Your Privacy is Important to Us!
Notice of Privacy Practices
Leisure Care is dedicated to maintaining the privacy of your protected information. This includes all individually identifiable information created, received, or maintained by us, or on our behalf, including but not limited to you personal contact information (phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, etc), condition, plans of care, payment information, or other information we may collect in association with the services we provide. Leisure Care is a non-medical home care organization that does not track or maintain standard medical records. This privacy policy is available on our website at www.lchomecare.com, and also provided in our employee handbook and in our client intake paperwork.
Collection of Information
We collect personal information directly from our clients and staff, or representatives of clients or staff. We are required by law to maintain the privacy and security of your protected information. Our policy related to your personal information can be summarized in the following way: We will not use or share your information other than as described here unless required by law, or explicitly authorized by you or your designated representative(s).
We collect cellphone information in client contracts and intake forms and employment enrollment forms. In other words, we collect your phone information when you provide it to us at patient intake or at the time you complete your employment enrollment forms. Of course you already know that because you fill out the forms yourself, but for some reason our 3rd party phone/text provider requires us to tell you when and where you gave us this information.
We are telling you this because we occasionally communicate via text with staff and clients when that is the preferred method of communication for that person(s). We do not send mass, unsolicited text messages, but the law requires us to provide you with a privacy policy as though we do. We agree that this makes no sense, so please bear with us as we provide you with a lengthy policy that really doesn’t apply to anything we do. Our 3rd party provider also prefers that we use their language in telling you we will not sell your information, so we will provide that as well: SMS text messaging opt-in is never shared with or sold to any third parties.
Scope/Policy
Because our third party provider requires an abundance of redundancy, we will try to say all of this in another way. This privacy policy includes your health/care information and your personal information, including address(es), phone numbers, email addresses, etc. Your personal information is never shared with any 3rd parties unless you have directly authorized us to share that information. Typically, the only time we may request to share information is with your 3rd party long term care insurance provider. Of course the law prevents us from sharing this information without your permission, but our provider won’t authorize us to send you a text message without first telling you that we will respect your privacy. Bureaucracy at its finest. We believe this is really lawyers writing policy so other lawyers can get paid more money to write these unnecessarily-complicated policies.
In case of emergency: In an emergency situation where you are unable to communicate your preferences directly, Leisure Care may share your information if we believe it is necessary to address a serious and imminent threat to health or safety.
Please note, Leisure Care MAY share your health information with other professionals who are treating you. For example, we may communicate directly with your primary care physician, physical therapist, or insurance provider(s). We can use and share your health information to run our practice, improve your care, and contact you when necessary.
We may also share your information when required by law (typically data collection related to public health). We will share information about you if state or federal laws require it, including with the Department of Health and Human Services. Leisure Care MAY also share your personal information to address workers' compensation, law enforcement, and other government requests, or to respond to a lawsuit or other legal actions.
SMS (Text) Messaging Policy elaborated
By providing cellphone information you consent to receive text messages from Leisure Care and its affiliates. You can opt-out of receiving text messages by responding to any of our text messages with any of the following replies: STOP, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, or QUIT. For additional opt-out information, please contact our office at 949-363-7401 or at info@lchomecare.com.
Retaliation Policy
We will not retaliate against you for submitting an internal complaint, or for exercising your other rights as described in this Notice or under applicable law.
Complaints
If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights by sending a letter to Centralized Case Management Operations, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Room 509F HHH Bldg. Washington, D.C. 20201, calling 1-877-696-6775, or visiting www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/.
