NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES STATEMENT
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.
LipoScience’s Privacy Practices
LipoScience, Inc. is committed to protecting the confidentiality of your Protected Health Information (PHI) as described under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). We have provided this Notice to you to describe our privacy practices relating to PHI, including how we may use your PHI within LipoScience. LipoScience will only use or disclose your PHI as detailed below.
Use and Disclosure of PHI Related to LipoScience and Health Care Operations:
LipoScience collects PHI in the process of providing treatment, payment, or health care operations (TPO). Under HIPAA, LipoScience is not required to obtain your consent or authorization prior to using or disclosing your PHI for treatment, payment, or health care operations.
- For Treatment: LipoScience discloses your PHI to physicians, nurses and other health care personnel who provide you with health care services.
- For Payment: LipoScience uses PHI to bill and collect payment for laboratory services we provide. For example, your health plan or health insurance company may ask to see parts of your medical records before they will pay us for your treatment.
- For Healthcare Operations: LipoScience may disclose your PHI for healthcare operations, which include internal education, administration, and planning. It may also be used to evaluate the quality of our laboratory testing, accuracy of results, and for certification functions. We may disclose PHI to outside companies to support administrative functions, such as, accounting or legal services, but we will only do so after they have signed an agreement stating that they will abide by our privacy policy.
Required Uses and Disclosures for non-LipoScience Functions
LipoScience may also make the following disclosures without your consent or authorization:
- Disclosure required by law or legal enforcement – LipoScience will disclose PHI when a law requires that we report information to government agencies, or when ordered by a court.
- Health Activities – LipoScience is required to provide PHI to assist the government when it conducts an audit, investigation, or inspection of a healthcare provider or organization. Example: CLIA and FDA.
- Research – We may use or disclose your Protected Health Information for research projects, such as studying the effectiveness of a treatment you received, if an Institutional Review Board (IRB) approves a waiver of authorization for disclosure. These research projects must go through a special process that protects the confidentially of your PHI.
- Military and Government Purposes – LipoScience may disclose the PHI of military personnel or veterans as required by military command authorities or to the Department of Veteran Affairs. We may also disclose PHI to federal officials for intelligence and national security purposes.
Uses and Disclosures with your Authorization
LipoScience cannot use your PHI for anything other than the reasons mentioned above, without your written and signed authorization form. The authorization form is a written document signed by you giving us permission to use or disclose your PHI for the purposes you specifically set forth in the authorization.
Your Individual Rights
In most cases, you have the right to look at or get copies of your PHI. However, federal law, (specifically federal regulations governing laboratories) and certain state laws provide that LipoScience cannot report test results directly to a patient. You must make the written request for such PHI to your healthcare provider and they will forward this request to LipoScience. LipoScience will coordinate such disclosure with your healthcare provider by forwarding your PHI to your healthcare provider, who will in turn provide you with the information that was requested.
Changes to this Notice
We reserve the right to change this notice and to make the necessary provisions in our notice for all PHI we maintain. When changes are made we will publish a revised notice. This notice will be present on our website at www.liposcience.com.
Questions or Concerns
If you have questions or concerns, contact our privacy officer at:
LipoScience, Inc.
c/o Privacy Officer
2500 Sumner Blvd
Raleigh, NC 27616
Toll-Free Compliance Line: (877)-547-6837 ext 2213; or (919)-212-1999 ext 2213
Email: inquiries@liposcience.com