Privacy Policy Accurate MD Online Doctor Consultation Services
Accurate Md requests that you read its privacy policy carefully. We respect your privacy and have taken strong steps to protect your privacy and security of your information.
Accurate Md is not a medical organization or medical provider. It is a customer service company that operates a website which collects customer information, schedules doctor consultations and processes documents for follow-up treatment and prescribed medications. Accurate Md does not dispense medical advice or prescriptions. All medical advise or prescriptions offered are by independent doctors and pharmacies, which may have their own policies regarding your personal information. Each independent doctor, entity and pharmacy is responsible for their own privacy policy, which is in compliance with state and federal law pertaining to personal information. Our doctors prescribe to our privacy policy.
All personal information collected by Accurate Md is not shared with third parties unless your permission is given prior or if it is required by state or federal law. Your consulting doctor and pharmacy will have access to this information. Your personal information is used to manage your account and your medical information is covered under HIPPA regulations. On our site you may visit third party vendors selling various services and products. We do not have control over third party vendors and any information given to them. We associate with reputable companies and each has their own privacy policies, which may be different than Accurate Md's.
We are an online service company and most communication with our customers is via the Internet. When registering with Accurate Md we requested your email address as a means of communication with you. We use this email address to send you confirmations of your registration, requests for records and/or information, doctor appointment confirmations, medication tracking numbers, consultation follow-up alerts, new health products, monthly news updates and special offerings from Accurate Md. We will not share this email address with any third party. At anytime you wish to not get emails from Accurate Md please contact patientsupport@accuratemd.com and inform us of your intent to opt out. If you have registered with Accurate Md and want your registration deleted please contact patientsupport@accuratemd.com. In normal course of contact with you we may receive an email from you from a different email address source. We may return your answer using this email address. If you have visited our site and requested additional information we will add your email address to our normal email mailings. If you want to opt out of these mailings please contact patientsupport@accuratemd.com.
Accurate MD, Inc. complies with the United States Department of Health and Human Services Patient Protections. To view the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), click here.
PATIENT PROTECTIONS
Access To Medical Records. Patients generally should be able to see and obtain copies of their medical records and request corrections if they identify errors and mistakes. Health plans, doctors, hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and other covered entities generally should provide access these records within 30 days and may charge patients for the cost of copying and sending the records.
Notice of Privacy Practices. Covered health plans, doctors and other health care providers must provide a notice to their patients how they may use personal medical information and their rights under the new privacy regulation. Doctors, hospitals and other direct-care providers generally will provide the notice on the patient's first visit following the April 14, 2003, compliance date and upon request. Patients generally will be asked to sign, initial or otherwise acknowledge that they received this notice. Health plans generally must mail the notice to their enrollees by April 14 and again if the notice changes significantly. Patients also may ask covered entities to restrict the use or disclosure of their information beyond the practices included in the notice, but the covered entities would not have to agree to the changes.
Limits on Use of Personal Medical Information. The privacy rule sets limits on how health plans and covered providers may use individually identifiable health information. To promote the best quality care for patients, the rule does not restrict the ability of doctors, nurses and other providers to share information needed to treat their patients. In other situations, though, personal health information generally may not be used for purposes not related to health care, and covered entities may use or share only the minimum amount of protected information needed for a particular purpose. In addition, patients would have to sign a specific authorization before a covered entity could release their medical information to a life insurer, a bank, a marketing firm or another outside business for purposes not related to their health care.
Prohibition on Marketing. The final privacy rule sets new restrictions and limits on the use of patient information for marketing purposes. Pharmacies, health plans and other covered entities must first obtain an individual's specific authorization before disclosing their patient information for marketing. At the same time, the rule permits doctors and other covered entities to communicate freely with patients about treatment options and other health-related information, including disease-management programs.
Stronger State Laws. The new federal privacy standards do not affect state laws that provide additional privacy protections for patients. The confidentiality protections are cumulative; the privacy rule will set a national "floor" of privacy standards that protect all Americans, and any state law providing additional protections would continue to apply. When a state law requires a certain disclosure -- such as reporting an infectious disease outbreak to the public health authorities -- the federal privacy regulations would not preempt the state law.
Confidential communications. Under the privacy rule, patients can request that their doctors, health plans and other covered entities take reasonable steps to ensure that their communications with the patient are confidential. For example, a patient could ask a doctor to call his or her office rather than home, and the doctor's office should comply with that request if it can be reasonably accommodated.
