Panelist Privacy Notice

Protecting your Clinical Testing Records through HIPPA Compliance

PANELIST PRIVACY NOTICE:

This Notice of Privacy describes how your personal medical information might be disclosed and used by Validated Claim Support (VCS), and how you can obtain access to this information.  Please carefully review it.

We are required by law to maintain the privacy of Protected Health Information, and to provide you with the Notice of our privacy practices and legal duties with respect to Protected Health Information.  Protected Health Information includes personal information such as demographic details, information that may individually identify you or information about your past, as well as your relevant physical or mental health condition as it relates to consumer-related product testing.

This notice describes how we may disclose and use your Protected Health Information in order to proceed with payment and engage in research and marketing-related activities, or to provide your primary or secondary medical providers with additional information to administer care for you.  Other disclosures and uses will be made only with your prior written authorization, unless otherwise requested or permitted by law.

This notice also describes your rights to access and control your Personal Health Information, and informs you of your right to submit complaints to us or to the Secretary of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights have been violated.

VCS is required to abide by the terms of this notice as an extension of research and development and manufacturing in the Personal Care Industry.  We reserve the right to change the terms of the notice at any time, and new notices will be effective for every PHI collected before their implementation.  At your request, we’ll give you any revised notice.  You may contact our office and speak with our Recruitment Manager to request a revised copy, or you can ask for one at the time of your following appointment.

USES AND DISCLOSURES OF PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION

Your Personal Health Information might be used by our staff for recruitment purposes, payment, and treatment as described in this Section without additional Authorization.  Your Protected Health Information may be used by our office staff and others outside of our office staff that are involved in your care and treatment for the purpose of providing health care services to you.  Your Protected Health Information may also be used to support the operations of the Testing Office.

Operations:

We might disclose or use, as needed, your protected health information to support the activities of business of the testing laboratory. These activities include, but are not limited to: improvement activities and quality assessment, reviewing the qualifications or competence of professionals, obtaining legal services or auditing functions or conducting compliance programs, securing stop-loss or excess of loss insurance, business planning and development, general administrative and business management activities, like compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, due diligence in connection with the sale or transfer of assets of Validated Claim Support, resolution of internal grievances, creating de-identified health information, and conducting or arranging for other business activities.

For example, we may use a sign-in sheet at the registration desk where you will be asked to sign your name. We may also call you by name in the waiting room when your technician is waiting to see you. We may use or disclose your protected health information, as necessary, to contact you to remind you of your appointment.

We will share your protected health information with third-party business associates that conduct a variety of activities (e.g., legal services, accounting services, transcription services, billing) for the laboratory.  Whenever an arrangement between our office and a business associate involves the use or disclosure of your protected health information, we will have a written contract that contains terms that will protect the privacy of your protected health information.

We may use or disclose your protected health information, as necessary, to determine your eligibility to engage in various product testing capacities onsite.

In addition, we might have your protected health information disclosed to other providers, health care, or health plan clearinghouse for operational purposes that are limited to the recipient, so long as the other entity has, or has had, a relationship with you.  Such disclosures will be limited to the purposes in the following:  improvement activities and quality assessment, population-based activities that relate to reducing health care costs or improving health, case management, conducting training programs, licensing, certification, accreditation, credentialing activities, and health care fraud and abuse detection and compliance programs.

In addition, Validated Claim Support may be required to provide relevant Personal Health Information to care providers in the case of an emergency.

Uses & Disclosures of Protected Health Information Based on Your Written Authorization  

Other disclosures and uses of your protected health information will only be made with your authorization (that’s written), unless otherwise required or permitted by law. You may have this authorization revoked, in writing any time you want, apart from the extent that Validated Claim Support has taken action in dependence on the disclosure or use shown in the authorization.

YOUR RIGHTS

The following is a statement of your rights with respect to your protected health information and a brief description of how you may exercise these rights.

You have the right to copy and inspect your protected health information. This means you may inspect and obtain a copy of protected health information about you that is contained in your chart, including medical and billing records and any other records that Validated Claim Support may use for making decisions about you.

Under federal law, however, you may not inspect or copy the following records: compiled information in reasonable anticipation of, or use in, a criminal, civil, or administrative proceeding or action; and protected health information that’s subject to law that forbids access to protected health information. Depending on the circumstances, a decision to reject access might be reviewable.  In certain cases, you might have a right to review this decision.  Please contact our Recruitment Director if you have questions about access to your medical record.

You’ve got the right to request a restriction of your protected health information, meaning you could ask us to not disclose or use any part of your protected health information for the purposes of healthcare operations, payment, or treatment. Also, you may request that any part of your protected health information be undisclosed to friends or family members who might be involved for purposes of notification as described in this Notice or in your care. Your request should have the statement of the particular restriction requested and to who you want the restriction to apply.

Validated Claim Support isn’t needed to be in agreement with a restriction that you may request.  If Validated Claim Support believes it is in your best interest to permit the use and disclosure of your protected health information, your protected health information will not be restricted. If Validated Claim Support is in agreement with the requested restriction, we might not disclose or use your protected health information in violation of that restriction unless it’s required to give emergency treatment. Kindly discuss any restriction you want to request with the office recruitment manager with this in mind.

You’ve got the right to request to get confidential communications from us by alternative means or at an alternative location. Reasonable requests will be accommodated. Also, we might condition this accommodation by inquiring you for information as to how payment will be taken care of or specification of an alternative address or other contact methods. We will not request an explanation from you as to the basis for the request. Please make this request in writing to our Privacy Contact.

You might have the right to get your provider to alter your protected health information. This means you may request an amendment of protected health information about you in a designated record set for as long as we maintain this information. In some cases, we might reject your amendment request. If we reject your request for amendment, you’ve got the right to file a statement of disagreement with us and we may prepare a rebuttal to your statement and will give you a copy of any type of rebuttal. Kindly contact our Privacy Contact to determine if you’ve questions in regards to amending your medical record.

You have the right to get an accounting of specific disclosures we’ve made, if any, of your protected health information. This right applies specifically to disclosures for purposes other than healthcare operations, payment, or treatment as described in this Notice. It excludes disclosures we might’ve made to you, for a facility directory, to friends or family members involved in your care, or for disclosures, or notification purposes for which you’ve signed an authorization.  You’ve got the right to gain specific information about these disclosures that happened after August 1, 2019. You could request a timeframe that’s shorter. The right to get this information’s subject to specific limitations, restrictions, and exceptions.

You have the right to obtain a paper copy of this Notice from us, upon request, even if you’re in agreement to accepting this Notice electronically.

COMPLAINTS

You could complain either to the Secretary of Health & Human Services or to us if you believe your privacy rights have been violated by us. You may file a complaint with us by notifying our Privacy Contact of your complaint. When you’re filing a complaint, we won’t retaliate against you.

You may contact our Privacy Contact, the Recruitment Manager at:

recruitment@validatedcs.com
(201) 733-3777
This Notice was published and becomes effective on Monday, March 16, 2020.