Privacy Policy

    Below describes how medical information about RVNAhealth patients may be used and disclosed and how RVNAhealth patients may get access to this information.

    It includes information on Your Rights, Your Choices, and RVNAhealth’s Uses, Disclosures and Responsibilities.

    We encourage all of our patients to review it carefully and contact us if you have any questions. Your privacy is of utmost importance to us.

    This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully.

    Your Rights

    You have the right to:

    • Get a copy of your paper or electronic medical record
    • Correct your paper or electronic medical record
    • Request confidential communication
    • Ask us to limit the information we share
    • Get a list of those with whom we’ve shared your information
    • Get a copy of this privacy notice
    • Choose someone to act for you
    • File a complaint if you believe your privacy rights have been violated

    Your Choices

    You have some choices in the way that we use and share information as we: 

    • Tell family and friends about your condition
    • Provide disaster relief
    • Include you in a hospital directory
    • Provide mental health care
    • Market our services and sell your information
    • Raise funds

    Our Uses and Disclosures

    We may use and share your information as we:

    • Treat you
    • Run our organization
    • Bill for your services
    • Help with public health and safety issues
    • Do research
    • Comply with the law
    • Respond to organ and tissue donation requests
    • Work with a medical examiner or funeral director
    • Address workers’ compensation, law enforcement, and other government requests
    • Respond to lawsuits and legal actions

    Your Rights

    When it comes to your health information, you have certain rights.This section explains your rights and some of our responsibilities to help you.

    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.
    Get a list of those with whom we’ve shared 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 health care 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 us at (203) 438-5555 x.1045 or jgarcia-perez@rvnahealth.org.
    • You can file a complaint with 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 1-(877)  696-6775, or visiting https://www.hhs.gov/regulations/complaints-and-appeals/index.html.
    • We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.

    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:
    • External 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.

    To 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.

    To 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.

    To 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: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/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

    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.

    Per Connecticut law RVNAhealth will never share any substance abuse, HIV or psychiatric records without your written permission.

    Our Responsibilities

    • 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 see: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-individuals/index.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 applies to RVNAhealth, which is a licensed, certified Home Health Agency serving Connecticut. Effective date of notice: January 8, 2021

    Julissa Garcia-Perez, Director of Compliance and Regulatory Affairs
    jgarcia-perez@rvnahealth.org
    203-438-5555 x1045
    27 Governor St., Ridgefield, CT 06877

    Website Privacy Policy

    This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) explains how information about You is collected, used, and disclosed by Your access or use of this site or otherwise as a result of Your interactions with us. By visiting this site directly or through another site, You accept the terms and conditions of this Policy. This Policy applies to this site. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices on any website not operated by us to which this site links or that links to this site.

    Information Collection

    We may collect information from you in several different ways on this site.

    Registration and Ordering

    Before using certain portions of this site or ordering products, you may be required to complete an online registration form. During registration, you will be asked to provide to us certain personal information, including but not limited to your name, shipping and billing address(es), phone number, email address, gender, and credit card number. In addition, We may also ask you for your country of residence and/or your organization’s country of operation, so we can comply with applicable laws and regulations. These kinds of personal information are used for billing purposes, to fulfill your orders, to communicate with you about your order and the sites, and for internal marketing purposes. If we encounter a problem when processing your order, your personal information may be used to contact you.

    Information We Collect Automatically

    We may also automatically collect information about you when you access or use the site or transact business with us, including:

    • Transaction Information: When you purchase or return a product, We collect information about the transaction, such as product details, purchase price, and the date and location of the transaction.
    • Log Information: We obtain information about your use of Our websites, including the type of browser you use, access times, pages viewed, your IP address and the page you visited before navigating to this site.
    • Device Information: We collect information about the computer or mobile device you use to access Our Services, such as the hardware model, operating system and version, unique device identifiers, mobile network information, and browsing behavior.
    • Location Information: We may collect information about the precise location of your device when you consent to the collection of this information. We may also collect information about your approximate location each time you access this site.
    • Information Collected by Cookies and other Tracking Technologies: We may use cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies to collect information about you and your interaction with this site, including information about your browsing behavior, purchase behavior, and other engagement with the Services. We use this information in one or more of the ways described in the “Use of Information” section below. Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default, but you can usually change your browser settings to remove or reject cookies.