Complaints. Consumers may file a formal complaint regarding the privacy practices of a covered health plan or provider. Such complaints can be made directly to the covered provider or health plan or to HHS' Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which is charged with investigating complaints and enforcing the privacy regulation. Information about filing complaints should be included in each covered entity's notice of privacy practices. Consumers can find out more information about filing a complaint at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa or by calling (866) 627-7748.
HEALTH PLANS AND PROVIDERS
The privacy rule requires health plans, pharmacies, doctors and other covered entities to establish policies and procedures to protect the confidentiality of protected health information about their patients. These requirements are flexible and scalable to allow different covered entities to implement them as appropriate for their businesses or practices. Covered entities must provide all the protections for patients cited above, such as providing a notice of their privacy practices and limiting the use and disclosure of information as required under the rule. In addition, covered entities must take some additional steps to protect patient privacy:
Written Privacy Procedures. The rule requires covered entities to have written privacy procedures, including a description of staff that has access to protected information, how it will be used and when it may be disclosed. Covered entities generally must take steps to ensure that any business associates who have access to protected information agree to the same limitations on the use and disclosure of that information.
Employee Training and Privacy Officer. Covered entities must train their employees in their privacy procedures and must designate an individual to be responsible for ensuring the procedures are followed. If covered entities learn an employee failed to follow these procedures, they must take appropriate disciplinary action.
Public Responsibilities. In limited circumstances, the final rule permits -- but does not require --covered entities to continue certain existing disclosures of health information for specific public responsibilities. These permitted disclosures include: emergency circumstances; identification of the body of a deceased person, or the cause of death; public health needs; research that involves limited data or has been independently approved by an Institutional Review Board or privacy board; oversight of the health care system; judicial and administrative proceedings; limited law enforcement activities; and activities related to national defense and security. The privacy rule generally establishes new safeguards and limits on these disclosures. Where no other law requires disclosures in these situations, covered entities may continue to use their professional judgment to decide whether to make such disclosures based on their own policies and ethical principles.
Equivalent Requirements For Government. The provisions of the final rule generally apply equally to private sector and public sector covered entities. For example, private hospitals and government-run hospitals covered by the rule have to comply with the full range of requirements.
OUTREACH AND ENFORCEMENT
HHS' Office for Civil Rights (OCR) oversees and enforces the new federal privacy regulations. Led by OCR, HHS has issued extensive guidance and technical assistance materials to make it as easy as possible for covered entities to comply with the new requirements. Key elements of OCR's outreach and enforcement efforts include:
Guidance and technical assistance materials. HHS has issued extensive guidance and technical materials to explain the privacy rule, including an extensive, searchable collection of frequently asked questions that address major aspects of the rule. HHS will continue to expand and update these materials to further assist covered entities in complying. These materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/assist.html.
Conferences and seminars. HHS has participated in hundreds of conferences, trade association meetings and conference calls to explain and clarify the provisions of the privacy regulation. These included a series of regional conferences sponsored by HHS, as well as many held by professional associations and trade groups. HHS will continue these outreach efforts to encourage compliance with the privacy requirements.
Complaint investigations. Enforcement will be primarily complaint-driven. OCR will investigate complaints and work to make sure that consumers receive the privacy rights and protections required under the new regulations. When appropriate, OCR can impose civil monetary penalties for violations of the privacy rule provisions. Potential criminal violations of the law would be referred to the U.S. Department of Justice for further investigation and appropriate action.
Civil and Criminal Penalties. Congress provided civil and criminal penalties for covered entities that misuse personal health information. For civil violations of the standards, OCR may impose monetary penalties up to $100 per violation, up to $25,000 per year, for each requirement or prohibition violated. Criminal penalties apply for certain actions such as knowingly obtaining protected health information in violation of the law. Criminal penalties can range up to $50,000 and one year in prison for certain offenses; up to $100,000 and up to five years in prison if the offenses are committed under "false pretenses"; and up to $250,000 and up to 10 years in prison if the offenses are committed with the intent to sell, transfer or use protected health information for commercial advantage, personal gain or malicious harm.
Accurate MD Online Doctor Consultations For Pharmacy Prescriptions
Accurate MD a KHTMD, LLC Company, Redondo Beach California 90277
Accurate MD operates as an appointment service for independently contracted U.S. Licensed Physicians. All product names on this site are trademarks of their respective owners and are not owned by or affiliated with Accurate MD, its associates or staff.
