Privacy policy

Your rights

Get an electronic or paper copy of your medical record

• You can ask to see or get an electronic or paper copy of your medical record and other health information we have about you. Ask us how to do this.
• We will provide a copy or a summary of your health information, usually within 30 days of your request. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee.

Ask us to correct your medical record

• You can ask us to correct health information about you that you think is incorrect or incomplete. Ask us how to do this.
• We may say “no” to your request, but we’ll tell you why in writing within 60 days.

Request confidential communications

• You can ask us to contact you in a specific way (for example, home or office phone) or to send mail to a different address.
• We will say “yes” to all reasonable requests.

Ask us to limit what we use or share

• You can ask us not to use or share certain health information for treatment, payment, or our operations.
• We are not required to agree to your request, and we may say “no” if it would affect your care.
• If you pay for a service or health care item out-of-pocket in full, you can ask us not to share that information for the purpose of payment or our operations with your health insurer.
• We will say “yes” unless a law requires us to share that information.
• You can ask for a list (accounting) of the times we’ve shared your health information for six years prior to the date you ask, who we shared it with, and why.
• We will include all the disclosures except for those about treatment, payment, and healthcare operations, and certain other disclosures (such as any you asked us to make). We’ll provide one accounting a year for free but will charge a reasonable, cost-based fee if you ask for another one within 12 months.

Get a copy of this privacy notice

• You can ask for a paper copy of this notice at any time, even if you have agreed to receive the notice electronically. We will provide you with a paper copy promptly.

Choose someone to act for you

• If you have given someone medical power of attorney or if someone is your legal guardian, that person can exercise your rights and make choices about your health information. We will make sure the person has this authority and can act for you before we take any action.

File a complaint if you feel your rights are violated

• You can complain if you feel we have violated your rights by contacting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights by sending a letter to 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201, calling 877-696-6775, or visiting www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/.

• We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.

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Your choices

For certain health information, you can tell us your choices about what we share. If you have a clear preference for how we share your information in the situations described below, talk to us. Tell us what you want us to do, and we will follow your instructions.

In these cases, you have both the right and choice to tell us to:

• Share information with your family, close friends, or others involved in your care
• Share information in a disaster relief situation
• Include your information in a hospital directory
• If you are not able to tell us your preference, for example if you are unconscious, we may go ahead and share your information if we believe it is in your best interest. We may also share your information when needed to lessen a serious and imminent threat to health or safety.

In these cases we never share your information unless you give us written permission:

• Marketing purposes
• Sale of your information
• Most sharing of psychotherapy notes

In the case of fundraising:

• We may contact you for fundraising efforts, but you can tell us not to contact you again.

Our uses and disclosures

How do we typically use or share your health information?

We typically use or share your health information in the following ways.

Treat you: We can use your health information and share it with other professionals who are treating you.
Example: A doctor treating you for an injury asks another doctor about your overall health condition.

Run our organization: We can use and share your health information to run our practice, improve your care, and contact
you when necessary. Example: We use health information about you to manage your treatment and services.

Bill for your services: We can use and share your health information to bill and get payment from health plans or other entities. Example: We give information about you to your health insurance plan so it will pay for your services.

How else can we use or share your health information?

We are allowed or required to share your information in other ways – usually in ways that contribute to the public good, such as public health and research. We have to meet many conditions in the law before we can share your information for these purposes. For more information see: www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/consumers/index.html.

Help with public health and safety issues:

We can share health information about you for certain situations such as:

• Preventing disease
• Helping with product recalls
• Reporting adverse reactions to medications
• Reporting suspected abuse, neglect, or domestic violence
• Preventing or reducing a serious threat to anyone’s health or safety

Do research

• We can use or share your information for health research.

Comply with the law

• We will share information about you if state or federal laws require it, including with the Department of Health and Human Services if it wants to see that we’re complying with federal privacy law.

Respond to organ and tissue donation requests

• We can share health information about you with organ procurement organizations.

Work with a medical examiner or funeral director

• We can share health information with a coroner, medical examiner, or funeral director when an individual dies.

Address workers’ compensation, law enforcement, and other government requests

We can use or share health information about you:

• For workers’ compensation claims
• For law enforcement purposes or with a law enforcement official
• With health oversight agencies for activities authorized by law
• For special government functions such as military, national security, and presidential protective services

Respond to lawsuits and legal actions

• We can share health information about you in response to a court or administrative order, or in response to a subpoena.

HIPAA compliance contacts

CrescentCare provides special protections for the confidentiality of all mental health, substance abuse and HIV information in patients’ records. You can ask us about how we do that, and we can provide a copy of our procedures.

CrescentCare’s Privacy Officer is Roxanne Hadnott-Songy. She may be reached at roxanne.hadnott-songy@crescentcare.org and 504-821-2601.

CrescentCare’s Compliance Officer is Alice Riener. She may be reached at alice.riener@crescentcare.org and 504-821-2601.

