SPECIAL TREE REHABILITATION SYSTEM
NOTICE OF MEDICAL INFORMATION 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.
How We May Use and Disclose
Your Medical Information
Special Tree and the independent physicians who care for you at Special
Tree facilities may share your medical information as necessary to
carry out treatment, payment, or health care operations relating to
Special Tree. We may use and disclose your medical information for
treatment (such as to provide, coordinate, or manage your care), to
obtain payment for treatment (such as sending billing information to
a health insurance plan), and for administrative purposes (such as
assessing the care and outcomes in your case and others like it). We
will ordinarily obtain your consent before we use or disclose medical
information about you for these purposes.
If you do not object, we may give out information about you to your
family members, friends, and others who are involved in your care.
If you agree, we may add your name to our facility directory so that
we can provide information about your location and general condition
to callers who ask about you. We may also call you about appointment
reminders and treatment alternatives, or to tell you about health-related
benefits or services that may be of interest to you.
We may use or disclose medical information about you without your consent
for several other reasons. Subject to certain requirements, we may
disclose medical information about you for public health purposes such
as disease control, reporting and investigating abuse and neglect,
and reporting health statistics; for health oversight activities such
as government benefit program audits and investigations; for research
studies; or to avert a serious threat to your health or safety or the
health or safety of another person. We may provide information to law
enforcement officials if we believe that you committed a crime on our
premises, and when required by law, such as for judicial and administrative
proceedings or in response to an order of a court, administrative tribunal,
or authorized governmental subpoena or other investigative demand.
In other situations, we will ask for your specific authorization before
using or disclosing any identifiable medical information about you.
If you choose to sign an authorization to disclose information, you
can later revoke that authorization to stop any further uses and disclosures.
Individual Rights
In most cases, you have the right to look at or get a copy of medical
information about you that we use to make decisions about you. You
also have the right to receive a list of the disclosures of your medical
information that we have made without your written authorization for
reasons other than treatment, payment, or health care operations. If
you believe that information in your record is incorrect or if important
information is missing, you have the right to request that we correct
the existing information or add the missing information.
You have the right to request that your medical information be communicated
to you in a confidential manner such as sending mail to an address
other than your home. If this notice was sent to you electronically,
you may obtain a paper copy of the notice.
You may request in writing that we not use or disclose your information
for treatment, payment, or administrative purposes or to persons involved
in your care except when specifically authorized by you, when required
by law, or in emergency circumstances. We will consider your request
but are not legally required to accept it.
Complaints
If you are concerned that we have violated your privacy rights, or
you disagree with a decision we made about access to your records,
you may contact the person listed below. You may also send a written
complaint to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The
person listed below can provide you with the appropriate address upon
request. Under no circumstance will you be retaliated against for filing
a complaint.
Our Legal Duty
We are required by law to protect the privacy of your medical information,
provide this notice about our information practices, and follow the
practices that are described in this notice.
We may change our medical information practices at any time. Before
we make a significant change in our practices, we will change our notice
and post the new notice in the reception area of each of our facilities
and on our Web site. The new practice will then apply to any of your
medical information that we maintain.
You can request a copy of our notice at any time. If you have any questions
or complaints, or want more information about our information practices,
please contact the person listed below.
Irene Sloan, Privacy Officer
Special Tree Rehabilitation System
39000 Chase Road
Romulus, MI 48174-1303
