Privacy Policy

ERWAY Ambulance Service, Inc.

At Erway Ambulance Service we respect your privacy. We treat all health care information about our patients with care under strict policies of confidentiality that all of our staff are committed to following at all times.

This Notice describes your legal rights, advises you of our privacy practices, and lets you know how Erway Ambulance is permitted to use and disclose your Personal Health Information (PHI).

Notice of Privacy Practices

IMPORTANT: 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.

ERWAY Ambulance Service, Inc. ("Erway Ambulance") is required by law to maintain the privacy of certain confidential health care information, known as Protected Health Information or PHI, and to provide you with a notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your PHI. ERWAY Ambulance is also required to abide by the terms of the version of this Notice currently in effect.

Uses and Disclosures of PHI: ERWAY Ambulance may use PHI for the purposes of treatment, payment, and health care operations, in most cases without your written permission.

Examples of our use of your PHI for treatment: This includes such things as obtaining verbal and written information about your medical condition and treatment from you as well as from others, such as doctors and nurses who give orders to allow us to provide treatment to you. We may give your PHI to other health care providers involved in your treatment, and may transfer your PHI via radio or telephone to the hospital or dispatch center.

Examples of our use of your PHI for payment: This includes any activities we must undertake in order to get reimbursed for the services we provide to you, including such things as submitting bills to insurance companies, making medical necessity determinations, and collection of outstanding accounts.

Examples of our use of your PHI for health care operations: This includes quality assurance activities, licensing, and training programs to ensure that our personnel meet our standards of care and follow established policies and procedures, as well as certain other management functions.

Reminders for Scheduled Transports and Information on Other Services: We may also contact you to provide you with a reminder of any scheduled appointments for non-emergency ambulance and medical transportation, or to provide information about other services we render.

Use and Disclosure of PHI Without Your Authorization: ERWAY Ambulance is permitted to use PHI without your written authorization, or opportunity to object in certain situations, including:
For the treatment, payment or health care operations activities of another health care provider who treats you;
For health care and legal compliance activities;
To a family member, other relative, or close personal friend or other individual involved in your care if we obtain your verbal agreement to do so or if we give you an opportunity to object to such a disclosure and you do not raise an objection, and in certain circumstances where we are unable to obtain your agreement and believe the disclosure is in your best interests. For example, we may inform the person who accompanied you in the ambulance that you have certain symptoms and we may give that person an update on your vital signs and treatment that is being administered by our ambulance crew;
To a public health authority in certain situations as required by law (such as to report abuse, neglect or domestic violence);
For health oversight activities including audits or government investigations, inspections, disciplinary proceedings, and other administrative or judicial actions undertaken by the government (or their contractors) by law to oversee the health care system;
For judicial and administrative proceedings as required by a court or administrative order, or in some cases in response to a subpoena or other legal process;
For law enforcement activities in limited situations, such as when responding to a warrant;
For military, national defense and security and other special government functions;
To avert a serious threat to the health and safety of a person or the public at large;
For workers' compensation purposes, and in compliance with workers' compensation laws;
To coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors for identifying a deceased person, determining cause of death, or carrying on their duties as authorized by law;
We may use or disclose health information about you in a way that does not personally identify you or reveal who you are.

Any other use or disclosure of PHI, other than those listed above will only be made with your written authorization. You may revoke your authorization at any time, in writing, except to the extent that we have already used or disclosed medical information in reliance on that authorization.

Patient Rights: As a patient, you have a number of rights with respect to the protection of your PHI.

As a patient, you have the right to access, copy or inspect your PHI. This means you may inspect and copy most of the medical information about you that we maintain. We will normally provide you with access to this information within 30 days of your request. We may also charge a reasonable fee for you to copy any medical information that you have the right to access. In limited circumstances, we may deny you access to your medical information, and you may appeal certain types of denials.

We will supply you with the necessary forms to request access to your PHI. We will provide a written response if we deny you access and let you know your appeal rights. You also have the right to receive confidential communications of your PHI. If you wish to inspect and copy your medical information, you should contact our privacy officer.

As a patient, you have the right to amend your PHI. This means you may ask us to amend written medical information that we have about you. We will generally amend your information within 60 days of your request and will notify you when we have amended the information. We are permitted by law to deny your request to amend your medical information only in certain circumstances, like when we believe the information you have asked us to amend is correct. If you wish to request that we amend the medical information that we have about you, you should contact our privacy officer.

As a patient, you have the right to request an accounting. This means you may request an accounting from us of certain disclosures of your medical information that we have made in the last six years prior to the date of your request. We are not required to give you an accounting of information we have used or disclosed for purposes of treatment, payment or health care operations, or when we share your health information with our business associates. We are also not required to give you an accounting of our uses of protected health information for which you have already given us written authorization. If you wish to request an accounting you should contact our privacy officer.

As a patient, you have the right to request that we restrict the uses and disclosures of your PHI. You have the right to request that we restrict how we use and disclose your medical information that we have about you. ERWAY Ambulance is not required to agree to any restrictions you request, but any restrictions agreed to by ERWAY Ambulance are binding on ERWAY Ambulance.

Internet, Electronic Mail, and the Right to Obtain Copy of Paper Notice on Request. We will prominently post a copy of this Notice on our web site and make the Notice available electronically through the web site. If you allow us, we will forward you this Notice by electronic mail instead of on paper and you may always request a paper copy of the Notice.

Revisions to the Notice: ERWAY Ambulance reserves the right to change the terms of this Notice at any time, and the changes will be effective immediately and will apply to all protected health information that we maintain. Any material changes to the Notice will be promptly posted in our facilities and posted to our web site, if we maintain one. You can get a copy of the latest version of this Notice by contacting our Privacy Officer.

Your Legal Rights and Complaints: You also have the right to complain to us, or to the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights have been violated. You will not be retaliated against in any way for filing a complaint with us or to the government. Should you have any questions, comments or complaints you may direct all inquiries to our privacy officer.

If you have any questions or if you wish to file a complaint or exercise any rights listed in this Notice, please contact:

Privacy Officer
ERWAY Ambulance Service, Inc.
2030 College Avenue
Elmira, NY 14903
(607) 732-7741

info@erwayambulance.com

www.erwayambulance.com

Effective Date of this Notice of Privacy Practices: May 17, 2010