We are required by applicable federal and state law to maintain the privacy of your protected health information. Protected health information is defined as individually identifiable health information that is transmitted in electronic media or maintained in any medium described in the definition of electronic media in the Privacy Rules issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or transmitted or maintained in any other form or medium. It does not include individually identifiable health information contained in education records covered by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, records described in 20 U.S.C. 1232g(a)(4)(iv) and employment records held by the University of Northern Iowa.

We are also required to give you this notice about our privacy practices, our legal duties, and your rights concerning your medical information. We must follow the privacy practices that are described in this notice while it is in effect. This notice takes effect April 14, 2003, and will remain in effect until we replace it.

We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and the terms of this notice at any time, provided such changes are permitted by applicable law. We reserve the right to make the changes in our privacy practices and the new terms of our notice effective for all medical information that we maintain, including medical information we created or received before we made the changes. Before we make a significant change in our privacy practices, we will change this notice and notify our health plan subscribers at the time of the change.

You may request a our notice at any time. For more information about our privacy practices, or for additional copies of this notice, please contact us using the information listed at the end of this notice.

This notice applies to the privacy practices of the group health plans and health insurers or HMOs that do business with the University of Northern Iowa. These organizations are each participants in an organized health care arrangement. As such, we may share your medical information and the medical information of others we service with each other as needed for the payment activities or health care operations relating to our organized health care arrangement.

We use and disclose medical information about you for treatment, payment, and health care operations.

Treatment: We may use or disclose your medical information to a health care provider in order to assist in providing treatment to you. We may disclose your protected health information to your parent, guardian, or other person acting in loco parentis as permitted or required by law.

Payment: We may use and disclose your medical information to pay claims from physicians, hospitals and other providers for services delivered to you that are covered by your health plan, to determine your eligibility for benefits, to coordinate benefits, to examine medical necessity, to obtain premiums, to disclose whether or not an individual is participating in the group health plan, to issue explanations of benefits to the person who subscribes to the health plan in which you participate, and the like.

Health Care Operations: We may use and disclose your medical information to rate our risk and determine our premiums for the group health plan, to conduct quality assessment and improvement activities, to credential providers, to engage in care coordination or case management, to manage our business, and the like.

You and Your Authorization: You may give us written authorization to use your medical information or to disclose it to anyone for any purpose. If you give us an authorization, you may revoke it in writing at any time. Your revocation will not affect any use or disclosures permitted by your authorization while it was in effect. Unless you give us a written authorization, we cannot use or disclose your medical information for any reason except those described in this notice.

To Your Family and Friends: We may disclose your medical information to a family member, friend or other person to the extent necessary to help with your health care or with payment for your health care. We may use or disclose your name, location, and general condition or death to notify, or assist in the notification of (including identifying or locating), a person involved in your care.

Before we disclose your medical information to a person involved in your health care or payment for your health care, we will provide you with an opportunity to object to such uses or disclosures. If you are not present, or in the event of your incapacity or an emergency, we will disclose your medical information based on our professional judgment of whether the disclosure would be in your best interest.

Your Employer or Organization Sponsoring Your Group Health Plan: We may disclose your medical information and the medical information of others enrolled in your group health plan to the employer or other organization that sponsors your group health plan to permit the plan sponsor to perform plan administration functions.

We may also disclose summary information about the enrollees in your group health plan to the plan sponsor to use to obtain premium bids for the health insurance coverage offered through your group health plan or to decide whether to modify, amend or terminate your group health plan. The summary information we may disclose summarizes claims history, claims expenses, or types of claims experienced by the enrollees in your group health plan. The summary information will not contain any demographic information about the enrollees in the group health plan, but the plan sponsor may still be able to identify you or other enrollees in your group health plan from the summary information.

Underwriting: We may receive your medical information for underwriting, premium rating or other activities relating to the creation, renewal or replacement of a contract of health insurance or health benefits. We will not use or further disclose this medical information for any other purpose, except as required by law, unless the contract of health insurance or health benefits is placed with us. In that case, our use and disclosure of your medical information will only be as described in this notice.

