Terms Of Use

It is the policy of Apnea Medics to be fully compliant with federal HIPAA Privacy Regulations. The Privacy Regulations establish national standards regarding uses and disclosures of protected health information (PHI). The purpose of the Privacy Regulations is to set minimum national standards regarding the confidentiality of individuals' protected health information. "Protected health information" is any individually identifiable health information, including billing and demographic information, that is transmitted or maintained in any form or medium.

Patients have the right to:

1. Receive a copy of the Notice of Privacy Practices;
2. Request restrictions on disclosures of PHI;
3. Request alternative means of communicating PHI;
4. Inspect and obtain copies of PHI;
5. Request amendments to PHI; and
6. Receive an accounting of disclosures of PHI.

1. Access to records, files and data is denied unless it is absolutely necessary for the person to perform a specific function.
2. Personnel authorized to access a medical record will leave an audit trail for review.
3. For transfer or transmission of PHI to medical providers, insurers or medical researchers, Apnea Medics will encrypt files and/or withhold information that could identify a record as belonging to a specific individual.
4. Information will be protected from unauthorized access through security controls as well as physical restriction through storage in a protected data center. Accidental deletion or destruction will be prevented through secure data archiving.

Regulations issued under Federal law known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, (“HIPAA”), which became effective on April 14, 2003, require covered entities to provide notice of the uses and disclosures of protected health information, and of the individual’s rights with respect to protected health information.

OUR PLEDGE REGARDING MEDICAL INFORMATION
We understand that medical information about you and your health is personal. While we create a record of the care and services you receive, we are committed to protecting medical information about you responsibly. Each time Apnea Medics provides a product or service, a “medical record” of your care is made. The medical record is interfaced, viewed, and added to by an independent diagnosticcompanyand/or sleep lab to document testing, evaluation, diagnosis, treatment, and care management. These independent providers are under a strict contractual obligation to protect your personal and confidential medical information according to the rules and regulations of the HIPPA Business Associate designator. The information in the medical record serves many useful purposes: It is a valuable tool to the physician or dentist that provides your care and you may want to allow your dentist or physician to access this record. We need this information and resulting records to provide you with quality care and to comply with certain legal requirements. This Notice applies to all information and records collected or created related to services provided to you by Apnea Medics and its affiliate providers. Your doctor may also create information at another medical service or facility. These services or facilities may have different policies or notices regarding their use and disclosure of your medical information. This notice will tell you about the ways in which we may use and disclose medical information about you. We also describe your rights and certain obligations we have regarding the use and disclosure of your personal health information. We are required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to: Maintain the privacy of your protected health information; Provide to you this detailed Notice of our legal duties and privacy practices and policies relating to your personal health information; and Abide by the terms of the Notice that are currently in effect.

HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION FOR TREATMENT, PAYMENT, AND HEALTH CARE OPERATIONS
The Final HIPAA regulations were modified in August 2002 so that a covered entity is not required to obtain an individual’s consent prior to using or disclosing protected health information for activities involving treatment, payment, or health care operations. However, Apnea Medics will ask you to electronically sign an acknowledgement of receipt of this notice describing our use and disclose your personal health information for purposes of treatment, payment and health care operations. We have generally described these uses and disclosures below and provide some examples of the types of uses and disclosures we may make in each of these categories. The examples provided are not meant to exhaustively list every possible use and disclosure that may be made.

FOR TREATMENT AND DIAGNOSTIC PROCEDURES: We will use and disclose medical information in providing you with treatment and services. We may disclose your personal health information to independent diagnostic providersand/or sleep labswho may be involved in your care, such as physicians, dentists, nurses, nurse aides, medical students, medical technicians, therapists, or your designated agent for health care decisions. We expect to allow ourindependent diagnostic providers and/or sleep labs to view and use your personal health information in order to complete your diagnostic testing as requested. We may also allow affiliated physicians and dentists to view and use your personal health information as they formulate a diagnosis and complete specific types of treatment for you. We may use and disclose medical information to tell you about or recommend possible treatment options or alternatives that may be of interest to you.

FOR PAYMENT: We may use and disclose your medical information so that we can bill and receive payment for the treatment and services that you receive through Apnea Medics and its contracted service providers. For billing and payment purposes, we may disclose your personal health information to our independent diagnostic providers and/or sleep labs, your agent for health care decisions, agent for financial decisions, insurance or managed care company, Medicare, Medicaid or other third party payer and their authorized representatives. For example, we may contact your health plan to confirm your coverage or to request prior approval for your testing, therapy and compliance management.

