NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

As you know, in order to provide you with patient care services offered by FreedomCare LLC and/or its affiliates  (“FreedomCare”, “we”, “us”, or “our”), we must collect, create, and maintain information about you and your health. This Notice of Privacy Practices (this “Notice”) describes how protected health information about you may be used and disclosed. Protected health information (“PHI”) includes  information regarding your past, present or future health care services or payment for such services that can be used to identify you. For example, information you provide us when scheduling your service, providing your medical history or receiving services from us is considered protected health information.

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.

We are required by law to maintain the privacy of this information and are required by law to provide you with this Notice. We will comply with the terms as stated. If there is a breach of your unsecured health information, we will notify you in accordance with federal and state law.

Information we may collect from you that is not considered protected health information, such as that you visited our website but never scheduled or received any services from us, may not be considered protected health information and our use and disclosure of that information is discussed in our Privacy Policy.

If you have any questions, please contact our Privacy team at [email protected] or 866-845-6009.

How We Use and Disclose Your Health Information

We protect your protected health information from inappropriate use and disclosure. We will use and disclose your health information only for the purposes listed below:

1. Uses and Disclosures for Treatment, Payment, and Health Care Operations Without Your Consent or Authorization. We may use and disclose your protected health information in order to provide care or treatment to you, obtain payment for services provided to you, and conduct our health care operations as detailed below. We have listed below some examples of how we may use and disclose your information.

a) Treatment and Care Management. We may use and disclose health information about you to facilitate treatment provided to you by other health care providers, your caregivers, and us. For example, we may discuss your health condition with doctors and therapists involved in your care, as well as with your caregiver, in order to obtain the information necessary to understand your past and current treatment.

b) Payment. We may use and disclose health information about you in order to get paid for the services we provide to you or to assist your caregiver in getting paid for the care they provide you.

c) Health Care Operations. We may use and disclose health information about you to carry out health care operations, which include care management, quality improvement activities, evaluating our own performance, and resolving any complaints or grievances you may have. We may also use and disclose your health information to assist other health care providers in performing health care operations.

d) Appointments, Information, or Services. We may contact you to provide appointment reminders or information about treatment or other health-related services that may be of interest to you.

2. Other Uses and Disclosures Without Your Consent or Authorization. Subject to the limitations described in Section 6 below (relating to reproductive health information), we may also use and disclose your health information without your specific written authorization for the following purposes:

a) As required by law. We may use and disclose your health information when required by state, federal, or local law.

b) Public health activities. We may disclose your health information to public health authorities or other agencies and organizations conducting public health activities, such as organizations responding to the COVID-19 or any future pandemic.

c) Victims of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence. We may disclose your health information to an appropriate government agency if we believe you are a victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence as required or permitted by law. We will let you know if we disclose your health information for this purpose unless we believe that notifying you would place you or another person at risk of serious harm.

d) Health oversight activities. We may disclose your health information to health oversight agencies, such as state departments of health, for activities authorized by law, such as audits, investigations, and inspections of us.

e) Judicial and administrative proceedings. We may disclose your health information in the course of any judicial or administrative (legal) proceeding in response to an appropriate order of a court or other administrative body.

f) Law enforcement purposes. We may disclose your health information to the police or law enforcement officials as required or permitted by law, or as requested by a court order or a grand jury or administrative subpoena.

g) Deceased individuals. We may disclose your health information to a coroner, medical examiner, or a funeral director as necessary if you pass away and as authorized by law.

h) Organ, eye, or tissue donations. We may disclose your health information to organ procurement organizations and similar entities for the purpose of assisting them in organ, eye, or tissue procurement, banking, or transplantation.

i) For research. If we perform research, we may use or disclose your health information for research purposes, such as studies comparing the benefits of alternative treatments received by our patients or investigations into how to improve our care delivery. We will use or disclose your health information for research purposes only with the required Institutional Review Board approval (if applicable to the research), which must follow a special approval process.

