Privacy PolicyWEB SITE PRIVACY STATEMENT Your privacy is important to us. First Plan of Minnesota maintains high standards for the protection of your privacy at our Web site. Here’s what you can expect when you visit our site. The information we collect Use of the information this site gathers or tracks Making changes to the information you provide to us Cookies Sites we link to Changes to this statement Effective as of Oct. 1, 2001 NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES FirstPlan of Minnesota has always been committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of the information we receive from our members. Whether it’s your medical information or identifiable information (such as your name, address, phone number or member identification number), we maintain careful safeguards to protect you against unauthorized access and use. You should know that we are required by law to provide you this notice about our legal duties and privacy practices. We hope this notice will clarify our responsibilities to you and provide you with a good understanding of your rights. HOW FIRSTPLAN SAFEGUARDS YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION PERMITTED HANDLING OF HEALTH INFORMATION Treatment. We may disclose your personal health information to health care providers (doctors, dentists, pharmacies, hospitals and other caregivers) who request it to aid in your treatment. We may also disclose your personal health information to these health care providers in our effort to provide you with preventive health, early detection and disease and case management programs. Payment. To administer your health benefits, policy or contract, we must use and disclose your health information to determine: • Eligibility We may also use and disclose your health information to determine premium costs, underwriting, rates and cost sharing amounts. Health care operations. To perform our health plan functions, we may use and disclose your health information to provide the following programs and evaluations: We may also disclose your health information to FirstPlan affiliates and business associates (like Delta Dental or Prime Therapeutics) that perform payment activities and conduct health care operations for us on your behalf. Service reminders. We may contact you to remind you to obtain preventive health services or to inform you of treatment alternatives and/or health-related benefits and services, which may be of interest to you. ADDITIONAL USES AND DISCLOSURES Legal Requirements. We may use or disclose your personal health information, as we are required to do so by state or federal law, including disclosures to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Also, we are required to disclose your personal health information to you in accordance with the law. Public health issues. We may disclose your health information to an authorized public health authority for public health activities in controlling disease, injury or disability. For example, we may disclose your personal health information to the childhood immunization registry. Abuse or neglect. We may make disclosures to government authorities concerning abuse, neglect or domestic violence as required by law. Health oversight activities. We may disclose your health information to a government agency authorized to conduct health care system or governmental procedures such as audits, examinations, investigations, inspections and licensure activity. Legal proceedings. We may disclose your health information in the course of any legal proceeding, in response to a court order or administrative judge and, in certain cases, in response to a subpoena, discovery request or other lawful process. Law enforcement. We may disclose your health information to law enforcement officials. For example, disclosures may be made in response to a warrant or subpoena or for the purpose of identifying or locating a suspect, witness or missing persons or to provide information concerning victims of crimes. Coroners, medical examiners, funeral directors and organ donations. We may disclose your health information in certain instances to coroners and medical examiners during their investigations. We may also disclose health information to funeral directors so that they may carry out their duties. We may disclose personal health information to organizations that handle donations of organs, eyes or tissue and transplantations. For example, if you are an organ donor, we can release records to an organ donation facility. Research. We may disclose your health information to researchers only if certain established measures are taken to protect your privacy. For example, we may disclose to a teaching university to conduct medical research. To prevent a serious threat to health or safety. We may disclose your health information to the extent necessary to avoid a serious and imminent threat to your health or safety or to the health or safety of others. Military activity and national security. We may disclose your health information to armed forces personnel under certain circumstances, and to authorized federal officials for national security and intelligence activities. Correctional institutions. If you are an inmate, we may disclose your health information to your correctional facility to help provide you health care or to provide safety to you or others. Workers’ compensation. We may disclose your health information as required by workers’ compensation laws. Others involved in your health care. Unless you notify us in writing, we may disclose certain billing information to a family member who calls on your behalf. The kind of information we will disclose is the status of a claim, amount paid and payment date. We will not, however, disclose medical information, such as diagnosis or the name of the provider. Your employer. If your coverage is through your employer, we may disclose information to your employer to review group claims data or to conduct an audit. All information that could be used to identify specific participants is removed unless such identification is necessary. YOUR AUTHORIZATION YOUR RIGHTS Your right to request restrictions. You have the right to request restrictions on the way we handle your personal health information for treatment, payment or health care operations as described in the “Permitted Handling of Health Information” section of this notice. The law, however, does not require us to agree to these restrictions. If we do agree to a restriction, we will send you a written confirmation and will not use or disclose your health information in violation of that restriction. If we don’t agree, we will notify you in writing. Your right to confidential communications. We will make every effort to accommodate reasonable requests to communicate with you about your health information at an alternative location. For our records, we need your request in writing. It is important that you understand that any payment or payment information may be sent to the original address in our records. Your right to access. You have the right to receive, by written request, a copy of your personal health information that is contained in a “designated record set,” with some specified exceptions. For example, if your doctor determines that your records are sensitive, we may not give you access to your records. WHAT I S A DESIGNATED RECORD SET? • Enrollment Your right to amend your health information. You have the right to ask us to amend any personal health information that is contained in a “designated record set.” For our records, your request for an amendment must be in writing. FirstPlan will not amend records in the following situations: • FirstPlan does not have the records you want amended If you have requested an amendment under any of these situations, we will notify you in writing that we are denying your request. You have the right to file a written statement of disagreement with us, and we have the right to rebut that statement. Please note that changes of addresses are not required in writing. Your right to information about certain disclosures. You have the right to request (in writing) information about the times we have disclosed your personal health information for any purpose other than the following exceptions: • Treatment, payment, or health care operations as described in the “Permitted Handling of Health Information” section of this notice The requirement that we provide you with information about the times we have disclosed your personal health information applies for six years from the date of the disclosure. This applies only to disclosures made on or after April 14, 2003. FUTURE CHANGES • We will send a new notice to you prior to making a significant change in our privacy practices QUESTIONS & ANSWERS Q: Will you give my personal health information to my family or others? A: We will only share your personal health information with others if either of these apply: Q: Who should I contact to get more information or to get an additional copy of this notice? A: For additional information, questions about this Notice of Privacy Practices, or if you want another copy, please visit the FirstPlan Web site at www.firstplan.org . You may also call or write us at the number or address listed on the back of your member ID card with questions or to obtain forms. Q: What should I do if I believe my privacy rights have been violated? A: If you think that we may have violated your privacy rights, or you disagree with a decision we made about access to your personal health information, you may either: Please be assured that we will not take retaliatory action against you if you file a complaint about our privacy practices either with us or HHS.
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