    Information We Collect from Other Sources

    We may also receive information about you from other sources and combine or link that with information We have about you. For example, We may collect demographic and change-of-address information from third party sources and information from third party social media platforms (such as Facebook) if you log into this site using your social media account credentials or if you make certain content and information publicly available, such as photos, videos, and profile information.

    Information Use and Disclosure

    Internal Use

    We use your personal information to process your order and provide you with customer service. We may internally your personal information to improve this site’s content and layout, to improve outreach and for Our own marketing efforts (including marketing our services and products to you), and to determine general marketplace information about visitors to this site.

    Communications with You

    We will use your personal information to communicate with you about this site and your orders and deliveries. Also, We may send you a confirmation email when you register with us. We may send you a service-related announcement on the rare occasions when it is necessary (for example, if we must temporarily suspend our service for maintenance.) Also, you may submit your email address for reasons such as to register for a contest or sweepstakes or to sign up for email newsletters and special offers. If you submit your email address, We use it to deliver the information to you. We always permit you to unsubscribe or opt out of future emails. Because We have to communicate with you about orders that you choose to place, you cannot opt out of receiving emails related to your orders.

    External Use

    Except as otherwise set forth below, We do not sell, rent, trade, license or otherwise disclose your specific personal information or financial information to anyone.

    We may disclose information to third parties that perform specific functions on Our behalf. However, We will only disclose the information that is necessary for them to perform their service.

    We must provide your credit card number to financial-services corporations such as credit-card processors and issuers as is required to process your orders. We will use industry standard security measures, including data encryption, when providing your credit card number to others.

    We may disclose personal information or financial information in response to requests from law enforcement officials conducting investigations; subpoenas; a court order; or if We are otherwise required to disclose such information by law. We also will release personal information where disclosure is necessary to protect our legal rights, enforce our Terms and Conditions or other agreements, or to protect ourselves or others. For example, We may share information to reduce the risk of fraud or if someone uses or attempts to use this site for illegal reasons or to commit fraud.

    While We will not sell (or trade or rent) personally identifiable information to other companies as part of Our regular course of business. However, it’s possible that We might acquire or merge with or be acquired by another company or that We might dispose of some or all of Our assets. If that happens, your personal information may be disclosed to another company, but that disclosure will be subject to the Privacy Policy in effect.

    We may share non-personal information (such as the number of daily visitors to a particular web page, or the size of an order placed on a certain date) with third parties such as advertising partners. This information does not directly personally identify you or any user.

    Data Security

    We take reasonable measures, including administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, to protect information about you from loss, theft, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction.

    Opt Out/Corrections

    Upon your request, We will (a) correct or update your personal information; (b) stop sending emails to your email address; and/or (c) disable your account to prevent any future purchases through that account. You can make these requests by emailing us at info@rvnahealth.org.

    Please do not email your credit-card number or other sensitive information.

    Offline Collection Use and Disclosure

    We also may collect information offline. We will treat any information collected offline in a manner that is consistent with this Policy. One example involves someone calling us to place an order or to ask questions. When someone calls, We will ask only for the personal information We need in order to place the order or to answer the question. When We need to store information (such as order information), We will enter it into our database.

    Updates to this Policy

    If We change or update this Privacy Policy, We will post changes and updates on the site so that you will always be aware of what information We collect, use and disclose. We encourage you to review this Policy from time to time so you will know if the Privacy Policy has been changed or updated. If you have any questions about the Policy, please contact us at info@rvnahealth.org.