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NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
Effective Date: April 14, 2003
Please contact the office if you would like a copy of our Notice of Privacy Practices.
In order to comply with HIPAA's Privacy Rule, it is the policy of this office to:
1. Distribute a Notice of Privacy Practices ("NPP") to every patient at their first appointment, eyewear pickup, or similar encounter on or after April 14, 2003.
- The NPP to use is available at the front desk. Only Drs. Korb, Finnemore and Exford have authority to change this NPP.
- Front desk staff are responsible to distribute the NPP.
- Front desk staff must give the patient a copy of the NPP when the patient signs in.
- Front desk staff must ask the patient to sign an acknowledgement of receipt
of the ("AOR") NPP, which is attached to the document. Put all signed
AORs in the patient's folder.
- If the patient opts not to sign the AOR, the front desk staff must make
a note of the fact that you asked and that the patient refused. Put this
note in the patient's record.
- It is not necessary to give a NPP to a patient every time they come in after April 14, 2003 unless we change the NPP.
- At every patient encounter, the front desk staff must look in the patient's record to determine if the patient has previously signed an AOR.
-If yes, it is not necessary to give that patient another NPP unless we have changed our NPP since the date of the AOR. Our most current NPP will always have an effective date on the front.
-If no, then it is necessary to distribute a NPP and ask for signature on an AOR.
- If our first encounter with a patient after April 14, 2003 is electronic, our electronic system will automatically send a NPP and ask for a signed AOR.
2. Keep a stock of copies of the NPP at the front desk location so that patients and visitors can take one, if they wish.
3. Redistribute our NPP as above whenever we change it.
4. We will use and disclose protected health information in a manner that is consistent with HIPAA and with our NPP. If we change our NPP, the revised NPP will apply to all protected health information that we have, not just protected health information that we generate or obtain after we have changed the NPP. |
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