Privacy Notice

State of Oklahoma
Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES)
Privacy Notice
Revised: December 2017

THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW THIS NOTICE CAREFULLY.

For questions or complaints regarding privacy concerns with OMES, please contact:

OMES HIPAA Privacy Officer
3545 N.W. 58th, Ste., 600, Oklahoma City, OK 73112
Telephone: 1-405-717-8701, Toll-free 1-800-543-6044
TDD 1-405-949-2281, Toll-free TDD 1-866-447-0436
OMES.OK.gov

Why is the Notice of Privacy Practices Important?

This Notice provides important information about the practices of OMES pertaining to the way OMES gathers, uses, discloses, and manages your protected health information (PHI) and it also describes how you can access this information. PHI is health information that can be linked to a particular person by certain identifiers including, but not limited to names, social security numbers, addresses and birth dates.

Oklahoma privacy laws and the Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) protect the privacy of an individual’s health information. For HIPAA purposes, OMES has designated itself as a hybrid entity. This means that HIPAA only applies to areas of OMES operations involving health care, and not to all lines of service offered by OMES. This notice applies to the privacy practices of the following components included within OMES that may share or access your Protected Health Information as needed for treatment, payment and health care operations:

• The Employees Group Insurance Division (EGID).
• The Performance and Efficiency Division as it applies to operations of the Employees Group Insurance Division.
• The Section 125 plan within Human Capital Management.
• The Legal Division.
• The Information Services Division (ISD) as it applies to maintenance and storage of PHI.

OMES is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your PHI as used within the components listed above.

Your Information. Your Rights. Our Responsibilities.

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 a copy of your health and claims records.

• You can ask to see or get a copy of your health and claims records and other health information we have about you. Ask us how to do this using the contact information above.
• We will provide a copy or a summary of your health and claims records, usually within 30 days of your request. We may charge a reasonable fee.

Ask us to correct health and claims records

• You can ask us to correct your health and claims records if you think they are incorrect or incomplete. Ask us how to do this.
• We may say “no” to your request, but we will 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 consider 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.

Get a list of those with whom we’ve shared information

• You can ask for an 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 will provide one accounting a year free of charge but will charge a reasonable fee if you ask for another accounting 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 verify 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 using the information at the beginning of this notice.
• You may also 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 www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/. Complaints to HHS must be filed within 180 days of when you knew that the violation occurred.
• 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 payment for your care.
• Share information in a disaster relief situation.

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 health or safety threat.

OMES does not share your information for purposes of marketing or by sale of your information.

Our Uses and Disclosures

How do we typically use or share your health information (PHI)?

Your PHI is used and disclosed by OMES employees and other entities under contract with OMES according to HIPAA Privacy Rules using the “minimum necessary” standard which releases only the minimum necessary health information to achieve the intended purpose or to carry out a desired function within OMES.

We typically use or share your health information in the following ways:

Help manage the health care treatment you receive

We can use your health information and share it with professionals who are treating you.

Example: A doctor sends us information about your diagnosis and treatment plan so we can arrange additional services.

Run our organization

• We can use and disclose your information to run our organization and contact you when necessary.
• We are not allowed to use genetic information to decide whether we will give you coverage and the price of that coverage. This does not apply to long term care plans.

Examples: We use health information about you to develop better services for you, provide customer service, resolve member grievances, member advocacy, conduct activities to improve members’ health and reduce costs, assist in the coordination and continuity of health care, and to set premium rates.

Pay for your health services

We can use and disclose your health information as we pay for your eligible health services.

Example: We share information about you with your dental plan to coordinate payment for your dental work.

Administer your plan

We may disclose summarized health information to your health plan sponsor for plan administration.

Example: Your employer contracts with us to provide a health plan, and we provide the employer with certain statistics to explain the premiums we charge.

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, refer to www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/consumers/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 births and deaths.
• Reporting suspected abuse, neglect, or domestic violence.
• Preventing or reducing a serious threat to anyone’s health or safety.
• Public health investigations.

Do research

We can use or share your information for health research, as permitted by law.

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 are complying with federal privacy laws.

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.

Our Responsibilities

• We are required by law to maintain the privacy and security of your protected health information (PHI).
• We will let you know promptly if a breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your PHI.
• 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 PHI 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 www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/consumers/noticepp.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, on our website, and we will deliver a copy to you. You may also online to receive notice of changes to this page via email or text message.