Marketing: We may use your medical information to contact you with information about health-related products and services or about treatment alternatives that may be of interest ot you. We may disclose your medical information to a business associate to assist us in these activities. Unless the information is provided to you by a general newsletter or in person or is for products or services of nominal value, you may opt out of receiving further such information.

Disaster Relief: We may use or disclose your medical information to a public or private entity authorized by law or by its charter to assist in disaster relief efforts.

Public Health and Safety: We may disclose your medical information as authorized by law for the following purposes deemed to be in the public interest or benefit:

as required by law;

for public health activities, including disease and vital statistic reporting, child abuse reporting, FDA oversight, and to employers regarding work-related illness or injury;

to report adult abuse, neglect, or domestic violence;

to health oversight agencies;

in response to court and administrative orders and other lawful processes;

to law enforcement officials pursuant to subpoenas and other lawful processes, concerning crime victims, suspicious deaths, crimes on our premises, reporting crimes in emergencies, and for purposes of identifying or locating a suspect or other person;

to coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors;

to organ procurement organizations;

to avert a serious threat to health or safety;

in connection with certain research activities;

to the military and to federal officials for lawful intelligence, counterintelligence, and national security activities;

to correctional institutions regarding inmates; and

as authorized by state worker’s compensation laws.

 

Disclosure Accounting: You have the right to receive a list of instances in which we or our business associates disclosed your medical information for purposes other than treatment, payment, health care operations and for limited other activities, subsequent to April 14, 2003. We will provide you with the date on which we made the disclosure, the name of the person or entity to who we disclosed your medical information, a description of the medical information we disclosed, the reason for the disclosure, and certain other information. If you request this accounting more than once in a 12-month period, we may charge you a reasonable, cost-based fee for responding to these additional requests.

Restriction Requests: You have the right to request that we place additional restrictions on our use or disclosure of your medical information. We are not required to agree to these additional restrictions, but if we do, we will abide by our agreement (except in an emergency). Any agreement to additional restrictions must be in writing signed by a person authorized to make such an agreement on our behalf. We will not be bound unless our agreement is so memorialized in writing.

Confidential Communication: You have the right to request that we communicate with you about your medical information by alternative means or to an alternative location. You must make your request in writing, and you must state that the information could endanger you if it is not communicated in confidence as you request. We must accommodate your request if it is reasonable, specifies the alternative means or location, and continues to permit us to collect premiums and pay claims under your health plan, including issuance of explanations of benefits to the subscriber of the health plan in which you participate. An explanation of benefits issued to the subscriber for health care that you received for which you did not request confidential communications or about the subscriber or others covered by the health plan in which you participate may contain sufficient information to reveal that you obtained healthcare for which we paid, even though you requested that we communicate with you about that health care in confidence.

Amendment. You have the right to request that we amend your medical information. Your request must be in writing, and it must explain why the information should be amended. We may deny your request if we did not create the information you want amended and the originator remains available or for certain other reasons. If we deny your request, we will provide you a written explanation. You may respond with a statement of disagreement to be appended to the information you wanted amended. If we accept your request to amend the information, we will make reasonable efforts to inform others, including people you name, of the amendment and to include the changes in any future disclosures of that information.

Electronic Notice: If you receive this notice on our web site or by electronic mail (e-mail), you are also entitled to receive this notice in written form. Please contact us using the information listed at the end of this notice to obtain this notice in written form.

If you want more information about our privacy practices or have questions or concerns, please contact us using the information listed at the end of this notice.

If you are concerned that we may have violated your privacy rights, or you disagree with a decision we made about access to your medical information or in response to a request you made to amend or restrict the use or disclosure of your medical information or to have us communicate with you by alternative means or at alternative locations, you may complain to us using the contact information listed at the end of this notice. You also may submit a written complaint to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. We will provide you with the address to file your complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services upon request.

We support your right to the privacy of your medical information. We will not retaliate in any way if you choose to file a complaint with us or with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Contact Office: University of Northern Iowa, Office of Human Resource Services

Telephone: (319)273-2521