Privacy Policy

Advanced Care Pet Hospital
911 Scout Drive
Sartell, MN 56377
320.257.0911



We're not a 100% sure about how HIPPAA (Health Insurance Protection and Portability Act) Rules and medical information about your pet affects your human private medical information rights.

However in keeping with the intent of legislation as it develops and simply following good, kind and decent business procedures, we offer you the following:

Advanced Care Pet Hospital indeed takes your personal privacy seriously, especially as it relates to personal address and financial information. We take exceptional efforts to protect any credit card and financial information entrusted to us. We treat your personal information like we would want our personal information treated, safely, securely and free from fear of its abuse.

From time to time, if you allow us, we may send you special offers, marketing materials or contact you as it relates to the health and well being of your pets health.

We will on occassion transmit x-rays and ultrasound images to board certified specialists for consults as required or upon the request of the pets owner.

In the interest of providing an entertaining diversion for those of you who have made it this deep into our web site, here is where you can learn more about this dynamic piece of privacy legislation. (Don't forget to come back!)

http://www.hhs.gov/news/facts/privacy.html

THE PRIVACY OF YOUR MEDICAL INFORMATION IS IMPORTANT TO US!

The following information from the US Department of Health and Human Service web site is reproduced here for your educational enlightenment.

To date (August 2009) pet hospitals are not technically considered a "covered entity" unter the rules as they are limited to the healthcare of an "Individual."

However we are smart enough to know you are in fact an individual. And your pet is an expression of that individuality. Besides, it is your credit card after all being used on your pet's behalf for medical related services, so a connection sort of exists, right?

We're pretty sure they mean a Human individual under the context of transmitting medical information below. Regardless, we won't mess around with your information and we will keep it safe and secure to the standards of our industry.

PATIENT PROTECTIONS

The new privacy regulations ensure a national floor of privacy protections for patients by limiting the ways that health plans, pharmacies, hospitals and other covered entities can use patients' personal medical information. The regulations protect medical records and other individually identifiable health information, whether it is on paper, in computers or communicated orally. Key provisions of these new standards include:

• 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 at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa or by calling

             (866) 627-7748.
 

Name of Contact Person: Pamela Gerds, D.V.M.
Telephone: 320.257.0911
Address: 911 Scout Drive • Sartell, MN 56377

Saint Cloud MN Vet