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Notice of Privacy Practices

Notice of Privacy Practices

 

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.

Comprehensive Labs, L.L.C.
926 N. Wilcrest Dr.
Houston, Texas 77079
comprehensive-labs.com

Comprehensive Labs – Privacy Department
Phone: 346.415.6287 ext. 287
Email: privacy@comprehensive-labs.com

Updated: May 26, 2022

 

Summary

 

This is a summary of how we may use and disclose your protected health information and your rights and choices when it comes to your information. We will explain these in more detail on the following pages.

 

Scope

 

We create a record of the care and health services you receive, to provide your care, and to comply with certain legal requirements. This Notice applies to all the PHI that we generate.

We follow and our employees and other workforce members follow the duties and privacy practices that this Notice describes and any changes once they take effect.

 

PHI Defined

 

Your PHI:

  • Is health information about you:
    • owhich someone may use to identify you; and
    • which we keep or transmit in electronic, oral, or written form.
  • Includes information such as your:
    • name;
    • ocontact information;
    • opast, present, or future physical or mental health or medical conditions;
    • opayment for healthcare products or services; or
    • oprescriptions.
  • Excludes employment records that your employer may hold.

 

Purpose

 

Comprehensive Labs. L.L.C. (“Comprehensive Labs” or “We”) respect your privacy. We are also legally required to maintain the privacy of your protected health information (PHI) under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and other federal and state laws. We follow state privacy laws when they are stricter or more protective of your PHI than federal law.

As part of our commitment and legal compliance, we are providing you with this Notice of Privacy Practices (“Notice”). This Notice describes:

  • Our legal duties and privacy practices regarding your PHI, including our duty to notify you following a data breach of your unsecured PHI.
  • Our permitted uses and disclosures of your PHI.
  • Your rights regarding your PHI

 

We are Required to

 

  • Maintain the privacy and security of your health information
  • Inform you if a breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your information
  • Provide you with a notice of our legal duties and privacy practices regarding the information we collect and maintain about you
  • Abide by the terms of this notice
  • Notify you by mail, upon your request, if CPL’s health information practices change Obtain your written authorization for any uses or disclosures of your health information not described in this notice. You may revoke the authorization at any time, except to the extent that action has already been taken.

 

Data Breach Notification

 

We will promptly notify you if a data breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your PHI. We will notify you within the legally required time frame. Most of the time, we will notify you in writing, by first-class mail, or we may email you if you have provided us with your current email address and you have previously agreed to receive notices electronically. In some circumstances, our business associates may provide the notification. In limited circumstances when we have insufficient or out-of-date contact information, we may provide notice in a legally acceptable alternative form.

 

Our Uses and Disclosures

 

As permitted under HIPAA, the following categories explain the types of uses and disclosures of PHI that Comprehensive Labs may make. Some of the uses and disclosures described may be limited or restricted by state laws or other legal requirements, for example, the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA). Not every use or disclosure is listed in this Notice, but all of our uses or disclosures of your PHI will fall into one of the categories listed below. We need your authorization to use or disclose your PHI for any purpose not covered by one of the categories below. Please contact our Privacy Officer, using the contact information provided at the end of this notice, for specific information regarding your state.

