ShopRite Pharmacy Notice of Privacy Practices
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED, HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION, AND THE LIMITATIONS ON SHOPRITE® PHARMACY’S USE OF YOUR MEDICAL INFORMATION.
PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
Protected Health Information (PHI) is information that may identify you and that relates to your past, present or future physical or mental health or condition and related health-care services. This Notice of Privacy Practices (Notice) describes your rights and how ShopRite® Pharmacy may use and disclose PHI to carry out treatment, payment or health-care operations and for other purposes permitted or required by law, as well as certain limitations on ShopRite® Pharmacy’s authorization to use and/or disclose PHI.
ShopRite® Pharmacy will not use or disclose PHI about you without your prior, written permission, except as described in this Notice. We are required by law to maintain the privacy of PHI and to provide individuals with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to PHI. We must also advise individuals when we become aware of any breach of the privacy or security of their PHI. We are also required to abide by the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices. We may change our practices and this Notice and make the new Notice effective for the PHI we maintain. If you request it, we will provide you with any revised Notice.
How We May Use and Disclose PHI
For treatment. For example, information obtained by the pharmacist will be used to dispense prescription medications to you. We will include information in your record about the medications and services you received.
For payment. For example, we will contact your insurer, pharmacy benefit manager or workers compensation benefit manager to learn if it will pay for your prescription and what your copayment is. We will bill you or a third-party payor for the cost of medications dispensed to you. The information we send on or with the bill may include wording that identifies you and your prescriptions.
For health-care operations. For example, we may use information in your health record to monitor the performance of the pharmacists providing treatment to you, so we can improve the quality and effectiveness of the service we provide. As necessary, we may share PHI with other healthcare professionals for circumstances including, but not limited to, multiple prescribers or prescription transfers between pharmacies.
To business associates: Some services are provided by us through contracts with business associates. We may disclose PHI about you to our business associates so they can perform their assigned job. To protect your PHI, we require our business associates to sign legally binding agreements to safeguard it.
To individuals involved in your care or payment for your care: Using their professional judgment, health professionals such as pharmacists may disclose your PHI to a family member, relative, friend, or any person identified by you, if these people need to know about your care, payment related to your care, your location or condition.
For health-related communications: We may send you refill reminders or other communications about a drug or biologic currently being prescribed for you. In those situations we may receive compensation from a third party, but only the extent necessary to provide you with the reminder or other communication about a currently prescribed medication. We may also provide you information about treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may interest you. However, we are not permitted to provide you with such information without your prior written authorization if we are receiving compensation from a third party for doing so.
To the Food and Drug Administration (FDA): We may disclose PHI about the effects of drugs, foods, supplements, products and product defects, or other data that may show a need for product recalls, repairs or replacement, or to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or that of the public.
For workers’ compensation: We may disclose PHI to comply with workers’ compensation or similar programs’ laws.
For public health, disease control or to avert a serious threat to health or safety: We may disclose PHI about you if needed to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or the health and safety of the public or another person.
To law enforcement officials and as required by law: We may disclose PHI about you for law enforcement purposes, in response to a subpoena or other legal process, when required to do so by law or to comply with a discovery request or other lawful process related to a lawsuit or dispute.
For health-oversight: We may disclose PHI about you to an oversight agency for legal activities when needed for licensure or to monitor the health-care system, government programs and compliance with civil rights laws.
For research: We may disclose PHI about you to researchers if their research has been approved by an institutional board that has reviewed the proposal and set out rules to ensure your privacy.
To coroners, medical examiners and funeral directors: We may release PHI about you to a coroner or medical examiner if needed, for example, to identify a deceased person or determine cause of death, or to funeral directors to fulfill their duties.
To organ or tissue procurement organizations: Consistent with applicable law, we may disclose PHI about you to groups that procure, bank, or transplant organs or tissues for donation and transplants.
For fundraising: Because we are for profit organization, we will not contact you as part of a fundraising effort for our own benefit.
To a correctional institution: If you are or become an inmate of a correctional institution, we may disclose PHI to the institution or its agents when necessary for your health or the health and safety of others.
To military authorities: If you are in the armed forces or are a veteran, we may release PHI about you as required by military command authorities. This applies also to foreign military personnel.
For national security, intelligence activities and presidential protection: We may release PHI about you to authorized federal officials for intelligence, counterintelligence, other national security activities authorized by law and to provide protection to the President, other authorized persons or foreign heads of state, or conduct special investigations.
For victims of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence: We may disclose PHI about you to a government agency if we reasonably believe you are a victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence, but only as required by law, if you agree to it, or we believe it necessary to prevent serious harm to you or someone else.
Your Health Information Rights
You may obtain a paper copy of the Notice upon request, and you may request a copy of the Notice at any time. Even if you agreed to receive the Notice electronically, you are entitled to a paper copy. For a copy, call 1-800-ShopRite® (746-7748). ShopRite®
You may inspect and obtain a copy of your PHI, which usually includes prescription and billing records, for as long as the ShopRite® Pharmacy maintains the PHI. To inspect or copy PHI about you, send a written request to the Privacy Officer of your ShopRite® Pharmacy. We may charge you for copying, mailing and supplies needed to fulfill your request. We may deny your request in certain circumstances, and you may ask to have the denial reviewed. If we maintain your PHI in an electronic format we will forward it to you in the electronic format you request if doing so is feasible. If you want your PHI to be sent to a third party, ShopRite® Pharmacy will do so as long as you request that we do so in writing, sign your request and advise us of the name and address (or other contact information, if the PHI is to be sent electronically) of the third party.
