Privacy Notice

Patient medical care and consultation is confidential to the patient, their Asheville Arthritis caregivers, and the patient’s other physicians, unless otherwise noted.

A. Our Commitment To Your Privacy

Asheville Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center is dedicated to maintaining the privacy of your Protected Health Information (PHI). In conducting our business, we will create records regarding you and the treatment and services we provide to you. We are required by law to maintain the confidentiality of health information that identifies you. We also are required by law to provide you with this notice of our legal duties and the privacy practices that we maintain in our practice concerning your PHI. By federal and state law, we must follow the terms of the notice of privacy practices that we have in effect at the time.

We must provide you with the following information:
  • How we may use and disclose your PHI
  • Your privacy rights in your PHI
  • Our obligations concerning the use and disclosure of your PHI
  • How we may use your PHI in reviewing charts for Research

The terms of this notice apply to all records containing your PHI that are created or retained by our practice. We reserve the right to revise or amend this Notice of Privacy Practices. Any revision or amendment to this notice will be effective for all of your records that our practice has created or maintained in the past, and for any of your records that we may create or maintain in the future. Our practice will post a copy of our current Notice in our office in a visible location at all times, and you may request a copy of our most current Notice at any time.

B. Concerns and Complaints

If you have any questions about this notice or you are concerned that your privacy rights may have been violated, please contact our Practice Manager at the address listed below: 445 Biltmore Center, Suite 306, Asheville, N.C. 28801 (828) 258-9533 ext. 22. You may also send a written complaint to the US Department of Health and Human Services. If you file a complaint, we will not take any action against you or change our treatment of you in any way.

C. Uses And Disclosures Of Your Health Information

Asheville Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center uses your protected health information primarily for treatment; obtaining payment for treatment; conducting internal administrative activities; appointment reminders and evaluating the quality of care that we provide.This may include sharing your medical information to another health care provider. For example, if you are referred to another doctor, that doctor will need to know if you are allergic to any medications. Similarly, your doctor may share information about you with a pharmacy when calling in a prescription. Our practice may use and disclose your information in order to bill and collect payment for the services and items you may receive from us. For example, we may contact your health insurer to certify that you are eligible for benefits, and we may provide your insurer with details regarding your treatment to determine if your insurer will cover, or pay for, your treatment. We also may use and disclose your information to obtain payment from third parties that may be responsible for such costs, such as family members.

Asheville Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center may also use or disclose your PHI without prior authorization for public health risk purposes, health oversight activities and law enforcement.

Public Health Risks Examples:
  • preventing or controlling disease, injury or disability
  • notifying a person regarding potential exposure to a communicable disease
  • reporting reactions to drugs or problems with products or devices
Health Oversight Activities:
  • We may disclose information about you to a state or federal health oversight agency which is authorized by law to oversee our operations.
Law Enforcement:
  • We may disclose information about you if asked to do so by a law enforcement official regarding a crime victim.
  • In response to a warrant, summons, court order, subpoena or similar legal process.

In any other situation, Asheville Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center's policy is to obtain your written authorization before disclosing your personal health information. If you provide us with a written authorization to release your information for any reason, you may later revoke that authorization to stop future disclosures at any time.

D. Your Rights Regarding your Protected Health Information

You have the following rights regarding the PHI that we maintain about you:

  1. Confidential Communications. You have the right to request how and where we contact you about PHI. For instance, you may request we contact you at home, rather than work. This request must be in writing specifying the requested method of contact, or location where you wish to be contacted. Our office will accommodate reasonable requests.
  2. Requesting Restrictions: You may request in writing that we not use or disclose your PHI for treatment, payment and administrative purposes except when specifically authorized by you, when required by law or in emergency circumstances. We will consider all such requests on a case by case basis, but the practice is not legally required to accept them.
  3. Inspection/Copies/Amendments: You have the right to review or obtain a copy of your PHI. Our practice may charge a fee for the costs of copying these records. You may also request an amendment to your health information if you believe it is incorrect or incomplete. Our practice may deny your request to inspect and/or copy in certain limited circumstances; however, you may request a review of our denial. Another licensed health care professional chosen by us will conduct reviews.
  4. Accounting of Disclosures: You have the right to request a list of instances where we have disclosed your PHI for reasons other than treatment, payment or other related administrative purposes.
  5. Paper Copy Of This Notice: You are entitled to receive a paper copy of our notice of privacy practices at any time.
  6. Right to File A Complaint: If you believe your privacy rights have been Violated, you may file a complaint with our practice or with the Secretary Of the Department of Health and Human Services. You will not be penalized for filing a complaint.

Please contact our Practice Manager with any written requests or complaints at: Asheville Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center (ext. 22)