  • For treatment — Comprehensive Labs may use or disclose PHI for treatment purposes, including disclosure to physicians, nurses, medical students, pharmacies, and other health care professionals who provide you with health care services and/or are involved in the coordination of your care, such as providing your physician with your laboratory test results.
  • For payment — Comprehensive Labs may use or disclose PHI to bill and collect payment for laboratory or genetic counseling services we provide. For example, Comprehensive Labs may provide PHI to your health plan to receive payment for the health care services provided to you.
  • For healthcare operations — Comprehensive Labs may use or disclose PHI for healthcare operations purposes. These uses and disclosures are necessary, for example, to evaluate the quality of our laboratory testing, the accuracy of results, accreditation functions, and for Comprehensive Labs’ operation and management purposes. Comprehensive Labs may also disclose PHI to other health care providers or health plans that are involved in your care for their health care operations. For example, Comprehensive Labs may provide PHI to manage disease or to coordinate health care or health benefits.
  • Appointment reminders and health-related benefits and services — Comprehensive Labs may use and disclose PHI to contact you as a reminder that you have an appointment with us and may use and disclose PHI to tell you about health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you. For example, Comprehensive Labs may contact you about a new patient service center in your area or about new testing services available at Comprehensive Labs based on services ordered by your physician.
  • Disclosure of PHI to you — Comprehensive Labs may disclose PHI to you or as directed by you to a third party. Your right to see and receive a copy of your PHI is listed below under patient rights regarding PHI.
  • Emergency circumstances and notifications — If you are present and capable, Comprehensive Labs will obtain your agreement to use and/or disclose PHI about you during an emergency event to notify, or assist in the notification of a family member, your personal representative, or another person responsible for your care regarding your location, general condition, or death. Otherwise, Comprehensive Labs may exercise its professional judgment based on the circumstances and use and disclose PHI for your safety.
  • Individuals involved in your care or payment for your care — Comprehensive Labs may disclose PHI to a person who is involved in your care or helps pay for your care, such as a family member or friend. We also may notify your family about your location or general condition or disclose such information to an entity assisting in a disaster relief effort. As allowed by federal and state law, we may disclose the PHI of minors to their parents or legal guardians.
  • Business associates — Comprehensive Labs may disclose PHI to its business associates to perform certain business functions or provide certain business services to Comprehensive Labs. For example, we may use another company to perform billing services on our behalf. All of our business associates are required to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of your PHI. In addition, at the request of your health care providers or health plan, Comprehensive Labs may disclose PHI to their business associates for purposes of performing certain business functions or health care services on their behalf. For example, we may disclose PHI to a business associate of Medicare for purposes of medical necessity review and audit.
  • Disclosure for judicial and administrative proceedings — Under certain circumstances, Comprehensive Labs may disclose your PHI in the course of a judicial or administrative proceeding, including in response to a court or administrative order, subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process.
  • Law enforcement — Comprehensive Labs may disclose PHI for law enforcement purposes, including the reporting of certain types of wounds or physical injuries or in response to a court order, warrant, subpoena or summons, or similar process authorized by law. We may also disclose PHI when the information is needed: (1) for identification or location of a suspect; fugitive, material witness, or missing person; (2) about a victim of a crime; (3) about an individual who has died; (4) in relation to criminal conduct on Comprehensive Labs premises; or (5) in emergency circumstances to report a crime, the location of the crime or victims, or the identity, description, or location of the person who committed the crime.
  • As required by law — Comprehensive Labs must disclose your PHI if required to do so by federal, state, or local law.
  • Public Health — Comprehensive Labs may disclose PHI for public health activities. These activities generally include: (1) disclosures to a public health authority to report, prevent or control disease, injury, or disability; (2) disclosures to report births and deaths, or to report child abuse or neglect; (3) disclosures to a person subject to the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for purposes related to the quality, safety or effectiveness of an FDA-regulated product or activity, including reporting reactions to medications or problems with products or notifying people of recalls of products they may be using; 4) disclosures to notify a person who may have been exposed to a disease or may be at risk for contracting or spreading a disease or condition; and 5) disclosures to an employer about an employee to conduct medical surveillance in certain limited circumstances concerning work-place illness or injury.
  • Disclosure about victims of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence — Comprehensive Labs may disclose PHI about an individual to a government authority, including social services, if we reasonably believe that an individual is a victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence.
  • Health oversight activities — Comprehensive Labs may disclose PHI to a health care oversight agency for activities authorized by law such as audits, civil, administrative, or criminal investigations and proceedings/actions, inspections, licensure/disciplinary actions, or other activities necessary for appropriate oversight of the health care system, government benefit programs, and compliance with regulatory requirements and civil rights laws.
  • Coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors — Comprehensive Labs may disclose PHI to a coroner, medical examiner, or funeral director for the purpose of identifying a deceased person, determining cause of death, or for performing some other duty authorized by law.
  • Organ and Tissue Donation — If requested, Comprehensive Labs may disclose PHI to organizations that handle organ procurement, eye and tissue donation banks, or other healthcare organizations as needed to make organ and tissue donation and transplantation possible.
  • Personal Representative — Comprehensive Labs may disclose PHI to your personal representative, as established under applicable law, or to an administrator, executor, or other authorized individual associated with your estate.
  • Correctional institution — Comprehensive Labs may disclose the PHI of an inmate or other individual when requested by a correctional institution or law enforcement official for health, safety, and security purposes.
  • Serious threat to health or safety — Comprehensive Labs is allowed to disclose PHI when it has a good faith belief that the disclosure (1) is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and/or imminent threat to the health or safety of the patient or others and (2) is to a person or persons reasonably able to prevent or lessen the threat.
  • Research — Comprehensive Labs may use and disclose PHI for research purposes. Limited data or records may be viewed by researchers to identify patients who may qualify for their research project or for other similar purposes, so long as the researchers do not remove or copy any of the PHI. Before we use or disclose PHI for any other research activity, one of the following will happen: 1) a special committee will determine that the research activity poses minimal risk to privacy and that there is an adequate plan to safeguard PHI; 2) if the PHI relates to deceased individuals, the researchers give us assurances that the PHI is necessary for the research and will be used only as part of the research; or 3) the researcher will be provided only with information that does not identify you directly.
  • Government functions — In certain situations, Comprehensive Labs may disclose the PHI of military personnel and veterans, including Armed Forces personnel, as required by military command authorities. Additionally, we may disclose PHI to authorized officials for national security purposes, such as protecting the President of the United States, conducting intelligence, counter-intelligence, other national security activities, and when requested by foreign military authorities. Disclosures will be made only in compliance with U.S. Law.
  • Workers’ compensation — As authorized by applicable laws, Comprehensive Labs may use or disclose PHI to comply with workers’ compensation or other similar programs established to provide work-related injury or illness benefits.
  • De-identified Information and Limited Data Sets — Comprehensive Labs may use and disclose health information that has been “de-identified” by removing certain identifiers making it unlikely that you could be identified. Comprehensive Labs also may disclose limited health information, contained in a “limited data set”. The limited data set does not contain any information that can directly identify you. For example, a limited data set may include your city, county, and zip code, but not your name or street address.

