Notice of Privacy Practices

THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.

As an essential part of our commitment to you, MEDIC 1 AMBULANCE; COMMUNITY EMERGENCY SERVICE, INC. maintains the privacy of certain confidential health care information about you, known as Protected Health Information or PHI. We are required by law to protect your health care information and to provide you with the our Notice of Privacy Practices

The Notice outlines our legal duties and privacy practices respect to your PHI. It not only describes our privacy practices and your legal rights, but lets you know, among other things, how MEDIC 1 AMBULANCE; COMMUNITY EMERGENCY SERVICE, INC. is permitted to use and disclose PHI about you, how you can access and copy that information, how you may request amendment of that information, and how you may request restrictions on our use and disclosure of your PHI.

MEDIC 1 AMBULANCE; COMMUNITY EMERGENCY SERVICE, INC. is also required to abide by the terms of the version of this Notice currently in effect. In most situations we may use this information as described in this Notice without your permission, but there are some situations where we may use it only after we obtain your written authorization, if we are required by law to do so.

We respect your privacy, and treat all health care information about our patients with care under strict policies of confidentiality that all of our staff are committed to following at all times.

Please read the attached detailed notice. If you have any questions about it, please contact Richard Pletz our privacy officer, at 269-925-2143.

Purpose of this Notice: MEDIC 1 AMBULANCE; COMMUNITY EMERGENCY SERVICE, INC. is required by law to maintain the privacy of certain confidential health care information, known as Protected Health Information or PHI, and to provide you with a notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your PHI. This Notice describes your legal rights, advises you of our privacy practices, and lets you know how MEDIC 1 AMBULANCE; COMMUNITY EMERGENCY SERVICE, INC. is permitted to use and disclose PHI about you.

Uses and Disclosures of PHI: MEDIC 1 AMBULANCE; COMMUNITY EMERGENCY SERVICE, INC. may use PHI for the purposes of treatment, payment, and health care operations, in most cases without your written permission. Examples of our use of your PHI:

For treatment. This includes such things as verbal and written information that we obtain about you and use pertaining to your medical condition and treatment provided to you by us and other medical personnel (including doctors and nurses who give orders to allow us to provide treatment to you). It also includes information we give to other health care personnel to whom we transfer your care and treatment, and includes transfer of PHI via radio or telephone to the hospital or dispatch center as well as providing the hospital with a copy of the written record we create in the course of providing you with treatment and transport.

For payment. This includes any activities we must undertake in order to get reimbursed for the services we provide to you, including such things as organizing your PHI and submitting bills to insurance companies (either directly or through a third party billing company), management of billed claims for services rendered, medical necessity determinations and reviews, utilization review, and collection of outstanding accounts.

For health care operations. This includes quality assurance activities, licensing, and training programs to ensure that our personnel meet our standards of care and follow established policies and procedures, obtaining legal and financial services, conducting business planning, processing grievances and complaints, creating reports that do not individually identify you for data collection purposes, fundraising, and certain marketing activities.

Fundraising. We may contact you when we are in the process of raising funds for MEDIC 1 AMBULANCE; COMMUNITY EMERGENCY SERVICE, INC. or to provide you with information about our annual subscription program.

Reminders for Scheduled Transports and Information on Other Services. We may also contact you to provide you with a reminder of any scheduled appointments for non-emergency ambulance and medical transportation, or for other information about alternative services we provide or other health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.

Use and Disclosure of PHI Without Your Authorization. MEDIC 1 AMBULANCE; COMMUNITY EMERGENCY SERVICE, INC. is permitted to use PHI without your written authorization, or opportunity to object in certain situations, including:

