THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED, AS WELL AS HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
This privacy notice discloses the privacy practices for this website. This
privacy notice applies solely to information collected by this website. It will notify you of the following:
- What personally identiable information is collected from you through the website,
how it is used and with whom it may be shared. - What choices are available to you regarding the use of your data.
- The security procedures in place to protect the misuse of your information.
- How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.
Information Collection, Use, and Sharing
We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to/collect information that you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contact from you. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone.
We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as necessary to full your request, e.g. to ship an order.
Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about specials, new products or services, or changes to this privacy policy
Your Access to and Control Over Information
You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time. You can do the following at any time by contacting us via the email address or phone number given on our website:
- See what data we have about you, if any.
- Change/correct any data we have about you.
- Have us delete any data we have about you.
- Express any concern you have about our use of your data.
Security
We take precautions to protect your information. When you submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and offline. While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information online. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, billing or customer service) are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers/servers in which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.
Cookies
We use “cookies” on this site. A cookie is a piece of data stored on a site visitor’s hard drive to help us improve your access to our site and identify repeat visitors to our site. For instance, when we use a cookie to identify you, you would not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. Cookies can also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information on our site.
Some of our business partners may use cookies on our site (for example, advertisers). However, we have no access to or control over these cookies.
Links
This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of any other site that collects personally identifiable information.
Surveys
From time to time, our site requests information via surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and you may choose whether or not to participate and therefore disclose this information.
The Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal program which requires that all medical records and other individually identifiable health information used or disclosed by us in any form, whether electronically, on paper, or orally, are kept properly confidential. This Act gives you, the patient, significant new rights to understand and control how your health information is used. HIPAA provides penalties for covered entities that misuse protected health information. Protected health information is information about you, including demographic information, that may identify you and information related to your past, present, or future physical or mental health and related health care services.
As required by HIPAA, Hearing Doctors of NJ have prepared this explanation of how we are required to maintain the privacy of your health information and how we may disclose your health information. The office staff will ask you to sign a consent form to allow us to disclose the information contained in your medical records. We may use and disclose your medical records only for each of the following purposes: treatment, payment, and health care operations.
- Treatment means providing, coordinating, or managing routine hearing health care and related services by one or more healthcare providers. Examples of this use would be disclosing physical examination findings, diagnoses, audiometric test results, or hearing aid-related information to the physician who referred you to Hearing Doctors of NJ or another healthcare specialist for additional evaluation, treatment, or further testing.
- Payment means activities such as obtaining reimbursement for services, confirming coverage, billing or collection activities, and utilization review. An example of this use/disclosure would be sending a bill for our visit to your insurance company for payment.
- Health care operations include the business aspects of Hearing Doctors of NJ, such as conducting quality assessment and improvement activities, auditing functions, cost-management analysis, customer service, and supervised clinical training of audiology students. Examples of this use would also include an internal quality assessment review, using a sign-in sheet at the registration area, and calling you by your name in the reception area. We may also create and distribute de-identified health information by removing all references to your identity. We may contact you to provide you appointment reminders or information about treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you. We may share your protected health information with a third party “business associate” who provides services for Hearing Doctors of NJ. Whenever an arrangement between Hearing Doctors of NJ and a business associate involves the use or disclosure of your protected health information, we will have a written contract with the business associate that contains terms that will protect the privacy of your health information.
When you are not present or able to agree or object, your protected health information may be disclosed by Hearing Doctors of NJ, based on professional judgment, to other family members, friends, or others involved in your health care in an emergency situation if a barrier to communication exists or to provide or obtain treatment for you.
Without your authorization, Hearing Doctors of NJ may use or disclose your protected health information in the following situations:
- To comply with the law or public authority
- To prevent communicable disease transmission
- To prevent health oversight or abuse and neglect
- To report adverse events to the Food & Drug Administration
- To comply with legal proceedings and law enforcement
- To aid coroners, funeral directors, or organ donation
- To prevent criminal activity
- To support military activity and National Security matters
- To assist approved research protocols; to comply with worker’s compensation laws
- To provide information to a correctional facility if you are an inmate
- To help the Department of Health and Human Services investigate compliance with HIPAA
Any other uses or disclosures will be made only with your written authorization. You may revoke an authorization in writing, and we are required to honor and abide by that written request except to the extent that we have already taken actions relying on your authorization.
You have the following rights with respect to your protected health information which you can exercise by presenting a written request to Rhee Nesson, Au.D., CCC-A:
- The right to request a restriction on certain uses and disclosures of protected health information, including those related to disclosures to family members, other relatives, close personal friends, or any other person identified by you. We are, however, not required to agree to a requested restriction. If we do agree to a restriction, we must abide by it unless you agree in writing to remove it.
- The right to reasonable requests to receive confidential communications of protected health information form us by alternative means at alternative locations.
- The right to inspect and copy your protected health care information.
- The right to amend your protected health information.
- The right to receive an accounting of disclosures of protected health information.
- The right to obtain a paper copy of this notice from us upon request.
We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your protected health information and to provide you with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to protected health information.
This notice is effective as of April 15, 2020, and we are required to abide by the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices currently in effect. We reserve the right to change the terms of our Notice of Privacy Practice and to make the new notice provisions effective for all protected health information that we maintain. We will post and you may request a written copy of a revised Notice of Privacy Practice from Hearing Doctors of NJ.
You have recourse if you feel that your privacy protections have been violated. You have the right to file written complaints with Hearing Doctors of NJ or with the Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Civil Rights, about violations of the provisions of this notice or the policies and procedures of our office. Hearing Doctors of NJ will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint. Please contact us for more information. For more information about HIPAA or to file a complaint:
Company Address:
Hearing Doctors of NJ
340 E. Northfield Rd., Suite 2B
Livingston, New Jersey 07039
973-577-4100
HIPAA Filing Address:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Office of Civil Rights Suite F 200
200 Independence Ave SW
Washington, D.C. 20201
Toll Free: 877-696-6775