Notice of Privacy Practices for Betsy J. Hancock, O.D., M.S. Effective 04/14/2003

This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed. If you have any questions regarding this notice, you may contact: Dr. Betsy J. Hancock, O.D., M.S., 21 East Fifth Street Bloomsburg, PA 17815
Your protected health information (PHI)
Dr. Betsy J. Hancock is required by federal privacy rule to maintain the privacy of your health information and to provide you with the notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your protected health information. We are required to abide by the terms of the notice currently in effect. This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and how you get access to this information.
PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY

Uses and disclosures of your PHI
We may use medical information about you to provide you with treatment or other services. We may also disclose this inforation about you to other people who are involved in taking care of you. Under certain circumstances health professionals, using their best judgement, may disclose to a family member, other relative, close personal friend, or any other person you identify, health information relative to that person's involvement in your case.
We may use and disclose medical information about you so the treatment and services you receive may be billed and payment may be collected from you, an insurance company, or another third party.
We may disclose your PHI when required by federal, state, or local law. We may use and disclose PHI for public health activities, including FDA related reports and disclosures such as adverse event reports.
We may use and disclose PHI in judicial and administrative proceedings in response to a court order or subpeona, discovery request or other lawful process.
We may contact you to schedule appointsments, provide appointment reminders and suggest follow-up or additional treatment in our office. This may be done by postcard or telephone call. Likewise, all correspondence leaving our office have the name and address of our practice stamped on the envelope.
On occasion, we use the fax machine to communicate pertinent health information with other providers of your care. A notice is always sent with this information as to the intended recipient and disposal of it if erroneously received.
Being that our office is located in close proximity to the waiting/reception area, records, charts, files and the computer screen may be in view of other patients. Likewise, private conversations with other patients or healthcare providers may be overheard. We will do all we can to protect your privacy.
We will not use or disclose health information about you without authorization except as described in this notice, for example, when necessary for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations.
Although your health record is the physical property of our facility, the information belongs to you. You have the right to inspect and receive copies of your health information.
We reserve the right to change this noticwe at any time. We further reserve the right to make any changes effective for all PHI that we maintain at the time of the change- including information that we create or received prior to the effective date of the change.
This notice is not intended to create contractual or other rights independent of those created in the federal privacy rule.