 

Your Choices

 

You have some choices about how we use and share information as we:

  • Communicate with you.
  • Tell family and friends about your condition.
  • Provide disaster relief.
  • Market our services and/or sell your information.
  • When needed to lessen a serious and imminent threat to health or safety.

 

Your Rights

 

You have the right to:

  • Get a copy of your paper or electronic protected health information.
  • Correct your protected health information.
  • Ask us to limit the information we share, in some cases.
  • Get a list of those with whom we’ve shared your information.
  • Request confidential communication.
  • Get a copy of this privacy notice
  • Choose someone to act for you.
  • File a complaint directly with us or with the Office for Civil Rights at the US Department of Health and Human Services if you believe we have violated your privacy rights.

 

Changes to this Notice

 

We can change the terms of this Notice, and the changes will apply to all information we have about you. The new notice will be available on request, in our office, and on our website.

 

Contact

 

If you have any questions about this Notice or would like to file a complaint directly with us, please contact our Privacy Department:

Comprehensive Labs’ Privacy Department
Phone: 346.415.6287 ext. 287
Email: privacy@comprehensive-labs.com

You may contact Office for Civil Rights at the US Department of Health and Human Services at:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Room 509F, HHH Building
Washington, D.C. 20201
Phone: 800.368.1019
Email: OCRPrivacy@hhs.gov

 

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