You can contact the Louisiana Legislative Auditor HOTLINE if you suspect theft, fraud, waste, or abuse of public funds by anyone.

Contact the LLA HOTLINE:
Toll-free: 844-503-7283
Fax: 1-844-844-403-7283
Online: ReportFraud.LA
US Mail: LLA Hotline, P.O. Box 94397, Baton Rouge, LA 70804

We are required by law to maintain the privacy and security of your protected health information.

We will let you know promptly if a breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your information.

We must follow the duties and privacy practices described in this notice and give you a copy of it.

We will not use or share your information other than as described here unless you tell us we can in writing. If you tell us we can, you may change your mind at any time. Let us know in writing if you change your mind.

For more information: go to www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/consumers/noticepp.html.

Changes to the terms of this notice

We can change the terms of this notice, and the changes will apply to all information we have about you. The new notice will be available upon request, in our office, and on our web site.

This Notice of Privacy Practices applies to services provided by staff at any of CrescentCare’s programs or sites. Our administrative offices can be reached at 1631 Elysian Fields Ave.,  New Orleans, LA 70117, or 504-821-2601.

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Privacy policy – website

1. Collection of information

Certain applications on this Web site may require users to register or to provide personal information in order to make a commerce transaction, or to subscribe to a newsletter. Such personal information is not shared or sold to third parties. To better understand the needs of our Web site users, we may also request demographic information. Entry of such information is optional and if you choose not to enter such information, you may still successfully use these applications. If we request demographic information, we will not share information about you as an individual with any other entity. If we do share demographic information with third parties, we will give them aggregate information only.

2. Mailing lists

If you provide your e-mail address, NO/AIDS TASK FORCE DBA CRESCENTCARE may periodically contact you with special offers, updated information, and new services. Any e-mails sent to you by NO/AIDS TASK FORCE DBA CRESCENTCARE offer you the option to be removed from the e-mail mailing list.

Selected applications on our web site allow visitors to subscribe to our newsletter by providing their names and addresses to NO/AIDS TASK FORCE DBA CRESCENTCARE. If you provide NO/AIDS TASK FORCE DBA CRESCENTCARE with your mailing address or telephone number, NO/AIDS TASK FORCE DBA CRESCENTCARE, in addition to providing you with our electronic newsletter, may also use this information to alert you to updated information and new services. If you wish to be removed from the mailing list, you may do so by contacting NO/AIDS TASK FORCE DBA CRESCENTCARE directly. (See the ‘Contact Us’ section).

3. Right to opt out

You have the right to “opt-out” of certain of our uses of your personal information. For example, at the time you are requested to provide personal information on this Web Site and/or through our Services, you may have the opportunity to elect to, or not to receive promotional correspondence from NO/AIDS TASK FORCE DBA CRESCENTCARE. You may make this request by contacting NO/AIDS TASK FORCE DBA CRESCENTCARE directly. (See the ‘Contact Us’ section). In this e-mail please identify the Web site or Service you are referring to (or all of them) and say whether (i) you would like to opt-out of receiving promotional correspondence (including, for example, e-mail offers) in general, or just via e-mail, postal mail, short message service, instant messaging and/or by phone, and/or (ii) you would like to opt-out of certain of NO/AIDS TASK FORCE DBA CRESCENTCARE’s e-newsletters or correspondence, and if so which ones.You may also opt-out of NO/AIDS TASK FORCE DBA CRESCENTCARE’s e-mails by clicking on an opt-out link within the promotional correspondence you receive, sending an email to info@noaidstf.org or opt-out of NO/AIDS TASK FORCE DBA CRESCENTCARE’s promotional email or SMS correspondence or Premium SMS Services by texting “STOP” to the shortcode provided on the Web Site for the particular Service. Please understand that if you opt-out of receiving promotional e-mails or SMS from NO/AIDS TASK FORCE DBA CRESCENTCARE, we may still contact you by e-mail or SMS in connection with your account with us or to provide you with important information about NO/AIDS TASK FORCE DBA CRESCENTCARE or this Web Site or the Services.

4. Financial information

NO/AIDS TASK FORCE DBA CRESCENTCARE will protect any personal financial information that you share with us. If you make a purchase on www.crescentcare.org, we will use your credit card number only to process your payment and will not use it for marketing purposes. For reasons of security, credit card information is not stored on our Web server. We will retain order information for our records, but this information is never shared with third parties.

5. Links

Our site includes links to other Web sites. We do not control the privacy policies of the destination sites. Once you leave our servers (you can check where you are by checking the URL in the location bar on your browser), use of any information you provide is governed by the privacy policy of the operator of the site you are visiting. That policy may differ from ours. If you can’t find the privacy policy of any of these sites via a link from the site’s homepage, you should contact the manager of that site for more information. NO/AIDS TASK FORCE DBA CRESCENTCARE is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of Web sites other than our own, noaidstaskforce.org and www.crescentcare.org.

6. Children

We do not solicit personal information from children.