1. Service Participants
2. General

1. PRIVACY POLICY: Service Participants
   It is the policy of AADD to assure confidentiality of all consumer information. This policy applies to visual, verbal, and written documentation including electronically stored information.
   
   Notice of Privacy Practices
   Georgia Department of Human Resources
   Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases
   
   THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE UESED AND DISCLOSED BY THE DEPARTMENT AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY. This notice is effective April 14, 2003. It is provided to you pursuant to provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and related federal regulations. If you have questions about this Notice please contact the Department’s Privacy Officer or Division’s Privacy Coordinator at the address below.
   
   The Department of Human Resources is an agency of the State of Georgia responsible for numerous programs which deal with medical and other confidential information. Both federal and state laws establish strict requirements for most programs regarding the disclosure of confidential information, and the Department must comply with those laws. For situations where stricter disclosure requirements do not apply, this Notice of Privacy Practices describes how the Department may use and disclose your protected health information for treatment, payment, health care operations and for certain other purposes. This notice also describes your rights to access and control your protected health information, and provides information about your right to make a complaint if you believe the Department has improperly used or disclosed your “protected health information.” Protected health information is information that may personally identify you and relates to your past, present or future physical or mental health or condition and related health care services. The Department is required to abide by the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices, and may change the terms of this notice, at any time. A new notice will be effective for all protected health information that the Department maintains at the time of issuance. Upon request, the Department will provide you with a revised Notice of Private Practices by posting copies at its facilities, publication on the Department’s website, in response to a telephone or facsimile request to the Privacy Office, or in person at any facility where you receive services from the Department.
1. Uses and Disclosures of Protected Health Information Your protected health information may be used and disclosed by the Department, its administrative and clinical staff and others involved in your care and treatment for the purpose of providing health care services to you, and to assist in obtaining payment of your health care bills
1. Treatment: Your protected health information may be used to provide, coordinate, or manage your health care and any related services, including coordination of your health care with a third party that has your permission to have access to your protected health information, such as, for example, a health care professional who may be treating you, or to another health care provider such as a specialist or laboratory.
2. Payment: Your protected health information may be used to obtain payment for your health care services. For example, this may include activities that a health insurance plan requires before it approves or pays for health care services such as: making a determination of eligibility or coverage, reviewing services provided to you for medical necessity, and undertaking utilization review activities.
3. Health Care Operations: The Department may use or disclose your protected health information to support the business activities of the Department, including, for example, but not limited to, quality assessment activities, employee review activities, training, licensing, and other business activities. Your protected health information may be used to contact you about appointments or for other operational reasons. Your protected health information may be shared with third party “business associates” who perform various activities that assist us in the provision of your services.
2. Other Permitted or Required Uses and Disclosures with Your Authorization or Opportunity to Object
   Other uses and disclosures of your protected health information will be made only with your written authorization, which you may revoke at any time, except as permitted or required by law as described below. Generally, if there is protected health information which identifies you as a person who has applied for or received substance abuse services, that information will not be disclosed without your consent unless the law allows or requires such a disclosure. The Department may use and disclose your protected health information when you authorize in writing such use or disclosure of all or part of your protected health information. If you are hospitalized, the Department may use and disclose certain protected health information to your representative, as that term is defined in the Georgia Mental Health Code, upon your admission or discharge; you may be given a chance to object to certain other disclosures to your representative.
3. Permitted or Required Uses and Disclosures without Your Authorization or Opportunity to Object
   The Department may use or disclose your protected health information without your authorization for continuity of your care or for your treatment in an emergency or when clinically required; when required to do so by law; for public health purposes; to a person who may be at risk of contracting a communicable disease; to a health oversight agency; to an authority authorized to receive reports of abuse or neglect; in certain legal proceedings; and for certain law enforcement purposes. Protected health information may also be disclosed without you authorization to a coroner or medical examiner, and to the legal representative of your estate.
4. Required Uses and Disclosures: Under the law, the Department must make disclosures to you and when required by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate or determine the Department’s compliance with the requirements of the Privacy Rule at 45 CFR Sections 164.500 et.seq.
5. Your Rights: The following is a statement of your rights with respect to your protected health information and a brief description of how you may exercise these rights.
1. You have the right to inspect and copy your protected health information. You may inspect and obtain a copy of protected health information about you for as long as the Department maintains the protected health information. This information includes medical and billing records and other records the Department uses for making medical and other decisions about you. A reasonable, cost-based fee for copying, postage and labor expense may apply. Under federal law you may not inspect or copy psychotherapy notes; information compiled in anticipation of, or for use in, a civil, criminal, or administrative proceeding, or protected health information that is subject to a federal or state law prohibiting access to such information.
2. You have the right to request restriction of your health information. You may ask the Department not to use or disclose any part of your protected health information for the purposes of treatment, payment or healthcare operations, and not to disclose protected health information to family members or friends who may be involved in your care. Such a request must state the specific restriction requested and to whom you want the restriction to apply. The Department is not required to agree to a restriction you request, and if the Department believes it is in your best interest to permit use and disclosure of your protected health information, your protected health information will not be restricted, except as required by law. If the Department does agree to the requested restriction, the Department may not use or disclose your protected health information in violation of that restriction unless it is needed to provide emergency treatment.
3. You have the right to request to receive confidential communication from us by alternative means or at an alternative location. Upon written request to a person listed in section 6 below, the Department will accommodate reasonable requests for alternative means for the communication of confidential information, but may condition this accommodation upon your provision of an alternative address or other method of contact. The Department will not request an explanation from you as to the basis for the request.
4. You may have the right to request amendment of your protected health information. If the Department created your protected health information, you may request an amendment of that information for as long as it is maintained by the Department. The Department may deny your request for an amendment, and if it does so will provide information as to any further rights you may have with respect to such denial. Please contact one of the person listed in section 6 below if you have questions about amending your medical information.
5. You have the right to receive an accounting of certain disclosures the Department has made of your protected health information. This right applies only to disclosures for purposes other than treatment, payment or healthcare operations, excluding any disclosures the Department made to you, to family members or friends involved in your care, or for national security, intelligence or notification purposes. You have the right to receive legally specified information regarding disclosures occurring after April 14, 2003, subject to certain exceptions, restrictions and limitations.
6. You have the right to obtain a paper copy of this notice from the Department, upon request.
6. Complaints: You may complain to us and to the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights have been violated. You may file a complaint by notifying the Department’s Privacy Officer of the basis for your complaint. The Department will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint. You may contact the Department’s Privacy Officer by telephone (404) 656-4421, facsimile (404) 657-1123, or by mail to 2 Peachtree Street NW, Room 29.210, Atlanta, Georgia 30303-3142, OR the Division’s Privacy Coordinator by telephone at (404) 657-6423, facsimile (404) 657-6424, or by mail to 2 Peachtree Street NW, Room 22.240, Atlanta, Georgia 30303-3142, OR to the Privacy Officer of AADD, 1440 Dutch Valley Place, Suite 200, Atlanta, Georgia 30324-5371, (404) 881-9777, ext. 212, facsimile (404) 881-0094, for further information about the complaint process or this notice. April 2003
   (A copy of this Notice is provided to service recipients; a copy bearing the signature of the individual or legally authorized person is maintained in the AADD records.)
   
