Family Service Foundation takes confidentiality very seriously. We follow very strict rules from the Federal and State governments about when we can release your medical record – your Protected Health Information.

All agencies providing services to people with developmental disabilities, mental disorders, and HIV/AIDS are required to abide by the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) to protect the confidentiality of your medical record and treatment, and to establish guidelines as to when this information may be released.

The Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule establishes a foundation of Federal protection for personal health information, carefully balanced to avoid creating unnecessary barriers to the delivery of quality health care. The Rule generally prohibits this program from using or disclosing your Protected Health Information unless authorized by you, except as follows:

We are authorized to disclose your Protected Health Information without your consent when we use that information for treatment, payment, or the health care operations of the program.

Treatment generally means the provision, coordination, or management of health care and related services among health care providers or by a health care provider with a third party, consultation between health care providers regarding a client, or the referral of a client from one health care provider to another. According to COMAR, a signed Release of Information Form is required under this category; however, we are required by law to disclose your Protected Health Information in certain circumstances, such as to report abuse and neglect, and to warn about dangerous behavior.

Payment encompasses the various activities of health care providers to obtain payment or be reimbursed for their services. For example, we may disclose your Protected Health Information as part of a claim for payment to a health plan.

Health Care Operations are certain administrative, financial, licensure, legal, and quality improvement activities of a program that are necessary to run its business and to support the core functions of treatment and payment. For example, we may release your Protected Health Information for licensure and/or accreditation purposes.

Your medical records and any verbal or written communications between you, your parent/legal guardian (if applicable), or any authorized representative are strictly confidential. Further, no material or information concerning you or your family will be disclosed to another party without your express written consent and/or that of a legally authorized representative. This excludes circumstances when there is a clear and imminent danger to yourself or to others or when disclosure is mandated by law.

Your medical record (which includes your Protected Health Information) is kept in a secure location and only those employees or health professionals who need access to your medical record for treatment, payment, or health care operations have access to your medical record.

It is our policy to reasonably limit disclosures of and requests for Protected Health Information for payment and health care operations to the minimum necessary. We also limit which members of our workforce may have access to your Protected Health Information for treatment, payment, and health care operations based on those who need access to the information to do their jobs.

We may also disclose information in order to contact you, for example to make appointments, to check with you about how you are doing, and to evaluate the services that we provide to you. We may also contact you for our fund-raising efforts.

You have the right to see your record (with the exception of psychotherapy notes) or to receive a summary of your record. To do this, please contact the Family Service Foundation Corporate Compliance Officer at 5301 76^th Avenue, Landover Hills, MD 20784, or by phone at 301-459-2121.

Psychotherapy notes may include the record of the statements made during a counseling session and your therapist’s understanding of those statements. This does not include documentation of medications, treatment rendered, tests, treatment plans, progress notes, and statements of prognosis. The psychotherapy notes are kept within the chart in a separate distinct section from other medical information. Psychotherapy notes may be used by your therapist for your treatment without your authorization. Psychotherapy notes may also be used by the provider without your authorization for certain other limited health care operations; otherwise, the use and disclosure of your psychotherapy notes requires your written authorization. You may review and copy your psychotherapy notes only with the consent of your therapist.

Discrepancies in Your Record