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Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

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 Health, Wellness & Counseling Services


Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY HEALTH, WELLNESS AND COUNSELING SERVICES 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.

  • Terms
  • Uses and Disclosures
  • Patient Rights
    		•
  • Changes to this Notice
  • Complaints

    • Protecting Your Personal and Health Information

    The Boise State University (BSU) Health, Wellness and Counseling Services (HWC) is required by applicable federal and state laws to maintain the privacy of your health information. This notice explains our privacy practices, our legal duties, and your rights concerning your health information. While this policy is in effect, we are required by law to abide by its terms. If you have questions about any part of this Notice or if you want more information about the privacy practices at Boise State University, please contact:

    Ferdinand J. Schlapper, HIPAA Compliance Officer
    Executive Director
    Health, Wellness and Counseling Services
    1910 University Drive
    Boise, ID 83725-1351
    208.426.2770

    Terms:

    Protected Health Information (PHI) is considered to be any medical information that could in any way identify an individual patient.

    Treatment, Payment, and Health Care Operations (TPO) are activities related to the provision of medical care, and activities related to collecting payment from the patient or a third party, and health care operations.

    Health Care Operations encompasses functions such as quality improvement, peer review, accreditation, licensing, contracting with insurers, business planning, auditing and general administration.

    The Minimum Necessary information is the least amount of PHI that is required to achieve the desired purpose.

    Uses and Disclosures of Health Information:

    We will not disclose your health information unless we are allowed or required by law to make the disclosure, or if you (or your authorized representative) give us permission. With some infrequently occurring exceptions, any other disclosure of PHI requires your authorization. If there are other legal requirements under applicable state laws that further restrict our use or disclosure of your health information, we will comply with those legal requirements as well. Following are the types of disclosure we may make as allowed or required by law:

    • Treatment: We may use and disclose your health information for our treatment activities or for the treatment activities of a health care provider. Treatment activities include disclosing your health information to a provider in order for that provider to treat you.

    • Payment: We may use and disclose your health information for our payment activities, including the payment of claims from physicians, hospital and other providers for services delivered to you.

    • Health Care Operations: We may use and disclose your health information for our internal health care operations (see scope of functions above).

    • Business Associates: We may also share your health information with third party "business associates" who perform certain activities for us. We require these business associates to certify that your health information has the same protections afforded by us.

    • Plan Sponsors: If you are enrolled in the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP), we may disclose your health information to the sponsor to permit it to perform administrative activities.

    • Underwriting: We may receive, use and disclose your health information for underwriting, premium rating or other activities relating to the creation, renewal or replacement of the contract for student health insurance.

    • To you or your authorized representative: Upon your request, we will disclose your health information to you or your authorized representative. If you authorize us to do so, we may use your health information or disclose it to the person or entity you name on your signed authorization. Once you provide us with an authorization, you may revoke it in writing at any time. Your revocation won't affect any use or disclosures permitted by your authorization while it was in effect. In certain situations when disclosure of your information could be harmful for you or another person, we may limit the information available to you, or use an alternative means of meeting your request.

    • To your parents, if you are a minor: Some state laws concerning minors permit or require disclosure of protected health information to parents, guardian, and persons acting in a similar legal status. We will act consistently with the laws of Idaho and will make disclosures consistent with such laws.

    • Your family and friends: If you are unable to consent to the disclosure of your health information, such as in a medical emergency, we may disclose your personal information to a family member or friend to the extent necessary to help with your health care or with payment for your health care. We'll only do so if we determine that the disclosure is in your best interest.

    • Marketing: We may use your personal information to contact you with information about health-related products and services or about treatment alternatives that may be of interest to you.

    • Research, Death and Organ Donation: We may use or disclose your health information for research purposes in limited circumstances. We may disclose the health information of a deceased person to a coroner, medical examiner, funeral director, or organ procurement organization for certain purposes.

    • Public Health and Safety: We may disclose your health information if we believe disclosure is necessary to avert a serious and imminent threat to your health or safety or the health or safety of others. We may disclose your health information to appropriate authorities if we have reason to believe that you are a possible victim of abuse, neglect, domestic violence or other crimes.

    • Required by law: We must disclose your health information when we are required to do so by law.

    • Process and Proceedings: We may disclose your health information in response to a court or administrative order, subpoena, discovery request or other lawful process.

    • Law Enforcement: We may disclose limited information to law enforcement officials.

    • Military and National Security: We may disclose to military authorities the health information of Armed Forces personnel under certain circumstances. We may disclose to authorized federal officials health information required for lawful intelligence, counterintelligence, and other national security activities.

    Patient Rights

    • Access to your health information: You have the right to review and receive a copy of your health information. We may charge you a nominal fee for providing you with copies of your health information. This right does not include the right to obtain copies of the following records: psychotherapy notes; information compiled in reasonable anticipation of, or use in, a civil, criminal, or administrative action or proceeding; and protected health information that is subject to other state or federal laws that prohibit us to release such information. We may also limit your access to your health information if we determine that providing the information could possibly harm you or another person. If we limit access based upon the belief that it could harm you or another person, you have the right to request a review of that decision.

    • Amendment: You have the right to request that we amend your health information. Your request must be in writing, and it must identify the information that you think is incorrect and explain why the information should be amended. We may decline your request for certain reasons, including if you ask us to change information that we did not create. If we decline your request to amend your records, we will provide you with a written explanation. You may respond with a statement of disagreement to be appended to the information you wanted amended. If we accept your request to amend the information, we will make reasonable efforts to inform others, including people you have authorized, of the amendment and to include the changes in any future disclosures of that information.

    • Accounting of disclosures: You have the right to receive a report of instances in which we, or our business associates, disclosed your health information for purposes other than for treatment, payment, health care operation, and certain other activities. You are entitled to such an accounting for the 6 years prior to your request, though not for disclosure made prior to April 14, 2003. We will provide you with the date on which we made a disclosure, the name of the person or entity to whom we disclosed your health information, a description of the health information we disclosed, the reason for the disclosure, and applicable information. If you request this list more than once in a 12-month period, we may charge you a reasonable fee for creating and sending these additional reports.

    • Restriction Requests: You have the right to request that we place additional restrictions on our use or disclosure of your health information for treatment, payment, health care operations or to persons you identify. We may be unable to agree to your requested restrictions. If we do, we will abide by our agreement (except in an emergency).

    • Confidential Communication: You have the right to request that we communicate with you in confidence about your health information by alternative means or to an alternative location. If you advise us that disclosure of all or any part of your health information could endanger you, we will comply with any reasonable request provided you specify an alternative means of communication.

    • Electronic Notice: If you received this notice on our web site or by electronic mail (e-mail), you are also entitled to receive this notice in written form. Please contact us using the information listed at the beginning of this notice to obtain this document in written form.

    Changes to this Notice of Privacy Practices

    Boise State University reserves the right to amend this Notice of Privacy Practices at any time in the future and to make the new Notice provisions effective for all health information that it maintains. We will promptly revise our Notice and distribute it to you whenever we make material changes to the Notice. Until such time, Boise State University is required by law to comply with the current version of this Notice.

    Complaints

    If you feel any of your rights listed in this Notice have been violated, please contact:

    Ferdinand J. Schlapper, HIPAA Compliance Officer
    Executive Director
    Health, Wellness and Counseling Services
    1910 University Drive
    Boise, ID 83725-1351
    208.426.2770

    You may also submit a written complaint to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

    Effective Date of this Notice: April 14, 2003