2. PRIVACY POLICY: Membership & Donor Information Confidentiality
   It is the policy of the Atlanta Alliance on Developmental Disabilities (AADD) to treat all membership and donor information as confidential data. Names and contact information such as addresses and donation amounts will not be divulged, sold, traded or given to any other individual or organization.
   Exceptions are these:
1. Names of supporters, but not addresses or amounts donated, may be published in AADD newsletters and annual reports or similar publications.
2. Names of supporters and their category of giving (as, “Gold Sponsor”), but not the exact amount of payments, may be published in AADD programs and associated items for events and activities in which specified sponsorship levels are made available as an integral component of the event or activity.
3. Member names and contact information may be provided as required to parent or affiliated organizations (such as The ARC and its state component). No authorization will be made to permit the transfer or use of this information for purposes of fund solicitation, sales, sponsorship, cause-related marketing or commercial co-ventures.
4. As required or appropriate in soliciting support from foundations, corporations and comparable organizations, names and amounts of support from other similar organizations may be provided by AADD as part of the grant application or request.
5. AADD may distribute to members or supporters, by mail or other means, program brochures, flyers, and the like, of other organizations that serve persons with developmental disabilities, when requested by such organizations to help promote an activity or program.
6. Donor names and donation amounts may be divulged or published when specifically authorized by the donor.
   

Other exceptions to this policy may be made on a case-by-case basis by the AADD Board of Directors or by the Executive Committee acting on its behalf.