Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Privacy Laws
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy rule provides federal protections for personal health information held by covered entities and gives patients an array of rights with respect to that information. At the same time, the privacy rule is balanced so that it permits the disclosure of personal health information (PHI) needed for patient care and other important purposes.
Hale County Meals on Wheels is a DADS contract provider. DADS contract providers (“covered entities”) are mandated to follow the HIPAA and privacy laws, as well as state legislation, requiring covered entities to:
- Ensure the security and safeguard of protected health information (PHI) and sensitive personal information (SPI).
- Provide HIPAA and privacy training to employees, contract employees and volunteers.
- Require an employee, contract employee, volunteer or manager to report a potential violation incident to the covered entity’s management.
- Require the covered entity to assess the validity of an incident, and provide notification if required.
- Report HIPAA violations and findings to the federal secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Security
Hale County Meals on Wheels takes security seriously and employs reasonable security measures and procedures designed to protect your information from unauthorized access and improper use. Only employees have access to personal information, and are bound to protect the information appro-priately. Hale County Meals on Wheels servers that store personal information are maintained in a physical environment that utilizes industry-standard security measures. Personal information is stored in password-controlled servers with limited access. Be aware though that, despite our diligent efforts and implementation of reasonable security measures, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable and no data transmissions over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.
Additional limitations
Despite our best efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. In this regard, we are not responsible for events or conditions beyond our reasonable control to the extent that they relate to or impact the obligations assumed, or commitments made hereunder. However, in the event of any data breach or other violation of this Privacy Policy caused by factors outside of our reasonable control, we will comply with all applicable laws in this regard, including those requiring notification in the event of certain defined data breaches.
Contact Information
If you have any questions, suggestions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:
Hale County Meals on Wheels, Inc.
1402 Borger St.
Plainview TX 79072
ashley.plainviewmow@gmail.com
Phone: 806-292-9020