Notice of Privacy Practices
II. Your Individual Rights
Although your medical record at Harvard Vanguard is Harvard Vanguard's property, the Health Information it contains belongs to you. The following is a statement of your rights with respect to your Health Information, and a brief description of how you may exercise these rights.
- You have the right to inspect and obtain a copy of your Health
Information. At any time, you may inspect and obtain a copy of
Health Information about you, including your medical and billing record,
which may be used to make decisions about your care. Under limited
circumstances we may limit your access to all or certain portions
of your record. This includes, but is not limited to, psychotherapy
"process" notes, or information compiled in reasonable anticipation
of, or use in, a civil, criminal, or administrative action or proceeding.
If you are denied access to portions of your record, in some circumstances
you may have a right to have this decision reviewed. All requests
to access your record must be made in writing to the Medical Records
department, and will be processed within 30 days. If you request a
copy of your records, we may charge you a fee to cover the copying
and mailing costs.
- You have the right to request an amendment of your Health Information.
You may request Harvard Vanguard to amend your treatment and billing
information if you think the information is incorrect or incomplete,
for as long as Harvard Vanguard maintains the information. If for
some reason we deny your request, we must give you a written statement
with the reasons for the denial, and what other steps are available
to you. Please don't hesitate to contact the Medical Records department
if you have questions about amending your medical record, or any registration
staff to discuss amendments to your billing records.
- You have the right to request a restriction of your Health Information.
You have the right to ask for restrictions on the use and sharing
of your health information for treatment, payment, or health care
operations. Harvard Vanguard is not required to agree to your request.
If we do, we must put the restriction in writing and abide by it except
if you need to be treated in an emergency. You may not ask us to restrict
uses and sharing of information that we are legally required to make.
All requests must be in writing to Harvard Vanguard's Privacy Office.
- You have the right to request to receive communications from
us by alternative means or at an alternative location. We will
make every effort to accommodate requests, provided you supply a valid
alternative address or other method of contact. Our registration staff
will handle all requests, so please contact them directly at our offices.
In certain case we may need to contact you and may do so at the original
address or phone number if attempts to contact you at the alternative
locations are not successful.
- You have the right to receive an accounting of certain disclosures
we have made, if any, of your Health Information. This right applies
to disclosures for purposes other than treatment, payment or health
care operations as described in this Notice. It does not apply to
disclosures we may have made to you, that were authorized by you,
information provided to family members or friends about your care,
or for notification purposes. You have the right to receive specific
information regarding disclosures made by Harvard Vanguard that occurred
after April 14, 2003. You can request an accounting of disclosures
for a period up to six years, but only for disclosures made after
April 14, 2003. The right to receive this information is subject to
certain exceptions, restrictions and limitations. Requests must be
made to our Medical Records department, and we will respond to your
request within 60 days.
- You have the right to obtain a paper copy of this notice. We will provide a paper copy of this Notice to you, upon request, even if you have agreed to accept this notice electronically.