notify you about that breach by first-class mail dispatched to the most recent address that we have on file.

Right to request confidential communications. You have the right to request that we send your PHI to an alternate location or in a specific manner (e.g., by email). However, we will only comply with reasonable requests when required by law to do so. 

If you have any questions or if you wish to file a complaint or exercise any rights listed in this Notice, please contact: 

HIPAA Compliance Officer                                                            Telephone #: 660-747-5735

Johnson County Ambulance District                                         Fax: 660-212-0035

PO Box 48                                                                                          Email: contactjcad@gmail.com

500 E Young Ave

Warrensburg, MO 64093

                                                                                                                                                    Updated: 5/20/2019