You may request a change to your PHI. If you feel that PHI we maintain about you is incomplete or incorrect, you may request an amendment to it for as long as we maintain the PHI. To request a change, send a written request and a reason supporting the request to the Privacy Officer of your ShopRite® Pharmacy. If we deny your request, you may file a statement disagreeing with our decision, and we may give a rebuttal to your statement.
You may request a restriction of your PHI. This means that you may ask us not to use or disclose any part of your PHI for the purposes of treatment, payment or healthcare operations. You may also request that any part of your PHI not be disclosed to family members or friends who may be involved in your care or for notification purposes as described in this Notice of Privacy Practices. To request a restriction, send a written request and the specific reason supporting the request to the Privacy Officer of your ShopRite® Pharmacy. Your request must also list the individuals to whom you want the restriction to apply. We are not required to agree to a requested restriction, (a) except that, unless such disclosure is otherwise required by law, your ShopRite® Pharmacy must honor your request to restrict the disclosure of your PHI to a health plan, if (a) the disclosure is for the purposes of obtaining payment for medical products sold to you or in connection with your ShopRite® Pharmacy’s health-care operations and (b) the PHI relates to medical products or services you acquired from ShopRite® and you or someone other than the health plan has fully paid ShopRite® Pharmacy for those services.
You may request a list of PHI disclosures we made about you during the past six years for purposes other than treatment, payment, or health-care operation [and for the last three years for disclosures we made about you for treatment, payment or health-care operations purposes, if your PHI is maintained in electronic form]. Some disclosures will not be included. Certain other exceptions, restrictions, and limitations may also apply. To request a list, send a written request to the Privacy Officer of your ShopRite® Pharmacy. Specify the time period you need, but [not longer than three years for disclosures we made about you for treatment, payment or health-care operations purposes and] no longer than six years for disclosures about you we made for. There is no charge for the first list requested within a 12-month period, but you may be charged for the cost of providing additional lists. We will notify you of the cost, and you may then withdraw or modify your request.
You may request communications of PHI by alternative means or at alternative locations. For instance, you may ask that we contact you about medical matters only in writing or at a different residence or post office box. We will not ask the reason for the request. To request confidential communication of PHI about you, send a written request, including how or where you would like to be contacted, to the Privacy Officer of your ShopRite® Pharmacy. We will accommodate all reasonable requests.
Other Uses and Disclosures of PHI
ShopRite® Pharmacy will obtain your written authorization before using or disclosing PHI about you for reasons other than those listed in this Notice or as permitted or required by law. (b) Specifically, we must and will seek your approval before using or disclosing your PHI for marketing or in connection with the sale of PHI. We will not disclose any psychotherapy notes that may come into our possession without your prior approval. You may revoke an authorization in writing at any time. When we receive the revocation, we will stop using or disclosing your PHI.
(a) Your prior authorization is not required with respect to either face-to face communications to you by ShopRite® Pharmacy’s employee or if we provide you with a promotional gift of nominal value.
(b) In the event that ShopRite® Pharmacy seeks your authorization to send you marketing-related communications, we will advise you if ShopRite® Pharmacy is receiving any compensation for sending those communications.
(c) A “sale” of your PHI would not include transfer of your PHI in connection with the sale or merger of ShopRite® Pharmacy to another entity.
Treatment Related Communications
(a) Your ShopRite® Pharmacy may send you prescription refill reminder statements or communications concerning a medication or biologic currently being prescribed for you and may be paid for sending you those communications. As long as the payment ShopRite® Pharmacy receives is reasonably related to the cost of sending them, those communications do not constitute “marketing.” ShopRite® Pharmacy is, therefore, not required to obtain your prior written authorization before sending them.
(b) Similarly, ShopRite® Pharmacy may send you information concerning (i) treatment by a health care provider; (ii) describing a product or service (or payment for such product or service) offered by ShopRite® Pharmacy; or (iii) treatment alternatives, therapies, health care providers, and settings of care. As long as ShopRite® Pharmacy is not being paid for providing those communications, they do not constitute “marketing,” and ShopRite® Pharmacy is not required to obtain your prior written authorization before sending them.
(c) However, you are free to opt out of receiving those communications by either (i) mailing a letter signed by you to your ShopRite® Pharmacy, (ii) contacting ShopRite® at 1-800-ShopRite (1-800-746-7748); or (iii) visiting ShopRite® on line, visit our “Contact Us” link and use the link to send an e-mail to our “Customer Care Team”.
For More Information or to Report a Problem
For questions or more information, contact the Privacy Officer at your ShopRite® Pharmacy. If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with the Privacy Officer or with the Secretary of Health and Human Services. There will be no retaliation for filing a complaint.
Effective Date
This Notice is effective as of September 23, 2013