HIPAA Notice

PLEASE READ THIS NOTICE CAREFULLY AS IT EXPLAINS HOW YOUR MEDICAL INFORMATION MAY BE USED AND SHARED, AS WELL AS HOW YOU CAN ACCESS THIS INFORMATION.

At Family Care Centers Urgent Care Group (FCCMG), we prioritize the privacy and security of our patient’s personal and medical information. We adhere to the standards and regulations outlined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our patient’s protected health information (PHI) is always maintained.

Our practice will store clinical information in an electronic health record (EHR) and will share this information with other professionals involved in the provision of your healthcare services via a health information exchange (HIE). This is done so that this information may be available at the point of care to providers who are members of the HIE. Your provider may also communicate confidentially and securely via our Secure Patient Portal. At all times, the sharing and review of your data is kept secure, and access is tracked according to HIPAA regulations.

Our HIPAA Compliance Program Involves the Following Measures

• Conducting regular training sessions for employees to reinforce the significance of patient privacy and HIPAA regulations
• Implementing strict access controls to ensure that only authorized personnel can access protected health information (PHI)
• Conducting periodic security risk assessments to identify and address any potential vulnerabilities
• Encrypting PHI while it is in transit and at rest
• Establishing physical and technical safeguards to protect PHI against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction
• Creating a comprehensive incident response plan to address any breaches of PHI
• Performing compliance monitoring and reporting to ensure continued adherence to HIPAA regulations.

We recognize the trust our patients have in us to handle their personal and medical information with the utmost care and confidentiality. Our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of privacy and security in handling PHI is unwavering. We will consistently review and update our policies and procedures as required to ensure compliance with HIPAA regulations.

How We May Use and Share Your Protected Health Information (PHI) for Medical Treatment and Other Purposes

Here’s how and when we may use and disclose your protected health information (PHI):

• Treatment: We use medical information about you to provide your medical care. We disclose medical information to our employees and others who are involved in providing the care you need. For example, we may share your medical information with other physicians or healthcare providers who will provide services we do not provide. Or we may share this information with a pharmacist who needs it to dispense a prescription to you or a laboratory that performs a test. We may also disclose medical information to members of your family or others who can help you when you are sick or injured.
• Payment: We use and disclose medical information about you to obtain payment for our services. For example, we give your health plan the information it requires before it will pay us. We may disclose information to our billing service and to other healthcare providers to assist in obtaining payment for services they have provided to you.
• Health Care Operations: We may use and disclose medical information about you to operate this medical practice. For example, we may use and disclose this information to review and improve the quality of care we provide or the competence and qualifications of our professional staff. We may use and disclose this information to get your health plan to authorize services or referrals. We may also use and disclose this information for medical reviews, legal services, and audits, including fraud and abuse detection, compliance programs, and business planning and management.

  We may also share your medical information with our "business associates," such as our billing service, that perform administrative services for us. We have a written contract with each of these business associates that contain terms requiring them to protect the confidentiality of your medical information. Although federal law does not protect health information that is disclosed to someone other than another healthcare provider, health plan, or healthcare clearinghouse, under California law, all recipients of healthcare information are prohibited from re-disclosing it except as specifically required or permitted by law.

  We may also share your information with other health care providers, health care clearinghouses, or health plans that have a relationship with you when they request this information to help them with their quality assessment and improvement activities, their efforts to improve health or reduce health care costs, their review of competence, qualifications, and performance of health care professionals, their training programs, their accreditation, certification or licensing activities, or their health care fraud and abuse detection and compliance efforts. We may also share your medical information with all the other healthcare providers and health plans who participate in any managed healthcare operations affiliated with this medical practice.

• Appointment Reminders: We may use and disclose medical information to contact and remind you about appointments. If you are not home, we may leave this information on your answering machine or in a message left with the person answering the phone.
• Sign-in Sheet: We may use and disclose medical information about you by having you sign in when you arrive at our office. We may also call out your name when we are ready to see you. Others who sign in may see your name.
• Notification and Communication with Family: We may disclose your health information to notify or assist in notifying a family member, your personal representative, or another person responsible for your care about your location, your general condition, or in the event of your death. In the event of a disaster, we may disclose information to a relief organization so that they may coordinate these notification efforts.

  We may also disclose information to someone who is involved with your care or helps pay for your care. If you are able and available to agree or object, we will allow you to object prior to making these disclosures, although we may disclose this information in a disaster even over your objection if we believe it is necessary to respond to the emergency circumstances. If you are unable or unavailable to agree or object, our health professionals will use their best judgment in communicating with your family and others.

