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.

 

Mid America Clinical Laboratories is committed to protecting the privacy of your personal and health information. Mid America Clinical Laboratories is the nation’s leading provider of diagnostic testing, information and services. At Mid America Clinical Laboratories, we are committed to protecting the confidentiality of individuals’ laboratory test results and other patient protected health information (PHI) that we collect or create as part of our diagnostic testing activities.

 

We urge you to read this Notice of Privacy Practices carefully so that you will understand both our commitment to the privacy of your PHI, and how you can participate in that commitment. Should you have any questions about this Notice or our privacy practices, please call us at 

             

(877)  803-1010 Option 2

or send an email to:

privacy@macl1.com

or write to us at the following address:

Mid America Clinical Laboratories, LLC
Attn: Privacy Officer
PO Box 19163 

Indianapolis, Indiana 46219

 

Mid America Clinical Laboratories Privacy Policy

Mid America Clinical Laboratories and its employees are committed to obtaining, maintaining, using and disclosing patient protected health information (PHI) in a manner that protects patient privacy. We will only use or disclose the minimum amount of your PHI we consider necessary to perform a job or complete an activity. This Notice applies to all PHI that we maintain. Your doctor may have different notices regarding his/her use and disclosure of your PHI created in his/her office.

 

Mid America Clinical Laboratories is required by law to provide you with this Notice of Privacy Practices with respect to PHI, to maintain the privacy of PHI, to state the uses and disclosures of PHI that Mid America Clinical Laboratories may make, and to list the rights of individuals and our legal duties with respect to their PHI. 

§ Your PHI at Mid America Clinical Laboratories includes personal and medical information (such as your name, address, date of birth, test ordered, etc.) that we obtain from you, your physician, health plan, or other sources.

§ Your PHI also includes the laboratory testing results that we create.  An example of PHI is as follows: Jane Smith, Date of Birth: 2/15/68, resides at 123 Main Street, Anytown, IN, cholesterol result of 215 mg/dL. 

 

Mid America Clinical Laboratories is required to abide by the terms of the Notice of Privacy Practices currently in effect. We reserve the right to change the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices and to make the provisions of the new Notice of Privacy Practices effective for all PHI that we maintain. The current Notice will be displayed on our website and a copy is available upon request.  

 

How We May Use and Disclose

Your Protected Health Information

Your PHI will be used or disclosed for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations purposes and for other purposes permitted or required by law. Not every use or disclosure is listed; however, all of the ways we use or disclose your PHI will fall into one of the categories listed below. 

 

If we wanted to use or disclose your PHI for other purposes, we would have to obtain your written authorization. For example, patient authorization is often required by state law for each release of HIV test results, except if the results are being released to public health officials as required by law. You have the right to revoke your authorization at any time, except if we have already made a disclosure based on that authorization. We do not need your authorization or permission to use or disclose your PHI for the following purposes:

 

For Treatment 

As a health care provider that provides laboratory testing for ordering physicians, Mid America Clinical Laboratories uses your PHI as part of our testing process and discloses your PHI to physicians and other authorized health care professionals who need access to your laboratory results to treat you.  In addition to your treating physician, we may provide a specialist consulting physician with information about your results to further validate the results before release to your physician.  Occasionally, we may contact you to arrange for a redraw of your specimens.

 

For Payment

We will use your PHI in our billing departments and disclose your PHI to insurance companies, hospitals, physicians, and health plans for payment purposes, or to third parties to assist us in creating bills, claim forms, or getting paid for our services.  For example, we may send your name, date of service, test performed, diagnosis code, and other information to a health plan so that the plan will pay us for the services we provided.  In some cases, we may have to contact you to obtain billing information or for other billing purposes.  When required, we may use an outside collection agency to obtain payment. If you are a dependent of an individual, or otherwise receive your health insurance coverage based on a third party (such as a parent, spouse, domestic partner or a former spouse) subscribing to a health insurance policy, we may also send this information, for payment purposes, to the individual identified as the subscriber to the health insurance which covers you.

 

For Healthcare Operations

We may use or disclose your PHI in the course of activities necessary to support our health care operations, such as performing quality checks on our testing, for teaching purposes, or for developing normal reference ranges for tests that we perform. 

 

Disclosures to Business Associates

Mid America Clinical Laboratories may disclose your PHI to other companies or individuals who need your PHI in order to provide specific services to us. These other entities, known as “business associates,” must comply with the terms of a contract designed to ensure that they will maintain the privacy and security of the PHI we provide to them or which they create on our behalf.   Our business associates must only use your PHI for designated treatment, payment, or health care operations purposes that they perform on our behalf.  For example, we may disclose your PHI to temporary employees or to the College of American Pathologists (CAP) or other private accrediting organizations that inspect and certify the quality of our laboratories.

 

As Permitted or Required by Law

We may use or disclose your PHI for various public policy purposes that are authorized or required by federal or state law.  For example, we are required to disclose your PHI to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) upon request.  We must provide you with copies of your PHI at your request, except where restricted or prohibited by state law. We will provide the information regarding your specific state to you upon request.

 

Public Health

We may disclose your PHI when reporting communicable disease results to public health departments as required by law, for example, gonorrhea.   We may disclose your PHI for FDA reporting purposes.

