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Notice Of Privacy
Practices:
Consumers' Rights as
Mandated by The Department of Health and Human
Services
and The Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPPA) of 1996
Effective Date: 4/14/2003
Updated: 10/21/08
As part of a national standard with regard to
Protected Health Information (PHI), you can now
expect pharmacies to comply with a new set of
regulations and you will now have more control over
PHI and how it may be used.
At ALCO, we have always guarded PHI according to
stringent industry standards and refused to
participate in unnecessary disclosures. Therefore
you will only notice some slight changes in order
for us to comply with the new regulations:
**When visiting our facility, we can only allow
licensed health care providers to enter behind the
counter. Any guest, delivery or salesperson or other
visitor must be escorted at all times by an employee
of ALCO Pharmacy.
**Medical records—we will only release medical
records for tax and insurance purposes after a
separate, signed request has been received at ALCO
for each individual record. These can only be
released to the individual or the parent or guardian
of a child or disabled adult who has legal authority
to make health care decisions on their behalf. For
PHI for a deceased person, only the executor of the
estate, next of kin or family member or power of
attorney will be able to attain the records. A
record of requests is required to remain onsite for
a period not to exceed 6 years.
Some of the changes required in our pharmacy are not
visible to the public and you can be assured that we
are doing everything possible to meet federal
standards. These changes are complex and involve
such diverse areas of operations such as our
computer systems and communications with insurance
companies, trash disposal and even who is allowed to
be in the pharmacy. Our web site has been designed
with strict adherence to these standards for
protecting the PHI of our clients. In addition, we
are storing our files electronically and backing up
the data each night to a protected, off site server.
You should know that is it permissible for us to use
and disclose PHI in many ways without written
consent but we make every effort to limit disclosure
based on the circumstance. For instance, we can
share PHI with other health care providers if we are
discussing health care needs or have questions about
a prescription order or possible drug interaction or
if we send, receive, or need an order from another
pharmacy. We can discuss medications for billing and
payment purposes with insurance companies and
accounting staff. A technician, pharmacist and/or
driver employed by ALCO Pharmacy can deliver
medication orders and check identification of those
receiving the orders. We gather and use information
for numerous administrative and planning purposes.
And, finally, we can disclose information for public
health and safety reasons, to comply with health
care oversight activities (such as audits and
inspections), to the US Dept. of Health and Human
Services to demonstrate our compliance with HIPAA,
to respond to an order of a court or administrative
tribunal such as a warrant, subpoena or summons, to
a law enforcement official for law enforcement
purposes as required by law and to assist a coroner
or medical examiner to determine cause of death.
We are also allowed to send refill reminders via
mail, phone or fax without written consent and to
call appropriate staff if we have questions.
However, should you prefer that we communicate with
you and your staff in another way, we will need
written notice from you to this effect and every
effort will be made to accommodate your request. You
will also need to submit a written request to deny
other uses of PHI but these will only be granted if
they do not impede the workflow to provide
appropriate health care.
You also have the right to receive an accounting of
disclosures of PHI but it is not to include (i)
disclosures necessary to provide treatment, to
determine proper payment or to operate ALCO
Pharmacy, (ii) disclosures we make to you and/or
your staff, (iii) disclosures permitted by your
authorization, (iv) disclosures to family members or
because of an emergency, or (v) disclosures for
national security purposes. There is no charge for
the first request within a 12-month period but any
additional requests will carry a nominal fee to be
discussed at the time of request.
At ALCO Pharmacy, our
top priorities are the health care needs of our
clients and providing the most professional service
possible.
Compliance with these new privacy regulations
require only minor changes as we feel we already
have secure internal procedures in place.
If you feel that the privacy of your clients has in
any way been violated here at ALCO Pharmacy, you
should let us know immediately. Federal law
prohibits retaliation against any person for filing
such a complaint. We take complaints of this and any
nature very seriously and will do all we can to
correct the situation. You may also file a formal
complaint with our company and/or the US Department
of Health and Human Services:
ALCO Pharmacy
10045 Red Run Blvd. Suite 180
Owings Mills, MD 21117
Attn: privacy officer
US Department of Health and Human Services
Office for Civil Rights
200 Independence Ave. SW
Washington, DC 20201
www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa
ALCO Pharmacy reserves the right to change or alter
the terms of this notice at any time
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Dedicated to providing
customized professional
pharmacy services
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Call us at
443-394-7300
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