USES AND DISCLOSURE OF HEALTH INFORMATION

At Flourishing Foundations Recovery, we are required by law to protect and maintain the privacy and security of your personal health information (PHI). Our Privacy Policy & HIPAA compliance statement outlines how we adhere to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in order to protect your privacy. This notice (“Notice of Privacy Practices”) outlines your rights and our duties under Federal Law. Protected Health Information (PHI) is information about you, including any demographic information that may identify you and that relates to your past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition; the provision of healthcare services; or the past, present, or future payment for the healthcare services provided to you.

Our Privacy Procedures and Legal Obligations

Flourishing Foundations Recovery obtains most of its PHI directly from its clients, typically through treatment applications, assessments, and direct questions. We may collect additional personal information depending upon the nature of a client’s needs and their consent to make additional referrals and inquiries. We may also obtain PHI from authorized community health care agencies, other governmental agencies, or health care providers as we set up service arrangements.

Flourishing Foundations Recovery is required by law to provide you with this notice and to abide by the terms of the Notice currently in effect. Flourishing Foundations Recovery reserves the right to amend this Notice at any time to reflect changes in our privacy practices. Any such changes will apply to and are effective for all PHI that we maintain. This includes PHI that was created or received before the effective date of the revised notice. Any revised notice will be mailed to you or provided upon your request.

Flourishing Foundations Recovery complies with federal law and will comply with any state law that further limits or restricts the uses and disclosures discussed below.

How We Collect Information

To provide you with effective and personalized care, we collect essential information, including personal details, medical history, treatment plans, and payment information. Flourishing Foundations Recovery may collect data through various means, including letters, phone calls, emails, voicemails, paperwork, and applications. These processes may be required by law, needed for billing, or essential to providing treatment to individuals at our facility.

How We Handle Your Information

We recognize the sensitivity of your health information and handle all information provided by clients and visitors with the utmost privacy and confidentiality. We will not disclose, trade, exchange, rent, sell or provide any details about prospective clients, current clients, or previous clients who have sought our services or have already received them. This includes all confidential information that is private to the client, restricted by law, or explicitly limited by the client themselves.

How We Use Your Information

We use your PHI for legitimate purposes, such as treatment, payment, healthcare operations, and legal requirements. Your information will not be shared or sold to any unauthorized individuals or entities without your explicit written authorization.

We may disclose your PHI without requiring your authorization in certain situations permitted by HIPAA. These situations include treatment coordination, public health reporting, and legal requirements.

Circumstances during which we may use your PHI include:

Treatment Staff and Personnel. We may use or disclose information between or among personnel who require information to perform their duties regarding to diagnosis, treatment, or referral for treatment of alcohol or drug abuse, as long as the communication is: (i) Within the treatment facility; or (ii) Between the treatment provider and Flourishing Foundations Recovery. For example, our staff, including doctors, nurses, and clinicians, may use your PHI to provide your care while you are receiving treatment with us. Your PHI may be used in connection with any financial and billing statements that we send you. It may also be used in connection with tracking charges or credits to your client account. Your information will be used to check for eligibility for insurance coverage and prepare claims for your insurance company, when required. We may use and disclose your PHI in order to perform our healthcare services and to carry out essential functions associated with our business activities, including accreditation and licensing.

Secretary of Health and Human Services. We are legally required to disclose PHI to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services when the Secretary is investigating or determining our compliance with the HIPAA Privacy Rules.

Business Associates. We may disclose your PHI to Business Associates that are contracted by us to facilitate treatment services on our behalf which may involve receipt, use, or disclosure of your PHI. All of our Business Associates are required to: (i) Protect the privacy of your PHI; (ii) Use and disclose the information only for the purposes for which the Business Associate was contracted; (iii) Be bound by 42 CFR Part 2; and (iv) if necessary, resist in judicial proceedings any efforts to obtain access to patient records except as permitted by law.

Crimes Occuring on Premises. We may disclose to the proper law enforcement officers any information that is directly related to a crime committed on the premises, against our personnel, or making a threat to commit such a crime.

Reports of Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect. We may disclose information required to report under state law incidents of suspected child abuse and neglect to the appropriate state or local authorities. However, we may not disclose the original patient records, including in the case of civil or criminal proceedings which may arise out of the report of suspected child abuse and neglect, without consent.

Court Order. We may disclose information required by a court order, provided certain regulatory requirements are met.

Emergency Situations. We may disclose information to medical personnel if you require treatment in the event of an emergency.

Research. We may use and disclose your information for research if certain requirements are met, such as approval by an Institutional Review Board.

Audit and Evaluation Activities. We may disclose your information to persons conducting certain audit and evaluation activities, provided the person agrees to certain restrictions on disclosure of information.

