NOTICE OF PRIVACY 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.

I. Our Duty to Safeguard Your Protected Health Information
We are committed to preserving the privacy and confidentiality of your health information and are required by certain state and federal regulations to implement policies and procedures to safeguard this information, whether created by us or maintained on our premises. We reserve the right to change this notice at any time and to make the revised or changed notice effective for health information we already have about you as well as any information we receive in the future about you.  Should we revise/change this Privacy Notice, we will post a copy of the new/revised Privacy Notice in the main lobby.  You may also request and obtain a copy of any new/revised Privacy Notice from the HIPAA Compliance Officer, or on our website at www.optimalhs.com.

II. How We May Use and Disclose Your Protected Health Information
The privacy law permits us to make some uses or disclosures of your protected health information without your consent or authorization. The following describes each of the different ways that we may use or disclose your protected health information. Where appropriate, we have included examples of the different types of uses or disclosures. These include:

Use and Disclosures Related to Treatment:
We may disclose your protected health information to those who are involved in providing medical and nursing care and treatments, pharmacy services to you. For example, we may release health information about you to our nurses, nursing assistants, technicians, therapists, pharmacists, medical records personnel, etc. in order to coordinate services. We may also disclose your protected health information to outside entities performing other services relating to your treatment; such as physicians, diagnostic laboratories, home health/hospice agencies, family members, etc.

Use and Disclosures Related to Payment:
We may use or disclose your protected health information to bill and collect payment for services or treatments we provided to you. For example, we may contact your insurance facility, health plan, or another third party to obtain payment for services we provided to you.

Use and Disclosures Related to Health Care Operations:
We may use or disclose your protected health information to perform certain functions within our facility should these uses or disclosures become necessary to operate our facility and to ensure that you and others we provide care and services to continue to receive quality care and services. For example, we may use your health information to evaluate the effectiveness of the care and services you are receiving. We may disclose your protected health information to our staff for auditing, care planning, treatment, and learning purposes. We may also combine your health information with information from other health care providers to study how our facility is performing in comparison to like facilities or what we can do to improve the care and services we provide to you.

Use and Disclosures Related to Fundraising Activities:
We may use a limited amount of your protected health information when raising money for our facility and its operations. We may also disclose this information to a foundation related to the facility so that the foundation may contact you to raise money on behalf of our facility. The information we may use will be limited to your name, address, telephone number, and dates for which you received treatment or services at our facility. If you do not wish to be contacted for participation in fundraising activities or have this information provided to our affiliated foundation, you must provide us with a written notification. The name of the person to contact and the method of contacting her are listed on the last page of this notice.

Use and Disclosures Related to Treatment Alternatives, Health-Related Benefits and Services:
We may use or disclose your protected health information for purposes of contacting you to inform you of treatment alternatives or health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you. For example, a newly released medication or treatment that has a direct relationship to the treatment or medical condition.

III. Uses and Disclosures Requiring Your Written Authorization
For uses and disclosures of your protected health information beyond treatment, payment and operations purposes, we are required to have your written authorization, except as permitted by law. You have the right to revoke an authorization at any time to stop future uses or disclosures of your information except to the extent that we have already undertaken an action in reliance upon your authorization. Your revocation request must be provided to us in writing. The name, address, telephone number of the person to contact is located on the last page of this document.

Examples of uses or disclosures that would require your written authorization include, but are not limited to the following:

1. A request to provide your protected health information to an attorney for use in a civil litigation claim.

2. A request to provide certain information to an insurance or pharmaceutical facility for the purposes of providing you with information relative to insurance benefits or new medications that may be of interest to you.

3. A request to provide certain information to another individual or facility.