 

Public Safety

When the appropriate conditions apply, we may use or disclose PHI to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public.

 

To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety

We may use or disclose your PHI when necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or that of another person or the general public.  Any use or disclosure for this purpose would only be made to someone able to help prevent the threat. For example, we may disclose your PHI in an investigation regarding a physician’s license.

 

Health Oversight

We may disclose your PHI in connection with governmental oversight, licensure, auditing, and other purposes.  For example, governmental agencies periodically review our records to ensure that Mid America Clinical Laboratories is complying with the rules of various regulatory and licensing agencies.  HHS and State Health Departments are examples of agencies that oversee aspects of Mid America Clinical Laboratories’ operations.  Other agencies may audit our billing and laboratory records to verify that the health care was provided as claimed or that we were paid correctly. 

 

Judicial and Administrative Proceedings

We may disclose your PHI as required to comply with court orders, discovery requests or other legal process in the course of a judicial or administrative proceeding.

 

Law Enforcement

We may also disclose PHI for law enforcement purposes.  For example, we may be required to release PHI as required by law or in compliance with a court order, judicial subpoena, court-ordered warrant, grand jury subpoena, administrative request, investigative demand or similar legal process, but only if efforts have been made to tell you about the request or to obtain an order of protection for the requested information.  We may release PHI for other law enforcement purposes, such as to identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person.

 

Specialized Government Functions

We may disclose your PHI for military and veterans activities, national security or intelligence purposes, or to correctional institutions, or to law enforcement officials having custody of an inmate.

Workers Compensation

We may disclose your PHI as necessary to comply with requirements of workers’ compensation or similar programs that provide benefits for work-related injuries or illness without regard to fault.  For example, workers compensation programs may require that we provide the results of laboratory testing as part of the case file.

 

Note Regarding State Law

For all of the above purposes, in cases where state law is more restrictive than federal law, we are required to follow the more restrictive state law. For example, some states require physician authorization to release laboratory test results to patients, and other states prohibit a laboratory from releasing test results directly to a patient.

 

We May Contact You For Specific Reasons

Although we do not do so today, we may want to contact you in the future regarding health-related products or services that may be of interest to you.

 

Your Rights Concerning Privacy & Confidentiality

Access

You or your authorized or designated personal representative has the right to inspect and copy your PHI.  Mid America Clinical Laboratories will deny access to certain information for specific reasons, for example, where state law prohibits such patient access. If your request is denied, you may request that the denial be reviewed.

 

Amendment

You have the right to request amendments to your PHI (but we are not required to make the requested amendments). 

 

Accounting

You have the right to receive an accounting of disclosures of your PHI that were made by Mid America Clinical Laboratories for a period of up to six years prior to the date of your written request, but not including any disclosures made prior to April 14, 2003, when the Privacy Rule went into effect. Under the law, this accounting does not include disclosures made for purposes of treatment, payment, health care operations, or certain other excluded purposes, but includes other types of disclosures, including disclosures for public health reporting or in response to a court order.

 

Restrictions

You have the right to ask us if we will agree to restrictions on certain uses and disclosures of your PHI, but we are not required to agree to your request with the following exception. Effective for services provided to you after Feb. 16, 2010, you have the right to ask us to restrict the disclosure of PHI to your health plan for a service we provide to you where you have directly paid us (out of pocket, in full) for that service, in which case we are required to honor your request.

 

Confidential Communications

You have the right to request that we send your PHI to an alternate address, but we are not required to agree to your request.

 

Notice of Privacy Practices

You have the right to request a paper copy of this Notice.

 

Complaints

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you have the right to register a complaint with Mid America Clinical Laboratories or the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Mid America Clinical Laboratories will not retaliate against any individual for filing a complaint. You may file a complaint by calling us toll-free at (877) 803-1010 Option 2, or by writing to us at the address located at the beginning of this Notice.

 

How to Exercise Your Rights

Write to us with your specific written request and be sure to include sufficient information for us to identify all of your records.  You may also contact us at the toll-free telephone number below to request an access form.  Mid America Clinical Laboratories will consider your request and provide you a response within a reasonable timeframe.  Should we deny your request, you have the right to ask for the denial to be reviewed by another healthcare professional designated by Mid America Clinical Laboratories. For additional details, or for instructions regarding how to exercise these rights, call us at (877) 803-1010 Option 2.

You may request a copy of this Notice in electronic and/or paper form by calling (877) 803-1010 Option 2 or by visiting our Website at http://www.maclonline.com

How To Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns regarding the privacy or confidentiality of your PHI, or you wish to register a complaint, please write us at the address located at the beginning of this notice or contact:

Privacy Officer at 317-803-0344

or privacy@macl1.com

 

Our online privacy notice, which describes our online privacy practices, may be viewed at the following address:

http://www.maclonline.com

 

Mid America Clinical Laboratories reserves the right to amend this Notice of Privacy Practices, at any time, to reflect changes in our privacy practices, and these changes will apply  retroactively, unless otherwise stated. Any such changes will be applicable to and effective for all Protected Health Information (PHI) that we maintain, including PHI that we created or received prior to the effective date of the Notice revision. Additional copies and the current version of this Notice of Privacy Practices may be obtained by visiting our website:

http://www.maclonline.com