Privacy Statement
HIPAA NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
For Your Protected Health Information
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE PDF HERE: GOVERNORS PHARMACY HIPAA 2013
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.
When this Notice of Privacy Practices (“Notice”) refers to “we” or “us,” it is referring to GOVERNORS PHARMACY and all of the pharmacists who provide health care services and the employees of our pharmacy.
We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your protected health information (“PHI”), to follow the terms of the Notice currently in effect, to give you this Notice setting forth our legal duties and privacy practices concerning your PHI and to notify affected individuals following a breach of unsecured PHI. This Notice describes how we may use and disclose your PHI. Additionally, this Notice explains the rights you have with respect to your PHI, and certain obligations we must abide by in accordance with the law. We reserve the right to amend this Notice. If we make any material revisions to this Notice, we will post a copy of the revised Notice in the pharmacy, on our website and will offer you a copy of the revised Notice.
We will use and disclose your PHI for treatment, payment and health care operations. We may also use your PHI for other purposes that are permitted and/or required by law and pursuant to your written authorization. The following lists examples of how we may use and/or disclose your PHI. Any other uses not described in this Notice will only be made with your explicit written authorization, which you may revoke at any time by providing us with written notice of your revocation.
Treatment
We may use and disclose your PHI in order to provide you with prescription and supply services. We may use and disclose PHI about you to provide, coordinate or manage your health care services. We may disclose your PHI to other pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and health care providers that are involved in your care. You will receive an individual notice and have the opportunity to opt out of any subsidized treatment communications.
For Example: Information that you or your physician provides to the pharmacist will be used to properly fill your prescription. We will document in your record information related to both medications dispensed to you and services provided.
Payment
We will use and disclose your PHI in order to obtain payment for the health care services we provide to you. We may also need to disclose your PHI to receive prior approval from your health plan or to determine if your health plan will cover a certain prescription or service.
For Example: We contact your insurer or pharmacy benefit manager to determine payment for your prescription and the amount of your co-payment. We bill you or a third-party payer for the cost of the prescription medications dispensed to you. The information on the accompanying bill may include information that identifies you, as well as the medications you are taking.
Health Care Operations
We may use and disclose your PHI in connection with the management of our pharmacy. This may include: quality assessment and improvement, internal compliance audits, and performance evaluations. Additionally, we may use your PHI for our business management and general administrative activities.
For Example: The pharmacy may use information in your health care record to monitor the performance of the pharmacists providing treatment to you. This information may be used for a number of reasons, including our effort to continually improve the quality and effectiveness of the health care and services we provide.
Prescription Refill Reminders, Treatment Alternatives or Health-Related Benefits
We may use and disclose your PHI to contact you to remind you about prescription refills, to tell you about treatment options or alternatives, or to inform you about health-related benefits or services that may be of interest to you
Family Members, Relatives or Close Friends
Unless you object to such disclosure, we may disclose your PHI to your family members, relatives or close personal friends, or any other persons identified by you as being involved in the treatment or payment for your medical care. If you are not present to agree or object to our disclosure of your PHI to a family member, relative or friend, we may exercise our professional judgment to determine whether the disclosure is in your best interest. If we decide to disclose your PHI, we will only disclose the PHI that is relevant to your treatment or payment,
Business Associates
There are some services provided by us through contracts with business associates. When these services are contracted for, we may disclose PHI about you so they can perform the job we have asked them to do and bill you or your third-party payer for services rendered. In order to protect your PHI, we require the business associate to appropriately safeguard the information.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
We may disclose to the FDA, or persons under the jurisdiction of the FDA, PHI relative to adverse events with respect to drugs, foods, supplements, products and product defects, or post marketing surveillance information to enable product recalls, repairs, or replacements.
