Notice of Privacy Practices

DE LA LUZ Laboratory is committed to safeguarding your Protected Health Information (PHI). We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your PHI, provide you with this Notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, and notify you following a breach of unsecured PHI.

1. Your Rights Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule

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 lab test records and other health information we have about you. We will provide a copy or a summary of your health information, usually within 30 days of your request.
• Ask us to correct your medical record:You can ask us to correct health information about you that you think is incorrect or incomplete. 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 accommodate 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 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, and we will agree unless a law requires us to share it.
• 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 disclosures except for those about treatment, payment, and healthcare operations, and certain other disclosures.
• 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.
• 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 confirm the person has this authority 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 privacy rights by contacting our Privacy Officer at the address below. You can also file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.

2. 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:

• Share information with your family, close friends, or others involved in your care: If you are unable to tell us your preference, we may go ahead and share your information if we believe it is in your best interest.
• Share information in a disaster relief situation: We may share information with disaster relief organizations to coordinate your care.

🔒 We never sell or use your Protected Health Information for marketing purposes without your explicit, written authorization.

3. Our Uses & Disclosures

How do we typically use or share your health information? We typically use or share your health information in the following ways:

• Treat you: We use your health information to perform diagnostic testing and report results to your ordering healthcare provider.
  Example: We receive a blood specimen from your doctor and use the laboratory information system to log, track, test, and transmit the final panel results back to your doctor.
• Run our organization: We use and share your health information to run our laboratory operations, improve our testing quality, and contact you when necessary.
  Example: We use health information in our laboratory quality assessment database to evaluate the accuracy of our testing instruments.
• Bill for your services: We use and share your health information to bill and get payment from health plans or other entities.
  Example: We submit clinical code data and patient details to your health insurance company to receive payment for your diagnostic work.

4. Additional Uses & Disclosures

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:

• 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 or neglect, and preventing or reducing a serious threat to anyone's health or safety.
• 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 law.
• Respond to organ and tissue donation requests: We can share health information about you with organ procurement organizations.
• 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, and 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.

5. 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.

6. 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 mail a copy to you if requested.

7. Contact Information

If you have questions about this notice, believe your privacy rights have been violated, or wish to exercise any of your rights under this Notice, please contact our Privacy Officer: