THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.

We value the privacy of your medical information

PRN™ is committed to protecting the privacy of your health information. We strive to use only the minimum amount of your health information necessary for the purposes described in this notice.

We collect information from you and use it to provide you with an appropriate referral for services, to make application, and placement (services) coordination, and to comply with certain legal requirements.

We are not required by law to maintain the privacy of your health information, or to give you this Notice of our legal duties, our privacy practices, and your rights. We are required by most providers and referral agencies to uphold these standards that they are obligated to by law.

We promise to follow the terms of our most current Notice. When we disclose information to other persons and companies to perform services, we will require them to protect your privacy. There are other laws we will follow that provide additional protections, such as laws related to mental health, alcohol, and other substance abuse, and HIV/ AIDS.

This notice covers the following sites and people:

All health care professionals, legal guardians, and other legally authorized representatives authorized to arrange for your services and enter information into your chart, all employees and volunteers authorized to help process your information, all our employees and on-site contractors, all departments, and service providers licensed by the State of Virginia including all hospitals, all health care providers, all health care delivery facilities and providers within the State of Virginia, all licensed residential facilities and your personal doctor and others while they are providing care at this site. Each provider may have different policies or notices about their services created in his or her program, practice office or clinic.

HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION

Treatment: We may use and disclose your health information to provide referral for treatment or services, to coordinate or manage your health care, or for medical consultations. We may disclose your health information to doctors, nurses, technicians, medical providers including students, placement providers, and other personnel who are involved in taking care of you. We may share information about you to coordinate the different services you need, such as residential living arrangement, counseling, education, medical, dental, evaluations, medications as prescriptions, lab work and x-rays. We may disclose information about you to people outside our company who may be involved in your care after this referral, such as therapists, clergy and others with your authorization. We may give information to your health plan or another provider to arrange a referral or consultation.

We may use and disclose limited information so that we can receive payment for the services that we have provided. We may share this information with your referral source, services providers, insurance company or a third party used to process billing information. We may contact your insurance company to verify what benefits you are eligible for, to obtain prior authorization, and to tell them about your treatment to make sure that they will pay for your care. We may disclose information to third parties who may be responsible for payment, such as family members, or to bill you with your written consent. We may disclose information to third parties that help us process payments, such as billing companies (claims processing companies and collection companies).

Health Care Operations:

We may use and disclose your health information as necessary to operate our Providers Resource Network® and make sure that all of our clients receive quality care. We may use health information to evaluate the quality of services that you receive, or the performance of our staff in arranging care for you. We may use health information to improve our performance or to find better ways to provide care. We may use health information to evaluate the competence of our agents in making appropriate referrals. We may use your health information to decide what additional services we should offer and whether new services may be ideal for you. We may disclose information for review and learning purposes. We may combine our statistical information with information from other providers to compare how we are doing and see where we can make improvements. We may use health information for business planning, or disclose it to attorneys, accountants, consultants, and others in compliance with the law. We may remove health information that identifies you so that others may use the de-identified information to study health care delivery without learning who you are.

Appointment Reminders and Service Information:

We may use or disclose your health information to contact you or your providers to provide appointment reminders, or to let you know about treatment alternatives or other related services of benefits that may be of interest to you.

Census Information:

Limited information about you may be used in the census report; this information is not applicable at this time. PRN is not a residential provider.

Clergy Members:

Only upon written consent, information about you may be disclosed to your specific clergy.

Individuals involved in your care:

With your permission, your medical information may be released to a family member, guardian or other individuals involved in your care. They may also be told about your condition unless you have requested additional restrictions. In addition, your medical information may be disclosed to an entity assisting in a disaster relief effort so your family can be notified about your condition, status, and location.

Research:

We may disclose your health information with your permission for medical research that has been approved by yourself (if age 18 or older) or by a guardian or other legally authorized representative for the right to evaluate the research proposal and establish standards to protect the privacy of your health information.

Public Health Activities:

We do not usually disclose your health information to public health or legal authorities whose official activities include preventing or controlling disease, injury or disability because we do not provide direct care to you. We may use or disclose health information to notify a person who may have been exposed to a disease or may be at risk for contracting or spreading a disease.

Serious Threat to Health and Safety:

We may disclose your health information when necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety, or the health and safety of the public or another person. We will only disclose information to someone reasonably able to help prevent or lessen the threat, such as law enforcement or government officials.

Required by Law, Legal Proceedings, Health Oversight Activities, and Law Enforcement:

We will disclose your health information when we are required to do so by federal, state and other law. For example, we report victims of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence. We will disclose your health information when ordered by a legal or administrative proceeding, such as subpoena, warrant, summons, or other lawful process. We may disclose health information to a law-enforcement official to identify or locate suspects, fugitives, witnesses, victims of crime, or missing persons. We may disclose health information to a law enforcement official about a death we believe may be the result of criminal conduct or about criminal conduct that may have occurred on our premises. We may disclose health information to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law, such as audits, investigations, inspections and licensure.

Military and Veterans:

If you are a member of the armed forces, your information may be released as required by military command authorities. If you are a member of the foreign military personnel, your medical information may be released to the appropriate foreign military authority.

Correctional Facilities:

If you are an inmate of a correctional institution or under the custody of a law enforcement official, we may release your information for your health and safety, for the health and safety of others, or for the safety and security of the correctional institution.

Your Written Authorization:

Other uses and disclosures of your health and information not covered by this Notice, or the laws that govern us, will be made only with your written authorization. You may revoke your authorization in writing at any time, and we will discontinue future uses and disclosures of your health and other information for the reasons covered by your authorization. We are unable to take back any disclosures that we already made with your authorization, and we are required to retain the records of the service that we provided for you.

YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS REGARDING YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION

Right To Obtain a Copy of this Notice of Privacy Practices
We will post a copy of our current Notice in our office and on our website, www.VAPRN.com. To request a copy of our current Notice of Privacy Practices, please call (800) 920-4PRN (4776).

Right to see and Copy your Medical Record
You have no right to look at and receive a copy of your PRN™ records or your billing record. Requests will be considered on an individual basis. To do so, please contact our office by mail; you are required to make your request in writing. If you would like a copy of your medical record you must contact your medical provider(s); PRN™ will not provide medical records to individuals unless under these guidelines.

Right to Update Your Medical Record
If you believe that a piece of information is missing from your medical record, you have the right to request that we add an amendment to your record. Your request must be in writing, and it must contain the reason for your request. To submit your request, please contact PRN™ at our corporate mailing address.

We may deny your request to amend your record if the information being amended was not created by us, if we believe that the information is already accurate and complete, or if the information is not contained in our records. Even if we accept your amendment, we will not delete any information already in your records.

Right to Get a List of the Disclosures We Have Made
You have the right to request a list of the disclosures that we have made of your health information. The list will not contain disclosures that were authorized by you, and certain other disclosures excluded by law.

Your request must be in writing. Your request must be in a 12-month period. We may charge a fee for this service.

Right to Request a Restriction on Certain Uses or Disclosures
You have the right to request that we limit how we use and disclose your health information. We will consider your request, but we are not legally required to accept it. Your request must be in writing. To submit a request, please contact the corporate office. 

Right to Choose How You Receive Your Health Information
PRN™ is not legally obligated to disclose your health information and will no do so as common practice unless we are the originators of such information.  You must contact the health care provider that authored your report.  You have the right to request that we communicate with you in a certain way, such as by mail or fax, or at certain locations, such as home address or post office box. We will try to honor your request if we reasonably can. Your request must be in writing, and it must specify how or where you wish to be contacted. To submit a request, please contact our corporate office.

CONTACT
If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint in writing to the Executive Director. We will take no retaliatory action against you if you file a complaint about our privacy practices to our office. If you would like to file a complaint with us please use our corporate mailing address listed below.

CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
We reserve the right to change this Notice. We reserve the right to make the revised notice effective for information we already have about you as well as any information we receive in the future.

Providers Resource Network®
8604 B. Staples Mill Rd.
Richmond, VA. 23228
1(804) 515-0018