Privacy Statement

Touchstone Behavioral Health Privacy Statement

This is the official web site of Touchstone Behavioral Health. Our postal address is 15648 N. 35th Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85053. We can be reached via e-mail at info@touchstonebh.org or via telephone by dialing (623) 930-8705.

The information included in this web site is intended to be educational and is not intended nor should be construed as a substitute for medical treatment by a behavioral health professional. Because of the individual needs of each person, please consult a behavioral health professional to determine the appropriateness of any information included here.

Touchstone Behavioral Health is committed to privacy. We will not collect any personally identifiable information about visitors unless it is provided voluntarily. Any information shared by a visitor to this web site is not shared with any other entities. This site contains links to other sites. We are not responsible for their privacy practices or content.

Following is a full reprint of our official Privacy Policy regarding medical information:

TOUCHSTONE BEHAVIORAL HEALTH NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

This notice is published and becomes effective on April 14, 2003.

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. If you have any questions about this Notice, please contact the Touchstone Privacy Officer (623-930-8705).

This Notice of Privacy describes how we may use and disclose your Protected Health Information (PHI) to carry out treatment, payment or health care operations and for other purposes that are permitted or required by law. It also describes your rights to access and control you protected health information. "Protected health information" is information about you, including demographic information, that may identify you and that relates to your past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition and related health care services.

We are required by law to abide by the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices and to provide you with information regarding Touchstone privacy policies and practices. We may change the terms of our notice at any time. The new notice will be effective for all protected health information that we maintain at that time. We will post the new notice at our Administrative Offices, each program site and on the Touchstone Web Site. We will provide you with any revised Notice of Privacy Practices by calling the Privacy Officer and requesting that a revised copy be sent to you or be provided to you at the time of your next appointment.

I. Your Rights

The following is a statement of your rights with respect to your Protected Healthcare Information (PHI) and a brief description of how you may exercise these rights.

II. Complaints

You may file a complaint with Touchstone by notifying our Privacy Officer of your concern regarding handling of your PHI. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint. You may contact our Privacy Officer, 623-930-8705 for further information about this process. You may file your complaint with the Secretary of Health and Human Services if you believe we have violated your privacy rights.

III. Uses and Disclosures of Protected Health Information (PHI)

A. Uses and disclosures based upon your written consent.

You will be asked by your assigned clinician to sign a consent form. Once you have consented to use and disclosure of your protected health information for treatment, payment and health care operations by signing the consent form, your clinician will use or disclose your PHI as described in this Section. Your PHI may be used and disclosed by your psychiatrist, our office staff, your clinician, and others outside of this office that are involved in your care and treatment for the purpose of providing health care services to you. Your PHI may also be used and disclosed to pay your health care bills and to support the operation of Touchstone Behavioral Health. Your PHI may be disclosed to the following:

Following are examples of the types of uses and disclosures of your PHI that Touchstone is permitted to make after you have signed the consent form. These examples are not meant to include all possible uses of your PHI, but to describe the types of uses and disclosures that may be made by our office once you have provided consent.

Treatment: We will use and disclose your PHI to provide, coordinate or manage your health care and any related services. This includes the coordination or management with a third party that has already obtained your permission to have access to your PHI. This may include other physicians who may be treating you when we have your permission to disclose your PHI. For, example your PHI may be sent to a physician to whom you have been referred to ensure that he/she has necessary information to diagnose or treat you.

Payment: Your PHI will be used, as needed, to obtain payment for your health care services. This may include certain activities that your health insurance plan may undertake before it approves or pays for the health care services we request or recommend for you such as making a determination of eligibility or coverage for benefits, reviewing services provided to you for medical necessity and undertaking utilization review activities. For example, obtaining approval for a hospital stay may require that your relevant PHI be disclosed to the insurance plan.

Healthcare Operations: We may use or disclose, as needed your PHI in order to support the business activities of Touchstone. These activities include, but are not limited to, quality assessment, employee review, risk management activities, staff member training, licensing and accreditation.

For example, Touchstone regularly reviews the quality and content of the clinical charts for each Touchstone program area. This requires that actual clinical records be reviewed on a random basis to ensure that clinical documentation meet the regulatory requirements under which we operate. In addition, we may call you by name in the waiting room when your clinician is ready to see you.

We will share your PHI with third party "Business Associates" that perform various activities for Touchstone. Whenever an arrangement between our office and a business associate involves the use or disclosure of your PHI, we will have a written contract that contains terms that will protect the privacy of your PHI.

We may also use your demographic information in aggregation with other consumer demographic information to produce reports about Touchstone operations to regulatory or funding bodies.