For MEDIC 1 AMBULANCE; COMMUNITY EMERGENCY SERVICE, INC. use in treating you or in obtaining payment for services provided to you or in other health care operations;
For the treatment activities of another health care provider;
To another health care provider or entity for the payment activities of the provider or entity that receives the information (such as your hospital or insurance company);
To another health care provider (such as the hospital to which you are transported) for the health care operations activities of the entity that receives the information as long as the entity receiving the information has or has had a relationship with you and the PHI pertains to that relationship;
For health care fraud and abuse detection or for activities related to compliance with the law;
To a family member, other relative, or close personal friend or other individual involved in your care if we obtain your verbal agreement to do so or if we give you an opportunity to object to such a disclosure and you do not raise an objection. We may also disclose health information to your family, relatives, or friends if we infer from the circumstances that you would not object. For example, we may assume you agree to our disclosure of your personal health information to your spouse when your spouse has called the ambulance for you. In situations where you are not capable of objecting (because you are not present or due to your incapacity or medical emergency), we may, in our professional judgment, determine that a disclosure to your family member, relative, or friend is in your best interest. In that situation, we will disclose only health information relevant to that person’s involvement in your care. For example, we may inform the person who accompanied you in the ambulance that you have certain symptoms and we may give that person an update on your vital signs and treatment that is being administered by our ambulance crew;
To a public health authority in certain situations (such as reporting a birth, death or disease as required by law, as part of a public health investigation, to report child or adult abuse or neglect or domestic violence, to report adverse events such as product defects, or to notify a person about exposure to a possible communicable disease as required by law;
For health oversight activities including audits or government investigations, inspections, disciplinary proceedings, and other administrative or judicial actions undertaken by the government (or their contractors) by law to oversee the health care system;
For judicial and administrative proceedings as required by a court or administrative order, or in some cases in response to a subpoena or other legal process;
For law enforcement activities in limited situations, such as when there is a warrant for the request, or when the information is needed to locate a suspect or stop a crime;
For military, national defense and security and other special government functions;
To avert a serious threat to the health and safety of a person or the public at large;
For workers’ compensation purposes, and in compliance with workers’ compensation laws;
To coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors for identifying a deceased person, determining cause of death, or carrying on their duties as authorized by law;
If you are an organ donor, we may release health information to organizations that handle organ procurement or organ, eye or tissue transplantation or to an organ donation bank, as necessary to facilitate organ donation and transplantation;
For research projects, but this will be subject to strict oversight and approvals and health information will be released only when there is a minimal risk to your privacy and adequate safeguards are in place in accordance with the law;
We may use or disclose health information about you in a way that does not personally identify you or reveal who you are.

Any other use or disclosure of PHI, other than those listed above will only be made with your written authorization, (the authorization must specifically identify the information we seek to use or disclose, as well as when and how we seek to use or disclose it). You may revoke your authorization at any time, in writing, except to the extent that we have already used or disclosed medical information in reliance on that authorization.

Patient Rights: As a patient, you have a number of rights with respect to the protection of your PHI, including:

The right to access, copy or inspect your PHI. This means you may come to our offices and inspect and copy most of the medical information about you that we maintain. We will normally provide you with access to this information within 30 days of your request. We may also charge you a reasonable fee for you to copy any medical information that you have the right to access. In limited circumstances, we may deny you access to your medical information, and you may appeal certain types of denials.

We have available forms to request access to your PHI and we will provide a written response if we deny you access and let you know your appeal rights. If you wish to inspect and copy your medical information, you should contact the privacy officer listed at the end of this Notice.

The right to amend your PHI. You have the right to ask us to amend written medical information that we may have about you. We will generally amend your information within 60 days of your request and will notify you when we have amended the information. We are permitted by law to deny your request to amend your medical information only in certain circumstances, like when we believe the information you have asked us to amend is incorrect. If you wish to request that we amend the medical information that we have about you, you should contact the privacy officer listed at the end of this Notice.

The right to request an accounting of our use and disclosure of your PHI. You may request an accounting from us of certain disclosures of your medical information that we have made in the last six years prior to the date of your request. We are not required to give you an accounting of information we have used or disclosed for purposes of treatment, payment or health care operations, or when we share your health information with our business associates, like our billing company or a medical facility from/to which we have transported you.

We are also not required to give you an accounting of our uses of protected health information for which you have already given us written authorization. If you wish to request an accounting of the medical information about you that we have used or disclosed that is not exempted from the accounting requirement, you should contact the privacy officer listed at the end of this Notice.

The right to request that we restrict the uses and disclosures of your PHI. You have the right to request that we restrict how we use and disclose your medical information that we have about you for treatment, payment or health care operations, or to restrict the information that is provided to family, friends and other individuals involved in your health care. But if you request a restriction and the information you asked us to restrict is needed to provide you with emergency treatment, then we may use the PHI or disclose the PHI to a health care provider to provide you with emergency treatment. MEDIC 1 AMBULANCE; COMMUNITY EMERGENCY SERVICE, INC. is not required to agree to any restrictions you request, but any restrictions agreed to by MEDIC 1 AMBULANCE; COMMUNITY EMERGENCY SERVICE, INC. are binding on MEDIC 1 AMBULANCE; COMMUNITY EMERGENCY SERVICE, INC.

Internet, Electronic Mail, and the Right to Obtain Copy of Paper Notice on Request. If we maintain a web site, we will prominently post a copy of this Notice on our web site and make the Notice available electronically through the web site. If you allow us, we will forward you this Notice by electronic mail instead of on paper and you may always request a paper copy of the Notice.

Revisions to the Notice: MEDIC 1 AMBULANCE; COMMUNITY EMERGENCY SERVICE, INC. reserves the right to change the terms of this Notice at any time, and the changes will be effective immediately and will apply to all protected health information that we maintain. Any material changes to the Notice will be promptly posted in our facilities and posted to our web site, if we maintain one. You can get a copy of the latest version of this Notice by contacting the Privacy Officer identified below.

Your Legal Rights and Complaints: You also have the right to complain to us, or to the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights have been violated. You will not be retaliated against in any way for filing a complaint with us or to the government. Should you have any questions, comments or complaints you may direct all inquiries to the privacy officer listed at the end of this Notice. Individuals will not be retaliated against for filing a complaint.

