Priority Partners MCO

HIPAA is a federal law that deals with, among other things, the privacy of your health information. HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. It protects you against the misuse of your Protected Health Information, often called PHI, when the PHI is in the hands of a covered health care provider (doctor, hospital, laboratory, etc.) or health plan such as Priority Partners. PHI is individually identifiable health information about a person’s health, the treatment of his or her health condition, or billing or payment for a person’s health care services. PHI that is written on paper, contained in email, a fax or a computer, or spoken is protected by HIPAA.

Under HIPAA, Priority Partners must ask your permission to release your PHI to others, with some exceptions. HIPAA permits Priority Partners to share your PHI with others without your permission to carry out treatment, payment, or health care operations. This means that Priority Partners may share your individually identifiable health information with other people to provide you with medical treatment and related services, to bill and collect payment for treatment and services, or to run or evaluate its business practices. Priority Partners may also share your PHI without your permission when it is required by law to do so (for example, in response to a subpoena) or otherwise when it is allowed by HIPAA to do so. For other purposes, such as sharing your PHI with your attorney, your child’s school, or even your husband or wife, you must first give Priority Partners permission to share the information.

For more information on the manner in which Priority Partners may use your PHI, with or without your permission, please see our Notice of Privacy Practices, which can be found under the link marked Privacy at the top of this page. You will also find a link to the forms that gives Priority Partners permission to release your PHI to others.