• Marketing: We may contact you to give you information about products or services related to your treatment, case management, or care coordination or to direct or recommend other treatments or health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you. This may include promotional items with a small value.

  We may also encourage you to purchase a product or service when we see you. We will not use or disclose your medical information without your written authorization.

• Required by Law: As required by law, we will use and disclose your health information, but we will limit our use or disclosure to the minimum relevant requirements of the law. When the law requires us to report abuse, neglect, or domestic violence, or respond to judicial or administrative proceedings, or to law enforcement officials, we will further comply with the requirement set forth below concerning those activities.
• Public Health: We may, and are sometimes required by law to disclose your health information to public health authorities for purposes related to preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability; reporting child, elder, or dependent adult abuse or neglect; reporting domestic violence; reporting to the Food and Drug Administration problems with products and reactions to medications; and reporting disease or infection exposure.

  When we report suspected elder or dependent adult abuse or domestic violence, we will inform you or your personal representative promptly unless, in our best professional judgment, we believe the notification would place you at risk of serious harm or would require informing a personal representative we believe is responsible for the abuse or harm.

• Health Oversight Activities: We may, and are sometimes required by law to disclose your health information to health oversight agencies during the course of audits, investigations, inspections, licensure, and other proceedings, subject to the limitations imposed by federal and California law.
• Judicial and Administrative Proceedings: We may, and are sometimes required by law, to disclose your health information in the course of any administrative or judicial proceeding to the extent expressly authorized by a court or administrative order. We may also disclose information about you in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process.
• Law Enforcement: We may, and are sometimes required by law, to disclose your health information to a law enforcement official for purposes such as identifying or locating a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person, complying with a court order, warrant, grand jury subpoena, and other law enforcement purposes.
• Coroners: We may, and are often required by law, to disclose your health information to coroners concerning their investigations of deaths.
• Organ or Tissue Donation: We may disclose your health information to organizations involved in procuring, banking, or transplanting organs and tissues.
• Public Safety: We may, and are sometimes required by law, to disclose your health information to appropriate persons in order to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a particular person or the general public.
• Specialized Government Functions: We may disclose your health information for military or national security purposes or to correctional institutions or law enforcement officers that have you in their lawful custody.
• Worker’s Compensation: We may disclose your health information as necessary to comply with worker’s compensation laws. For example, to the extent workers' compensation covers your care, we will make periodic reports to your employer about your condition. We are also required by law to report cases of occupational injury or occupational illness to the employer or workers' compensation insurer.
• Change of Ownership: In the event that this medical practice is sold or merged with another organization, your health information/record will become the property of the new owner, although you will maintain the right to request that copies of your health information be transferred to another physician or medical group.

For any use or disclosure not covered by the above situations, we will obtain your written authorization before using or sharing your protected health information.

Your Rights

As a patient, you must be aware of your rights under HIPAA which includes the following:

• Notification of Breaches: You have the right to be informed if there is a breach of your unsecured PHI.
• Authorization Revocation: You can revoke your authorization for us to use or disclose your PHI.
• Right to Inspect and Copy: You have the right to inspect and have a copy of your health information, with limited exceptions. To access your medical information, you must submit a written request detailing what information you want access to and whether you want to inspect it or get a copy of it. We will charge a reasonable fee, as allowed by California law.
• Right to Amend or Supplement: You have a right to request that we amend your health information that you believe is incorrect or incomplete. You must make a request to amend in writing and include the reasons you believe the information is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Accounting of Disclosures: You have the right to receive a list of the disclosures of your PHI made by us during the previous six years.
• Notice Copy: You can request a copy of this notice in electronic or paper format.
• Complaint Filing: You can file a complaint with us about any violation of your privacy rights, and we will not retaliate against you.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at https://www.fccmg.com/contact-us/. We will assist you and protect your rights.

Our Duties

• Privacy Protection: We are committed to protecting your PHI and complying with HIPAA regulations.
• Notice of Practices: We will provide you with a notice of our practices and legal responsibilities related to your PHI.
• Notice Updates: We may change this notice and its terms, but those changes will apply retroactively to all PHI we have.
• Compliance: We will follow the provisions outlined in this notice and any updates to it.

Privacy Contact

If you want more information on our HIPAA compliance, please call us at (949) 857-1248 (Irvine), (714) 594-7268 (Fountain Valley), (714) 668-2505 (Costa Mesa) or fill out a contact us form on our website. We will get back to you shortly.

Effective Date: April 14, 2003

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