If you have any questions or if you wish to file a complaint or exercise any rights listed in this Notice, please contact:

Richard Pletz, Privacy Officer
Medic 1 Ambulance; Community Emergency Service, Inc.
635 East Napier
PO Box 1563
Benton Harbor, MI 49023
269-925-2143

Terms & Conditions

Please read the following terms and conditions with care before using this web site. By accessing or using our site, you consent to the following terms and conditions. We reserve the right to change this information at anytime and therefore, we recommend that you review this Agreement regularly.

Terms and Conditions

All pages within this Web site and any material made available for download (collectively the Site) are the property of Medic 1 Ambulance; Community Emergency Service, Inc. The content on the Site is provided for informational purposes only.

Medic 1 Ambulance; Community Emergency Service, Inc. hereby grants you a nonexclusive license to use the Site solely for your personal, non-commercial use and not to use the Site to obtain materials, data, or information for purposes of gaining a competitive advantage. As a condition of your use of this Site, you warrant to Medic 1 Ambulance; Community Emergency Service, Inc. that you will not use the Site for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms and Conditions. If you breach any of these Terms and Conditions, your authorization to use this Site automatically terminates and you must immediately destroy any downloaded or printed materials.

The contents of the Site, including the text, images, audio, and video, are copyrighted and may not be distributed, modified, reproduced, or used, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Medic 1 Ambulance; Community Emergency Service, Inc., except that you may download content from the Site to any single computer for your personal, non-commercial use only, provided you keep intact all copyright, trademark, and other proprietary notices and comply with any applicable end user license agreements. For purposes of these Terms and Conditions, any use of these materials on any other Web site or networked computer environment for any purpose is prohibited.

Persons viewing this site may not make copies of any of the materials on it for any purpose, with the sole exception of the automatic copies that your Web browser may make to a temporary cache on your computer’s hard drive for ordinary private viewing purposes.

Medic 1 Ambulance; Community Emergency Service, Inc. web site is intended to provide general educational information.

This site is not an attempt to practice medicine or provide specific medical advice, and should not be used to make a diagnosis or to replace or overrule a qualified health care provider’s judgment. Nor should users rely upon the Medic 1 Ambulance web site if they might need emergency medical treatment. We strongly encourage users to consult with a qualified health care professional for answers to personal questions.

You assume full responsibility for using the information on this site, and you understand and agree that Medic 1 Ambulance; Community Emergency Service, Inc. is not responsible or liable for any claim, loss, or damage resulting from its use by you or any user. While we try to keep the information on the site as accurate as possible, we disclaim any warranty concerning its accuracy, timeliness, and completeness, and any other warranty, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Medic 1 Ambulance; Community Emergency Service, Inc. also does not warrant that access to the site will be error- or virus-free.

Information provided within the members’ area is accurate and current to the best of our knowledge. Medic 1 employees are responsible for this information.

Any rights not expressly granted by these Terms and Conditions or any applicable end user license agreements are reserved by Medic 1 Ambulance; Community Emergency Service, Inc.

No Medical Advice

All health and health-related information contained within this Medic 1 Ambulance web site is intended to be general in nature and should not be used as a substitute for a visit with a health care professional. No information provided in this site may be considered medical advice. The information may not be relevant for your individual situation and may be misinterpreted. Medic 1 Ambulance assumes no responsibility for how you use information obtained from this site. Before making any decisions regarding your health care, ask your personal physician.

Limitation of Liability

Please note for the convenience of users, some pages contain links to web sites not managed by Medic 1 Ambulance. Medic 1 Ambulance does not review, control or take responsibility for the content of these web sites. Links from this web site to web sties not managed by Medic 1 Ambulance do not imply endorsement or credibility of the service, information, or product offered through the linked sites and Medic 1 Ambulance assumes no liability related to users use of linked sites. Similarly, if a third party provides a link to our web site, it does not necessarily reflect any official relationship with the third party.

Privacy Statement

Your privacy is important to us. You may browse out site without providing us with any private information. We will not obtain any information, unless you choose to submit it to us. Any information provided to us through any means will be kept confidential. Medic 1 Ambulance; Community Emergency Service, Inc. (Medic 1) will never give away, trade or sell the information we collect to a third-party. Action EMS may be called upon to provide information and/or files to law enforcement agencies for the express purpose of assisting in active criminal investigations.

Our web server collects and saves the default information customarily logged by world wide web server software. Our logs may contain the following information for each request: date and time, originating IP address, domain name, referring URL, object requested, and completion status of the request. We use this information to evaluate and improve our site. This information is securely saved on our server and is never sold, traded or given away in any way.

A log of all emails and pages send through our site along with IP addresses are saved on our server. This serves as a security feature and will be used as evidence in case of website abuse or harassment. This log is only reviewed upon request of an investigation in regards to harassment.