Notice of Privacy Practices
Dermatology House Calls LLC · Skin care that comes to you
Our Commitment to Your Privacy
Dermatology House Calls LLC (“Dermatology House Calls,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is required by law to protect the privacy of your health information, to give you this Notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, and to follow the terms of the Notice that is currently in effect.
We bring dermatology care to you: in your home, in your senior living or residential community, and at our office in Anderson, South Carolina. We serve patients across the Upstate of South Carolina, and we provide clinical services only to patients who are physically located in South Carolina, where our providers are licensed.
“Protected health information” (“PHI”) is information about you, including demographic information, that may identify you and that relates to your past, present, or future physical or mental health condition, the health care you receive, or payment for that care.
Who This Notice Covers
This Notice applies to Dermatology House Calls LLC and to everyone who furnishes services on our behalf, including our employees, our contracted front office and administrative staff, our nurse practitioners and other clinical providers, and the physician or physicians who supervise our clinical care. All of them are required to follow this Notice and our privacy policies, and they may share your PHI with one another as needed for your treatment, payment, and our health care operations.
How We May Use and Disclose Your Health Information
The following describes the ways we may use and disclose your PHI. Not every use or disclosure is listed, but all permitted uses and disclosures fall within one of these categories.
Treatment, Payment, and Health Care Operations
- Treatment. We use and disclose your PHI to provide, coordinate, and manage your dermatologic care, including skin exams, biopsies, diagnosis, treatment plans, procedures, and follow-up care. For example, a provider visiting you at home or in a senior living community may review your medical history, medications, and images of your skin. We share information with others involved in your care, such as your primary care provider, referring providers, the pharmacies where we send your prescriptions, and the pathology and laboratory groups that analyze your biopsies and wound cultures.
- Payment. We use and disclose your PHI to obtain payment for the services we provide. For example, we may share information with Medicare, Medicaid, or your health plan to verify eligibility, obtain prior authorization, or submit a claim. Your biopsies and wound cultures are analyzed by independent pathology and laboratory groups that may bill you directly, so you may receive a separate bill from them.
- Health Care Operations. We use and disclose your PHI to run our practice and improve care, for example quality assessment and quality reporting to Medicare and to registries, provider credentialing, auditing, compliance, and care coordination. We may also use PHI to train our staff and to train students, trainees, or observers who take part in your care under supervision. You may ask that a student or observer not take part in your visit.
Referrals and Care Coordination
We receive referrals from many sources, including primary care providers, specialists, dermatologists, wound care nurses, facility nurses, home health agencies, and other providers. So that your care stays coordinated, we send our visit notes, orders, and results, including the biopsy and culture results we receive back from outside pathology and laboratory groups, to your referring and primary care providers. We also review and sign home health orders and certifications when appropriate.
Care in Homes and Senior Living Communities
We arrange care patient by patient, with each patient’s signed consent. Senior living and residential communities may share your health information with us under those consents, and we may fax clinical orders and updates to a facility’s care team so they can carry out your in-facility care. Only our own workforce documents in our medical record. Because we deliver care in homes and communities, our providers and staff may see or hear information in those settings, and facility staff may help coordinate your visit. We take reasonable steps to protect your information and ask for a private space during your visit.
Appointment Reminders and Health-Related Communications
We may contact you by phone, voicemail, text message, email, physical mail, or through our patient portal to remind you of appointments, to schedule visits, to share test results, after-visit summaries, and care instructions, and to tell you about treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may interest you. We limit the information in these messages to the minimum necessary, and we will honor reasonable requests to communicate with you confidentially, for example by contacting only a specific number or by limiting the detail we leave in a message.
Individuals Involved in Your Care
We may share PHI with a family member, friend, caregiver, or other person involved in your care or payment for your care when that person is your personal representative or power of attorney, when you have given written permission, or as otherwise permitted by law. In an emergency, or if you are not present or able to agree, we may use professional judgment to share information in your best interest, for example with a caregiver present during a visit.
Minors and Personal Representatives
If you are the parent or legal guardian of a minor patient, or the legal personal representative of a patient, you may generally exercise that patient’s rights and make choices about their PHI to the extent permitted by South Carolina and federal law. In limited circumstances defined by law, we may decline to treat someone as a personal representative, for example if we reasonably believe doing so could endanger the patient.
Photographs and Clinical Images
Dermatologic care often requires photographs of your skin. Images may be taken by our providers during a visit or uploaded by you. We store clinical images only within our secure electronic health record, and we use and disclose them for treatment, documentation, payment, and operations. We will not use images that identify you for education, training, before-and-after examples, or marketing without your separate written authorization.
Health Information Exchange
We may participate in a health information exchange through our electronic health record that lets us share your PHI electronically with other providers and organizations involved in your treatment, payment, or health care operations. Participation helps coordinate your care. Where required, you may have the right to opt out of the exchange. Contact our Privacy Officer for information.
Uses and Disclosures Permitted or Required by Law Without Your Authorization
We may use or disclose your PHI without your authorization in the following circumstances, subject to the requirements and limits of federal and South Carolina law:
- As required by law. When federal, state, or local law requires the use or disclosure.
- Public health activities. To public health authorities to prevent or control disease, injury, or disability, and for reporting reactions to medications or product recalls.