j) Health or safety. We may use or disclose your health information to prevent or lessen a threat to your health or safety or that of the general public. We may also disclose your health information to disaster relief organizations such as the Red Cross, or to other organizations participating in bioterrorism countermeasures.

k) Specialized government functions. We may use or disclose your health information to provide assistance for certain types of government activities. If you are a member of the armed forces of the United States or a foreign country, we may disclose your health information to appropriate military authority as is deemed necessary. We may also disclose your health information to federal officials for lawful intelligence or national security activities.

l) Workers’ compensation. We may use or disclose your health information as permitted by the laws governing the workers’ compensation program or similar programs that provide benefits for work-related injuries or illnesses.

m) Business Associate Agreements. A business associate is a person or entity that performs certain functions that involve the use or disclosure of your personal health information to a health care provider or insurance plan (a “covered entity”). Your health information may be used or disclosed to a business associate only if we obtain satisfactory assurances from the business associate that the business associate will safeguard your health information from any misuse and will use the information only for certain limited permitted purposes.

n) Individuals involved in your care. Unless prohibited by state law, we may disclose your health information to a family member, relative, or close personal friend assisting you in receiving health care services. We will disclose your health information to these individuals only if you tell us to do this or if we can reasonably infer that you do not object.

3. Special Treatment of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Records. If we were to receive health information about you from federally assisted alcohol or drug treatment programs, this information may be subject to special protection under state or federal law and we will not disclose this information without your authorization except where required by, and in full compliance with, federal or state law.

4. Other State Laws. To the extent that you reside in a state that provides additional protections to healthcare information or a subset of treatment information, we will protect your information in accordance with state law.’

5. Uses and Disclosures for Which We Will Obtain Your Written Authorization.

a) Marketing. We will not use your health information for marketing without your authorization.

b) Sale. We will not sell your health information without your authorization.

6. Special Protections for Reproductive Health Information. Even if you do not receive reproductive health care or have not received such care, we are required to provide the following information:

a) Uses and Disclosures We Will Never Make. We will never use or disclose your health information when the requested use or disclosure is for any of the following purposes:

I.      To conduct a criminal, civil, or administrative investigation for the mere act of you seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating reproductive health             care;
ii.     To impose criminal, civil, or administrative liability for the mere act of your seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating reproductive health care; or
iii.    To identify you for either of the above purposes.

For example, we would not cooperate with a subpoena issued by a state in which abortion or gender-affirming care is illegal that is seeking your medical records in order to investigate your receipt of reproductive healthcare that you lawfully obtained.

b) Uses and Disclosures for Which We Will Require an Attestation. We will not use or disclose your health information that is potentially related to reproductive health care for:

I.     Health oversight activities (as described in Section 2(d) above);
ii.    Judicial and administrative proceedings (as described in Section 2(e) above);
iii.   Law enforcement purposes (as described in Section 2(f) above); or to
iv.   Coroners and medical examiners (as described in Section 2(g) above)

UNLESS we receive a valid attestation from the person requesting the use or disclosure that their request is not related to the prohibited purposes listed above in Section 6(a).

For example, if we receive a subpoena requesting medical records of reproductive health care that you lawfully obtained that is accompanied by a valid attestation that the subpoena relates to investigating a doctor suspected of malpractice, we would be able to lawfully disclose your information.

7. Obtaining Your Authorization for Other Uses and Disclosures. We will not use or disclose your health information for any purpose not specified in this Notice unless we obtain your express written authorization or the authorization of your legally appointed representative. If you give us your authorization, you may revoke it at any time by providing us with a written notice stating that you wish to revoke your authorization, in which case we will no longer use or disclose your health information for the purpose you authorized, except to the extent that we have relied on your prior authorization to provide your care.

8. Potential for Redisclosure. We want you to be aware that when we disclose your information as described in this Notice, either with or without your authorization, it has the potential to be redisclosed by the person receiving the information, and the information may no longer subject to the protections we’ve described, or protected by the laws with which we comply.