Priority Partners is committed to respecting your privacy. The purpose of this information is to describe how your Protected Health Information (PHI) may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please review the Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) carefully.
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.
What is Protected Health Information (PHI)?
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.
Internal Protection of PHI
Priority Partners has put together internal policies and procedures that address how we protect oral (spoken), written, and electronic use of PHI. For your protection, Priority Partners always verifies the identities of both the member and the requestor before responding to a request for a member’s PHI.
Examples of such contact are:
- Questions about your treatment or payment activities
- Requests to look at, copy, or amend your Priority Partners Plan records
- Requests to obtain a list of Priority Partners Plan disclosures of your health information
Priority Partners secures and limits access to all hard copy and electronic files. All electronic data is password protected. Priority Partners limits workforce member access to all hard copy and electronic files. Internal controls are in place to ensure that only those workforce members with a “need to know” have access to information required to perform their specific job function. All workforce members are required to only utilize and/or access the “minimum necessary” information.
Use of Authorizations
Priority Partners must ask your permission to release your PHI to others, with some exceptions. Priority Partners is allowed 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 law 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. You can give this permission by filling out an authorizations form. These forms are listed below.
Authorization for Release of Health Information – Standing
This Authorization permits another person to access the plan member’s records and general information on an ongoing basis. Download the HIPAA Authorization for Release of Health Information – Standing request.
Authorization for Release of Health Information – Unique/One Time Request
This Authorization permits the plan member to receive copies of his or her own records, and permits the plan member to authorize another person to access his or her plan member record for a specific limited purpose as noted on the Authorization. Download the HIPAA Authorization for Release of Health Information – Unique/One Time request.
Authorizations can be mailed to:
PPMCO Compliance Department
Johns Hopkins Health Plans
7231 Parkway Drive, Suite 100
Hanover, MD 21076