- Victims of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence. To appropriate authorities as permitted or required by law, including reporting that involves vulnerable adults.
- Health oversight activities. To oversight agencies for audits, investigations, inspections, and licensure.
- Judicial and administrative proceedings. In response to a court order, subpoena, or other lawful process, consistent with applicable law.
- Law enforcement. For purposes such as responding to a valid legal process or identifying a suspect, victim, or missing person, as permitted by law.
- Coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors. To allow them to carry out their duties.
- Organ and tissue donation. To organizations that handle procurement or transplantation, where applicable.
- Research. In limited circumstances with appropriate approvals and privacy protections.
- To avert a serious threat to health or safety. To prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to you or the public.
- Specialized government functions. For military, national security, or protective services as authorized by law.
- Workers’ compensation. As authorized by and to the extent necessary to comply with workers’ compensation laws.
- Business associates. We disclose PHI to vendors that perform services for us under written Business Associate Agreements that require them to protect your information. Our electronic health record, patient portal, secure messaging, e-prescribing, billing, and patient communications run through athenahealth. Our website intake and referral forms are handled in our Google Workspace environment. We also use a third-party service to handle after-hours voicemail messages.
Uses and Disclosures That Require Your Written Authorization
Other uses and disclosures not described in this Notice will be made only with your written authorization. In particular, the following require your written authorization:
- Marketing. Most uses or disclosures of PHI for marketing purposes. We do not use your PHI to target advertising to you.
- Sale of PHI. Any disclosure that would be a sale of PHI. We do not sell your PHI.
- Identifiable photographs. Use of images that identify you for education, training, before-and-after examples, or marketing.
- Psychotherapy notes. Most uses or disclosures of psychotherapy notes, if any are ever created.
You may revoke your authorization in writing at any time, except to the extent we have already relied on it. We will honor your revocation going forward.
Your Rights Regarding Your Health Information
You have the following rights with respect to your PHI. To exercise any of these rights, please submit your request in writing to our Privacy Officer using the contact information below. We will verify your identity before acting on your request, and we will respond within the timeframes required by law.
- Right to request restrictions. You may ask us to limit how we use or disclose your PHI for treatment, payment, or health care operations, or to persons involved in your care. We are not required to agree to every request, but if you pay for a service or item in full, out of pocket, you may ask us not to disclose the related PHI to your health plan, and we will honor that request unless disclosure is otherwise required by law.
- Right to confidential communications. You may ask us to communicate with you in a certain way or at a certain location, for example by contacting you only at a specific phone number or address, or by limiting the information we leave in messages. We will accommodate reasonable requests.
- Right to inspect and copy. You have the right to inspect and obtain a copy of the PHI we maintain about you, including an electronic copy of information kept electronically. We will respond within 30 days, with one 30-day extension if needed. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee within the limits set by South Carolina law.
- Right to amend. If you believe PHI we have about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask us to amend it. We may deny your request in certain cases and will explain the reason and your rights in writing.
- Right to an accounting of disclosures. You may request a list of certain disclosures we made of your PHI, as required by law.
- Right to a paper copy of this Notice. You may request a paper copy at any time, even if you agreed to receive it electronically.
- Right to be notified of a breach. You have the right to be notified if there is a breach of your unsecured PHI.
- Right to revoke an authorization. Where a use or disclosure requires your authorization, you may revoke it in writing as described above.
Our Legal Duties
We are required by law to maintain the privacy and security of your PHI; provide you with this Notice of our legal duties and privacy practices; follow the terms of the Notice currently in effect; and notify you if a breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your PHI.
Where South Carolina law provides greater privacy protection than federal law, we follow the more protective law. This Notice replaces any earlier Notice of Privacy Practices we may have provided.
How We Protect and Retain Your Records
Your records are kept within our secure, HIPAA-compliant electronic health record. We retain medical records at least as long as South Carolina law requires, generally at least ten years after the last date of treatment for adults and at least thirteen years after the last date of treatment for minors, and often longer. When records are destroyed, we shred paper securely and sanitize electronic devices in accordance with industry standards.
Changes to This Notice
We reserve the right to change this Notice and to make the revised Notice effective for all PHI we maintain, including information created or received before the change. When we make a material change, we will post the revised Notice on our website at https://dermcalls.com and make paper copies available at our practice and upon request. The Notice will show its effective date.
How to File a Complaint
If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with us or with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. You will not be penalized or retaliated against for filing a complaint.
To file with us, contact our Privacy Officer using the information below.
To file with the federal government, contact the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20201; call 1-877-696-6775; or visit http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints.
For More Information or to Exercise Your Rights
If you have questions about this Notice, or wish to exercise any of your rights, please contact our Privacy Officer:
| Privacy & Security Officer | David Fant, Practice Manager |
| Practice | Dermatology House Calls LLC |
| Mailing address | 821 N. Main St. STE 12, Anderson, SC 29621 |
| Phone | 864-365-6405 |
| Secure fax | (833) 471-5951 |
| Email (privacy requests) | Support@DermCalls.com |
| General email | Hello@DermCalls.com |
| Website | https://dermcalls.com |
This Notice is also available in paper form upon request.