HIPAA Privacy Policy

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.

The Green County Health Department (HD) works with other practitioners
in delivering services to you. The practitioners include doctors, dentists,
nurses, and case managers who are not part of the HD's workforce. All of
these practitioners will follow this joint notice of privacy practices in
delivering service to you.

The HD and the practitioners involved in your care create a medical record
of your health information in order to treat you, receive payment for
services delivered, and to comply with certain policies and laws. The uses
and disclosures described in this notice are applicable to the Health
Department and all of the practitioners (collectively "we") who are part of
this joint notice of privacy practices while they are delivering services at a
Health Department facility or on behalf of the Health Department. This joint
notice does not apply to service providers who are not part of the Health
Department when they deliver services elsewhere or only on their own
behalf.

We are required by federal and state law to maintain the privacy of your PHI. We are
also required by law to provide you with this notice of our legal duties and privacy
practices. In addition, the law requires us to ask you to sign an acknowledgment that
you received this notice.

This is a list of some of the types of uses and disclosures of PHI that may occur:

Treatment
We obtain medical information about you in treating you. This medical information is
called "protected health information" (PHI). Your PHI is used by us to treat you. For
example, we refer to PHI in treating you at the health department. We may also send
your PHI to another physician or counselor to which we refer you for treatment. We may
also use your PHI to contact you to tell you about alternative treatments, or other
health-related benefits we offer. If you have a friend or family member involved in your
care, we may give them PHI about you.

Payment
We use your PHI to obtain payment for the services that we render. For example, we
send PHI to Medicaid, Medicare, or your insurance plan to obtain payment for our
services.

Health Care Operations
We use your PHI for our operations. For example, we may use your PHI in determining
whether we are giving adequate treatment to our clients. From time to time, we may
use your PHI to contact you to remind you of an appointment.

Legal Requirements
We may use and disclose your PHI as required or authorized by law. For example, we
may use or disclose your PHI for the following reasons:

Public Health
We may use and disclose your health care information to prevent or control disease,
injury or disability, to report births and deaths, to report reactions to medicines or
medical devices, to notify a person who may have been exposed to a disease, or to
report suspected cases of abuse, neglect or domestic violence.

Health Oversight Activities
We may use and disclose your PHI to state agencies and federal government
authorities when required to do so. We may use and disclose your health information
in order to determine your eligibility for public benefit programs and to coordinate
delivery of those programs. For example, we must give PHI to the Secretary of Health
and Human Services in an investigation into our compliance with the federal privacy
rule.

Judicial and Administrative Proceedings
We may use and disclose your PHI in judicial and administrative proceedings. Efforts
may be made to contact you prior to a disclosure of your PHI by the party seeking the
information.

Law Enforcement
We may use and disclose your PHI in order to comply with requests pursuant to a court
order, warrant, subpoena, summons, or similar process. We may use and disclose
PHI to locate someone who is missing, to identify a crime victim, to report a death, to
report criminal activity at our offices, or in an emergency.

Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety
We may use or disclose your PHI to stop you or someone else from getting hurt.

Work-Related Injuries
We may use or disclose PHI to an employer if the employer is conducting medical
workplace surveillance or to evaluate work-related injuries.

Coroners, Medical Examiners and Funeral Directors
We may use or disclose PHI to a coroner or medical examiner in some situations. For
example, PHI may be needed to identify a deceased person or determine a cause of
death. Funeral directors may need PHI to carry out their duties.

Armed Forces
We may use or disclose the PHI of Armed Forces personnel to the military for proper
execution of a military mission. We may also use and disclose PHI to the Department
of Veterans Affairs to determine eligibility for benefits.

National Security and Intelligence
We may use or disclose PHI to maintain the safety of the President or other protected
officials. We may use or disclose PHI for the conduct of national intelligence activities.

Correctional Institutions and Custodial Situations
We may use or disclose PHI to correctional institutions or law enforcement custodians
for the safety of individuals at the correctional institution, those that are responsible for
transporting inmates, and others.

Research
You will need to sign an authorization form before we use or disclosure PHI for
research purposes except in limited situations. For example, if you want to participate
in research or a clinical study, an Authorization form must be signed.

Fundraising
If we undertake any fundraising activities, we may contact you about the fundraising
activity. We do not engage in marketing activities, and need your authorization to do so.

Complaints
If you feel that your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with the
Health Department by calling our Health Officer at 608-328-9500. We will not retaliate
against you for filing a complaint. You may also file a complaint with the Secretary of
Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC,
20201, if you feel your privacy rights have been violated.
We maintain a facility directory so that if family or friends ask us about your condition,
we can tell them general information and the fact that you are here. If you do not want
us to tell anyone you are here, please tell us now.

We are required to abide with terms of the notice currently in effect, however, we may
change this notice. If we materially change this notice, you can get a revised notice on
our Website at  www.greencountyhealth.org, or by stopping by our office to pick up a
copy. Changes to the notice are applicable to the health information we already have.

If we seek help from individuals or entities who are not part of this notice in our
treatment, payment, or healthcare operations activities, we will require those persons
to follow this notice unless they are already required by law to follow the Federal
Privacy Rule.