Reporting of Death. We may disclose your information related to the cause of death to the authorized public health authority.

If you have provided fraudulent information or provided information with the intention of fraud, your non-medical information may be given to the proper legal authorities, including police, investigators, courts, attorneys, or other legal professionals, as permitted by law.

We reserve the right to use non-identifying information about our clients (those who receive services or goods from or through us) for fundraising and promotional purposes that are directly related to our mission. You may formally request in writing that none of your information be used for promotional purposes.

Other than as stated above, we will not use or disclose your PHI other than with your written authorization. Subject to compliance with limited exceptions, we will not use or disclose counseling notes, or use or disclose your PHI for marketing purposes unless you have signed an authorization. While we may refer you to another treatment facility and provide PHI at your written direction, we will never sell your information. If you or your representative authorize us to use or disclose your PHI, you may remove that authorization in writing at any time to stop future uses or disclosures. We will also honor oral revocations upon authenticating your identity until a written revocation is formally obtained. Your revocation will not affect any use or disclosures permitted by your authorization while it is in effect.

Information We Do Not Collect

We do not use cookies on our website to collect data from our site visitors except for one hit counter on the main home page (www.flourishingfoundationsrecovery.com) that records the number of website visitors, but no other data. We may use affiliate programs that may or may not capture traffic data through our site. To avoid potential data capture that you visited a diabetes website simply do not click on any of our outside affiliate links.

Your Rights

Under HIPAA, you have specific rights regarding your PHI. This section outlines your rights and some of our responsibilities to help you. These rights include:

• The right to access electronic and paper copies of your medical records or request copies.
• The right to request corrections to your medical information.
• The right to inspect or receive an accounting of disclosures of your PHI.
• The right to request restrictions on certain uses and disclosures of your PHI.
• The right to file a complaint if you believe your privacy rights have been violated.
• The right to ask us to correct your medical record.

Our staff is well-trained in HIPAA compliance, and we have implemented strict security measures to protect your information. If you’d like to release your PHI to specific individuals or entities not covered under routine healthcare operations, you can provide written authorization. We will provide a copy or a summary of your health information, usually within 30 days of your request. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee.

Ask us to limit what we use or share

You can ask us not to use or share certain PHI for treatment, payment, or our business operations. We are not required to agree to your request, and we may say “no” if it would affect the quality of or our ability to provide your care.

If you pay for a service or healthcare item in full and out-of-pocket, you have the right to ask us not to share that information for the purpose of payment or our operations with your health insurer. We will say “yes” unless a law requires us to share that information.

Obtain a list of whom we have shared your information with.
You may ask for a list (accounting) of the times we’ve shared your health information for up to six years prior to the date of your request. The accounting may outline who we shared it with, and why.

We will include all the disclosures except for those about treatment, payment, and healthcare operations, and certain other disclosures (such as any you asked us to make). We’ll provide one accounting a year for free but will charge a reasonable, cost-based fee if you ask for another one within 12 months.

Obtain a copy of this privacy notice.
You may request a paper copy of this notice at any time, even if you have already agreed to an electronic receipt of this notice. We will give you a paper copy.

Choose someone to act or make decisions on your behalf.
If you have given someone medical power of attorney or if you have a legal guardian, that individual can exercise your rights and make decisions about your health information.

We will make sure the person has this authority and can act for you before we take any action.

File a complaint if you feel your rights are violated.

• You can complain if you feel we have violated your rights by contacting us at Flourishing Foundations Recovery
• You can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) by sending a letter to 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201, calling 1-877-696-6775, or visiting www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/.
• We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.

Your Choices
For certain health information, you can inform us of your choices about what we share and with whom. If you have a  preference for how we share your information in the situations described below, talk to us. Tell us what you want us to do, and we will follow your instructions.

In these cases, you have both the right and choice to tell us to:

• Share information with your family, close friends, or others involved in your care
• Share information in a disaster relief situation
• Include your information in a hospital directory

If you are not able to tell us your preference, for example, if you are unconscious, we may share your information if we believe it is in your best interest. We may also share your information when needed to lessen a serious and imminent threat to your health or safety.

In these cases, we never share your information unless you give us written permission:

• Marketing purposes
• Sale of your information
• Most sharing of psychotherapy notes

In the case of fundraising:

We may contact you for fundraising efforts, but you can tell us not to contact you again.

We Reserve the Right to Make Changes to the Terms of this Notice

We can change the terms of this notice, and the changes will apply to all the information we have about you. The new notice will be available upon request, in our office, and on our website.

For further information about the privacy policies at Flourishing Foundations Recovery, please contact us directly at niko@ffrdetox.com.