Other Permitted and Required Uses and Disclosures
We may use your PHI without obtaining your authorization and without offering you the opportunity to agree or object as follows:
USE AND DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PHI
- As required by law, provided however, that the use or disclosure will be made in compliance with applicable law;
- To a public health authority that is authorized by law to collect or receive such information, or to a foreign government agency that is acting in collaboration with a public health authority and these health activities generally include preventing or controlling disease, reporting deaths, reporting adverse effects of medications or problems with products, notification of communicable disease, and reporting abuse or neglect under certain circumstances;
- To a health oversight agency for oversight activities authorized by law, including audits and inspections, and civil, administrative or criminal investigations, proceedings or actions;
- For judicial or administrative proceedings purposes in response to a subpoena, court order, discovery request, etc. but only if efforts have been made to inform you about the request or to obtain an order protecting the information requested;
- To law enforcement to report certain injuries, comply with court orders or warrants or similar process, to identify a suspect, fugitive, missing person or victim or to report a crime;
- To a coroner or medical examiner to perform duties authorized by law such as identification of a deceased person or determining the cause of death;
- To funeral directors, consistent with applicable law, as necessary to carry out their duties; to organ procurement organizations or similar entities for the purpose of facilitating organ, eye or tissue donation and transplantation;
- For research purposes provided that certain approvals take place and assurances are given. We may disclose PHI about you to researchers when an institutional review board that has reviewed the research proposal and established protocols to ensure the privacy of your information has approved their research. Governors Pharmacy is not allowed to receive any money or other thing of value in connection with the use or disclosure of your medical information for research purposes unless the money we receive reflects the costs to prepare and transmit the medical information to the researcher or unless we seek your written authorization in advance.;
- Emergencies. We may share with a public or private agency (for example, the American Red Cross) PHI about you for disaster relief purposes. Even if you object, we still may share the PHI about you if necessary under the emergency circumstances.
- To avert a serious threat to health or safety, so long as the disclosure is only to a person who is reasonably able to prevent or lessen such threat;
- For military and veterans activities (including foreign military personnel) to assure the proper execution of a military mission and to determine eligibility for benefits;
- For national security and intelligence activities for the purpose of conducting lawful intelligence, counter-intelligence and other national security activities;
- For protection of the President and other authorized persons or foreign heads of state or to conduct authorized investigations;
- To a correctional institution or law enforcement custodian if you are an inmate or under custody; and to the extent necessary to comply with laws relating to workers’ compensation and work-related injuries.
- Under North Carolina law, minors, with or without the consent of a parent or guardian, have the ability to consent to services for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of certain illnesses including: venereal disease and other diseases that must be reported to the State; pregnancy; abuse of controlled substances or alcohol; and emotional disturbance. Abortion services, however, still require the consent of the parent, guardian or a grandparent with whom the minor has been living for at least six (6) months unless a court has determined that the minor should be treated as an adult. Minors may petition a court to waive this requirement for parental consent.
- If you request treatment and rehabilitation for drug dependence, your request will be treated as confidential. We will not disclose your name to any police officer or other law-enforcement officer unless you consent to our sharing of it. Even if we refer you to another person for treatment and rehabilitation, we will continue to keep your name confidential.
- If you suffer from a communicable disease (for example, tuberculosis, syphilis or HIV/AIDS), information about your disease will be treated as confidential. Other than circumstances described to you in other sections of this notice, we will not release any information about your disease except as required to protect public health, prevent the spread of a disease, or at the request of the State or Local Health Director.
- Prescription orders on file at our pharmacies are confidential. We will disclose such orders only to the following people:
- You, if you are an adult or a minor who can consent to the treatment described in the prescription;
- Your guardian;
- Your parent if you are a minor and cannot consent to the treatment described in the prescription;
- Your doctor;
- Your pharmacist;
- A person to whom you give written authorization
- A person authorized by subpoena or a court’s order;
- Insurance companies or others who pay for your prescription;
- Members and employees of the Board of Pharmacy;
- People handling your estate;
- and Medical researchers.


