Privacy Practices (HIPAA)

Notice of Privacy Practices

This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed as well as how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully.

The Lakeside Fire Protection District is required by law (45 CFR 160) to maintain the privacy of certain Protected Health Information or PHI, to provide you with a notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your protected health information, and to abide by the term of the notice currently in effect.

The Lakeside Fire Protection District may use PHI for the purposes of treatment, payment, and health care operations. The following are examples of our use of PHI:

• Treatment: This includes oral communication through 911 dispatch regarding your medical condition and certain individually identifiable information such as your name and address. This also includes other oral communication and written records of our treatment provided to the hospital that we transfer your care and treatment to.
• Payment: This includes any necessary activities to get reimbursement for services provided to you, such as determining medical necessities, submitting claims to insurance carriers, and collection of outstanding accounts.
• Health Care Operations: This includes continuous quality improvement activities, training program to ensure the quality of our services, survey of your assessment of our services, and creating statistical reports that do not identify you individually.

Other use and discloser of PHI permitted or required by law:

• Under emergency circumstances – to identify a deceased person or the cause of death.
• Limited law enforcement activities – such as to identify and to locate a suspect or to stop a crime.
• Activities related to national defense or security.
• Oversight of health care system.
• Legal processing as required by a court or an administrative order, or in response to a subpoena.
• Communicate with individuals that are directly involved in your care.
• Other use and disclosure as permitted or required by law.

As a patient, you have certain rights under the privacy rule with respect to your PHI:

• You have the right to access, inspect, and make a copy of your PHI.
• You have the right to amend your PHI. We do not have to comply with your request if we believe the PHI is accurate and correct.
• You have the right to an accounting of most non-routine use and disclosure of your PHI. We do not have to give you an accounting of PHI we use or disclose to carry out treatment, payment, and health care operations, or the use and disclosure of PHI that you have given authorization.
• You have the right to request restrictions on certain uses and disclosure of your PHI. We are not required to agree to a requested restriction.
• You have the right to receive confidential communications of your PHI.
• You have the right to obtain a paper copy of this notice upon request.
• You have the legal right to file a complaint with the Lakeside Fire Protection District and with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights have been violated. You will not suffer retaliation for filing a complaint.
• Additional authorization from the patient is needed for uses/disclosures beyond those described in the policy. (HITECH Modification 2013)
• Patient authorization is also required for psychotherapy notes (as needed), marketing purposes, and any selling of PHI. (HITECH Modification 2013)
• PHI may be used/disclosed to contact an individual for fundraising purposes and individuals can opt out of such communications. (HITECH Modification 2013)
• The patient can restrict PHI disclosures to their health plan, if the patient pays out of pocket in full. (HITECH Modification 2013)
• In the event of a breach of PHI, affected individuals have the right to be notified. (HITECH Modification 2013)

You may contact the Lakeside Fire Protection District’s EMS Administration / Privacy Office regarding any information identified in this notice, to file a complaint, or to exercise any of your rights listed in this notice.

Lakeside Fire Protection District
EMS Administration / Privacy Office
12216 Lakeside Ave.
Lakeside, CA 92040

Phone: (619) 390-2350
Fax: (619) 443-1568

The Lakeside Fire Protection District reserves the right to change its privacy practices, the terms of this notice, and to apply the revised practices to PHI previously created or received. You may request a new copy of the notice by contacting the EMS Administrator / Privacy Office at the above address or download it directly from the Lakeside Fire Protection District website.

Download Notice