Preferred Excellent Care (PEC), has policies and procedures in place according to Federal and State laws and regulations for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and Privacy rules.

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.

Our company is required by law to abide by the terms of the following notice. If at any time changes in this information must be made, you will receive a revised copy of this notice. If you have any questions, concerns, or complaints about the information provided here or the handling of your health information by our agency, please contact our office and speak to one of our privacy committee members at:

(714) 590 3620 extension 23 and 25. This notice takes effect March 1, 2003.

Grievances arising from matters covered by our company notice of privacy practices are to be given directly to the Privacy Officer who will investigate the grievance within five working days after receipt of such grievance and will make every effort to resolve the grievance to the patient’s satisfaction.

Your personal and medical information will not be disclosure to third party unless it is authorized by you in the Agreement and Consent, the form which you sign at the beginning of the service. Typically, your information is only to be transferred and/or discussed when the issue regarding your care is involved. The third party may be the other home health agency, the hospital, the laboratory, the pharmacy, the hospital, the physician, the physical therapy, the DME company, the accreditation body (such as JCAHO), the Department of Health and Services, and your insurance company.

Our company will use your individually identifiable health information to:

	Carry out the treatment ordered for you by your physician, such as wound care, physical therapy, and/or medication administration including IV medications.
	Bill your insurance/payer sources for our services, including sending copies of our evaluations, clinical notes progress notes to them.
	Carry our health care operations such as quality assurance reviews and practitioner evaluations.

Our company, by law, will also use your medical information for certain purposes for which it does not require your consent including:

	Giving information to emergency technicians and ER personnel to facilitate treatment in the case of an emergency.
	Complying with State Law regarding the reporting of certain communicable diseases, evidence of/information on victims of abuse, neglect or domestic violence, birth or death, or the conduct of public health surveillance, investigation or intervention.
	Complying with federal and/or State Law to report or to provide access to information for the purpose of management audits, financial audits, program monitoring and evaluation, or licensure or certification of the company or individuals.
	Where required by law including to report adverse events with respect to food or dietary supplements, product defects or problems including problems with the use or labeling of a product, or biological product deviations if the disclosure is made to the person required or directed to report such information to the food and drug administration.
	Where needed to enable product recalls, repairs or replacements.
	To conduct post marketing surveillance to comply with requirements or at the direction of the food and drug administration.
	To an employer about you if you are a member of the workforce of the employer and only if the company has provided healthcare to you at the requests of your employer to conduct an evaluation relating to medical surveillance of the workplace or to evaluate whether you have a work related medical surveillance and the employer needs such information to comply with State or Federal law.

Our company may use your information to call you with appointment reminders or information about treatment alternatives or other health related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.

Any other uses or disclosures of your individually identifiable health information by us can only be made with your written authorization, and you may revoke such authorization at any time, provided that you do so in writing.

You have the right to:

1.	Receive a written notice of information practices from our company such as this one.
2.	Access your own health information, including a right to inspect and obtain a copy of that information.
3.	Request amendment or correction of protected health information that is inaccurate or incomplete.
4.	Request restrictions on certain uses and disclosures of protected health information as provided by section 164.522a. Under the provisions of that rule, PEC does not have to agree to those requested restrictions.
5.	Receive a paper copy of this notice if you had originally agreed to receive an electronic copy.
6.	Designate another person such as a family member to exercise your rights under this privacy notice for you.

In addition to the provisions above, PEC protects your health information by the following practices:

	All physical copies of individually identifiable health information maintained in our agency are locked up each night in a specific room set aside for that use.
	When such physical copies of your health information are in use in other parts of the office, they are handled in such a manner as to prevent casual viewing of that information.
	Physical copies of your referral information which can include your diagnoses, certain medications such as IV medications your are currently receiving, and your name, address and telephone number or other such contact information held by nurses, therapists, and other providers of care involved in your treatment are maintained by them in a manner which precludes their being seen by persons not in the agency or involved your care.
	Electronic copies of your health information are secured in password-protected programs and only transmitted over special secured telephone lines.