Notice of Privacy Practices

Mercy Medical Transportation, Inc. is required by law to protect the privacy of your health information, to provide you with this Notice explaining our legal duties and privacy practices, and to follow the terms of the Notice currently in effect.

How we may use and share your health information

For treatment

We use and share your health information to provide you with emergency and non-emergency medical care. Our paramedics and EMTs document your condition and the care given, and share that information with the hospital, receiving facility, or other providers who treat you.

For payment

We use and share your health information to bill and receive payment for the transport and care we provide. This may include sharing information with your health plan, Medicare, Medi-Cal, or another payer to confirm coverage, obtain authorization, or collect payment.

For health care operations

We use and share your health information to run our organization and improve the care we deliver — for example, quality assessment and improvement review, training and evaluating our crews, licensing and accreditation, and general business management.

Other uses and disclosures permitted or required by law

We may use or share your health information without your authorization in the following circumstances, subject to the conditions and limits the law places on each:

• When required by federal, state, or local law.
• For public health activities, including reporting disease, injury, vital events, and reactions to medications or products.
• To report suspected abuse, neglect, or domestic violence.
• For health oversight activities such as audits, investigations, inspections, and licensure.
• In response to a court or administrative order, subpoena, warrant, or other lawful process.
• For law enforcement purposes, such as identifying or locating a suspect or reporting a crime.
• To coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors so they may carry out their duties.
• For organ, eye, and tissue donation purposes.
• For research, where an institutional review board has approved the use.
• To prevent a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of you or others.
• For workers’ compensation claims as authorized by law.
• For specialized government functions, including military and veterans activities, national security, and the custody of inmates by correctional institutions.

Uses that require your written authorization

Most uses and disclosures not described in this Notice require your written authorization — including any marketing use, any sale of your health information, and most sharing of psychotherapy notes. If you give us an authorization, you may revoke it in writing at any time. Revoking it stops any future use or sharing, but does not undo what we have already done in reliance on it.

Your rights regarding your health information

• Get a copy of your records. You may inspect and request a copy of the health information we hold about you, in paper or electronically. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee.
• Ask us to correct your records. You may ask us to amend information you believe is incorrect or incomplete. We may deny the request, and if we do, we will explain why in writing.
• Get a list of those we have shared it with. You may request an accounting of certain disclosures we made in the six years before your request.
• Ask us to limit what we use or share. You may request a restriction. We are not required to agree, except that we must agree to withhold information from your health plan for a service you paid for in full out of pocket.
• Choose how we contact you. You may ask us to contact you at a specific address or by a specific method, and we will accommodate reasonable requests.
• Get a paper copy of this Notice. You may request one at any time, even if you agreed to receive it electronically.
• Be notified of a breach. We will notify you if a breach compromises the privacy or security of your health information.
• Choose someone to act for you. A person with legal authority to make health care decisions for you, or your personal representative, may exercise these rights on your behalf.

Our responsibilities

We are required by law to maintain the privacy and security of your health information, to notify you promptly if a breach occurs that may have compromised it, and to follow the duties and privacy practices described in this Notice. We will not use or share your information other than as described here unless you tell us in writing that we may.

Changes to this Notice

We may change the terms of this Notice, and the changes will apply to all information we hold. The revised Notice will be posted on this page and a copy will be available on request.

Complaints

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with our Privacy Officer using the contact details below. You may also file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, at 200 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, D.C. 20201, by calling 1-877-696-6775, or at hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.

How to reach us about your privacy

To exercise any of the rights above, request a paper copy of this Notice, or raise a privacy concern, contact us and ask for our Privacy Officer:

Office addresses and phone numbers for each region are listed on our Contact page. For copies of medical records or billing documentation, our Billing / Records contacts are the fastest route — see Payments & Billing.