B. Other Uses and Disclosures of PHI Based Upon Your Written Authorization

Other uses and disclosures of your PHI will be made only with your written authorization, unless otherwise permitted or required by law as described below. You may revoke this authorization, at any time, in writing, except to the extent that your clinician has taken action in reliance on the use or disclosure indicated in the authorization.

Other Permitted and Required Uses and Disclosures that may be made with your Consent, Authorization or Opportunity to Object.

We may use and disclose your PHI in the following instances. You have the opportunity to agree or object to the use or disclosure of all or part of your PHI. If you are not present or able to agree or object to the use or disclosure of the PHI, then your clinician, using professional judgment, will determine whether the disclosure is in your best interest. In this case, only the PHI that is relevant to your health care will be disclosed.

Facility Directories: Unless you object, we will use and disclose in our facility directory the location at which you are receiving care. This directory is only available to Touchstone staff members and to persons who have a need to know this information based upon the business that he/she is conducting with Touchstone.

Others Involved in Your Healthcare: Unless you object, we may disclose to a member of your family, a relative, a close friend or any other person you identify your PHI that directly relates to that person's involvement in your health care (ARS 36-509A.8). If you are unable to agree or object to that person's involvement, we disclose such information as necessary to your best interest, based upon our professional judgment. We may use or disclose PHI to notify or assist in notifying a family member, personal representative, or any other person that is responsible for your care of your location, general condition or death. Finally, we may use or disclose your PHI to an authorized public or private entity to assist in disaster relief efforts and to coordinate uses and disclosures to family or other individuals involved in your health care.

Emergencies: We may use or disclose your PHI in an emergency treatment situation. If this happens, your clinician will try to obtain your consent as soon as reasonably practicable after the delivery of treatment.

Communication Barriers: We may use and disclose your PHI if your clinician attempts to obtain consent from you but is unable to do so due to substantial communication barriers and the clinician, using professional judgment, determines that you intend to consent to use or disclose under the circumstances.

C. Other Permitted and Required Uses and Disclosures that may be made without your Consent, Authorization or Opportunity to Object.

We may use or disclose your PHI in the following situations without your consent or authorization. These situations include:

Required by Law - in keeping with the law and only that information relevant to the requirements of the law

Public Health - for the purposes of controlling disease, injury or disability Regulatory Bodies - to notify a person who may have been exposed to a communicable disease or may be at risk of contracting or spreading a disease or condition

Abuse or Neglect - to receive reports of child abuse/neglect or if you have been the victim of abuse or neglect

Health Oversight - to government agencies that oversee health care systems, benefit programs and/or civil rights laws

Food and Drug Administration - to a person or company required by the FDA to report adverse events, product defects or problems, track products or enable product recalls, replacements or repairs,

Legal Proceedings and/or Response to a Court Order - in response to a judicial or administrative proceeding or in response to a legal order of the court

Law Enforcement - as required to comply with legal processes, limited information for identification and location purposes, pertaining to victims of crime, in the event that a crime occurs on Touchstone premises and medical emergency and it is likely that a crime occurred.

Coroners, Funeral Directors and Organ Donation - for identification purposes, determination of cause of death,

Research - to comply with Touchstone approved and reviewed research

Criminal Activity - to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public

Military Activity and National Security - to Armed Forces personnel for activities deemed necessary for military command authority, to determine eligibility for veteran's benefits, for national security or intelligence activities

Worker's Compensation - to comply with worker's compensation laws

Inmates Receiving Services from Touchstone Practitioners - if your Touchstone clinician is providing services to you while you are incarcerated or adjudicated.

Required Uses and Disclosures - to comply with Section 164.500 et. seq. for investigative purposes as requested by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services

IV. Uses and Disclosure of your PHI with your Permission

Uses and disclosures not described in Section III of this Notice of Privacy Practices will generally be made only with your written permission, called an "authorization." You have the right to revoke an authorization at any time. If you revoke your authorization we will not make any further uses or disclosures of your PHI under that authorization, unless we have already taken an action relying upon the uses or disclosures you have previously authorized.

V. Confidentiality of Substance Abuse Records

For individuals who have received treatment, diagnosis or referral for treatment from our drug or alcohol abuse programs; federal law and regulations protect the confidentiality of drug or alcohol abuse records. In general, we may not tell a person outside the programs that you attend any of these programs, or disclose any information identifying you as an alcohol drug abuser, unless

Federal law and regulations governing confidentiality permit us to report suspected child abuse or neglect under state law to appropriate state authorities. Please see 42 CFR, Part 2 for federal regulations governing confidentiality of alcohol and drug abuse clinical records.

VI. Who will follow this Notice

This Notice of Privacy Practices will be followed by all Touchstone personnel and is applied to all sites and facilities operated by Touchstone Behavioral Health. In addition, these sites and facilities may share health information with each other for treatment, payment or health care operation purposes.