FOR HEALTH CARE OPERATIONS: We may use and disclose your personal health information for Apnea Medics’ operations. These uses and disclosures are necessary to manage Apnea Medics and to monitor our quality of care. For example, we may use medical information to review our services and to evaluate the performance of our affiliate technicians and doctors in caring for you. We may also combine medical information about many patients to decide what additional services we should offer, what services are not needed, and whether certain new treatments are effective. We may also disclose information to doctors, nurses, technicians, medical students, and other personnel for review and learning purposes. We may also combine the medical information we have with medical information from other organizations to compare how we are doing and see where we can make improvements in the care and services we offer. We may use your medical information to send questionnaires to you about your experience so that we can identify ways to improve your satisfaction with the services we provide. We may remove information that identifies you from this set of medical information so others may use it to study health care and health care delivery without learning who the specific patients are. We may also produce limited data sets that are partially de-identified and that must be used under restrictive agreements for purposes of research, public health, and other healthcare operations described above. We may use disclose your medical information to other health providers who also have a relationship with you for activities related to evaluating the quality of care, for coordinating your care, evaluating the competence of healthcare providers, conducting training, or for fraud or abuse investigation.

WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU FOR OTHER SPECIFIC PURPOSES

AS REQUIRED BY LAW: We will disclose your personal health information when required by law to do so.

PUBLIC HEALTH ACTIVITIES: We may disclose your personal health information for public health activities. These activities may include, for example: Reporting to a public health or other government authority for preventing or controlling disease, injury or disability, reporting to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concerning adverse events or problems with products for tracking products in certain circumstances, to enable product recalls, or other FDA requirements.

HEALTH OVERSIGHT ACTIVITIES: We may disclose your personal health information to a health oversight agency for oversight activities authorized by law. These may include audits, investigations, and licensure actions or other legal proceedings. These activities are necessary for government oversight of the health care system, government payment or regulatory programs and compliance with civil rights laws. Health oversight activities include oversight of (i) the health care system; (ii) Government benefit programs for which health information is relevant to determine beneficiary eligibility; (iii) Government regulatory programs for which health information is necessary for determining compliance with standards; or (iv) entities subject to civil rights laws for which health information is necessary for determining compliance.

SERIOUS THREAT TO HEALTH OR SAFETY: We may use and disclose medical information about you when necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or the health and safety of the public or another person. Any disclosure, however, would only be to someone able to help prevent the threat.

JUDICIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDINGS: We may disclose your personal health information in response to a subpoena, discovery request, a court or administrative order, or other lawful process. Efforts will be made to contact you about the request so that you may obtain an order or agreement protecting the information.

LAW ENFORCEMENT: We may disclose your personal health information for certain federal, state or local law enforcement purposes, including: As required by law to comply with reporting requirements, to comply with a court order, warrant, subpoena, summons, investigative demand or similar process, or disclosing protected health information if we, in good faith, believe that the protected health information is evidence of criminal conduct. Generally, disclosure will not be made without the individual’s prior consent. A disclosure may be made without the individual’s agreement if the law enforcement official represents that immediate disclosure would be materially and adversely affected by waiting for the individual’s agreement;

MILITARY AND VETERANS: If you are a member of the armed forces, we may use and disclose your personal health information as required by military command authorities to assure the proper execution of the military mission. We may also use and disclose personal health information about foreign military personnel as required by the appropriate foreign military authority.

INMATES: We may use or disclose protected health information to a correctional institution or a law enforcement official having lawful custody of an inmate if the institution or official represents that the information is necessary for: (A) the provision of health care to the inmate; (B) the health and safety of the inmate or others; (C) the health and safety of the officers, employees or others at the institution; (D) the health and safety of persons responsible for transporting inmates; (E) Law enforcement on the premises of the correctional institution and (F) purposes of safety, security and good order of the correctional institution.

TO AN EMPLOYER: We may use or disclose protected health information to your employer if we provide health care to you at the request of your employer for the purpose of disclosing protected health information to your employer concerning work related injuries or illness, or workplace medical surveillance in situations where the employer has a duty to keep records on or act on such information under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and similar laws. In such case we will give you written notice at the time health care is provided that the protected health information relating to the medical surveillance or work related injury or illness will be disclosed to your employer.

WORKER’S COMPENSATION: We release medical information to comply with laws or insurance requirements relating to worker’s compensation or similar programs.

APPOINTMENT REMINDERS AND TEST RESULTS: We may use or disclose personal health information to remind you about an appointment or to inform you that test results are available.

TREATMENT ALTERNATIVES: We may use or disclose personal health information to inform you about treatment alternatives that may be of interest to you.

HEALTH-RELATED BENEFITS AND SERVICES: We may use or disclose personal health information to inform you about health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.

RESEARCH: We may use or disclose personal health information as part of clinical research conducted to improve medical science and care. Research is defined a “a systematic investigation, including research development, testing and evaluation designed to develop or contribute to generalized knowledge”. Under HIPAA, a covered entity may use or disclose protected health information for purposes of research without the need for consent or authorization if certain procedures are followed, including obtaining approval by an Institutional Review Board (IRB). All research projects are subject to a special approval process. This process evaluates a proposed research project and its use of medical information, trying to balance the research needs with patients' need for privacy of their medical information. Before we use or disclose medical information for research, the project will have been approved through this research approval process, but we may disclose medical information about you to people preparing to conduct a research project, for example, to help them look for patients with specific medical conditions.

GENERAL PRACTICES: If you are present and have the capacity to make your own decision, we may disclose protected health information only (1) if we have your agreement to disclose to the third parties involved in your care, (2) we have provided you an opportunity to object and there is no objection; or (3) we reasonably infer under the circumstances, based on the exercise of reasonable judgment, that there is no objection to disclosure. If you are not present or when the opportunity to agree or object to the use or disclosure cannot practicably be provided due to your incapacity or an emergency circumstance, we may, in the exercise of professional judgment, determine whether the disclosure is in your best interests and if so disclose only the protected health information that is directly relevant to the person’s involvement with your care.

YOUR AUTHORIZATION IS REQUIRED FOR OTHER USES OF PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION

We will use and disclose personal health information (other than as described in this Notice or required by law) only with your written Authorization. You may revoke your Authorization to use or disclose personal health information, in writing, at any time. If you revoke your Authorization, we will no longer use or disclose your personal health information for the purposes covered by the Authorization, except where we have already relied on the Authorization.

YOU HAVE RIGHTS REGARDING YOUR MEDICAL INFORMATION

You have the following rights regarding your medical information, provided that you make a written request to invoke the right in writing or on the form provided by Apnea Medics.

RIGHT TO REQUEST RESTRICTIONS: You have the right to request restrictions on our use or disclosure of your personal health information for treatment, payment or the health care operation of Apnea Medics. You also have the right to restrict the personal health information we disclose about you to a family member, friend, designated agent for health care decision making or other person who is involved in your care. We will review your requested restrictions, but we are not required to agree to your request. For example, we will not agree to any requested restriction if the release of records is required by law, or the release of information is needed to provide testing or treatment. If you provide us permission to use or disclose medical information about you, you may revoke that permission, in writing, at any time. If you revoke your permission, we will no longer use or disclose medical information about you for the reasons covered by your written authorization. You understand that we are unable to take back any disclosures we have already made with your permission, and that we are required to retain our records of the care that we provided to you.

RIGHT TO CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS: You may request communication in a certain way or at a certain location, but you must specify how or where you wish be contacted. For example, you can ask that we only contact you at work or by mail.

RIGHT TO INSPECT OR REQUEST A COPY OF PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION: You have the right to request, either orally or in writing, your medical or billing records or other written information that may be used to make decisions about your care. We may charge a reasonable fee for our costs in copying and mailing or delivering your requested information. We may deny your request to inspect or receive copies in certain limited circumstances. If you are denied access to personal health information, in some cases you will have a right to request review of the denial. This review would be performed by a licensed health care professional designated by Apnea Medics who did not participate in the decision to deny. Apnea Medics will comply with the outcome of the review.

RIGHT TO REQUEST AMENDMENT: If you feel that medical information we have about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask us to amend the information. You have the right to request that Apnea Medics amend any personal health information maintained by us for as long as the information is kept by us. Your request must be made in writing, on a form provided by Apnea Medics, and must state the reason for the requested amendment. We may deny your request for amendment if the information: Was not created by Apnea Medics; Is not part of the personal health information or billing records maintained by or for Apnea Medics; Is not part of the information to which you have a right of access, inspection or copy; or is already accurate and complete as determined by Apnea Medics. If we agree to make the amendment, we will add or append information to the medical record. We are not required to delete any information in the original records. If we deny your request for amendment, we will provide you a written denial including the reasons for the denial and the right to submit a written statement disagreeing with the denial. We may reasonably limit the length of a statement of disagreement, and we may prepare a written rebuttal to the statement of disagreement.

RIGHT TO AN ACCOUNTING OF DISCLOSURES: You have the right to request an “accounting” of our disclosures of your personal health information that have been made to persons or entities other than for health care treatment, payment, or operations in the past six (6) years, but not prior to the inception of your specific medical record. This listing of disclosures of your personal health information made by the company or by others on our behalf will not include disclosures for treatment, therapy, payment and health care operations or certain other exceptions. We will notify you of any cost involved and you may choose to withdraw or modify your request at that time before any costs are incurred.

RIGHT TO A COPY OF THIS NOTICE: You may request a paper copy of this Notice from Apnea Medics by contacting our corporate headquarters at 1-949-388-5976