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.

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Effective Date

This Notice is effective as of August 24th, 2023

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MST Management, LLC dba vidapharmacy (“We”, “vidapharmacy”, “our” or “us”) is committed to protecting your privacy and protected health information (“PHI”). PHI is information about you, including basic demographic 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, in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), how we may use and disclose PHI about you to carry out treatment, payment or health care operations and for other specified purposes that are permitted or required by law.

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Our Responsibilities

vidapharmacy is required to maintain the privacy of Protected Health Information (“PHI”) and to provide individuals with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to PHI. 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 how we may use and disclose PHI to carry out treatment, payment or health care operations and for other specified purposes that are permitted or required by law. The Notice also describes your rights with respect to PHI about you.

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vidapharmacy is required to follow the terms of this Notice. We will not sell your name and address or other identifying information for any purpose. We will not use or disclose PHI about you without your written authorization, except as described in this Notice. We reserve the right to change our practices and this Notice and to make the new Notice effective for all PHI we maintain. Upon request, we will provide any revised Notice to you.

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Your Health Information Rights

You have certain rights with respect to PHI about you that include the following:

Obtain a paper copy of this Notice upon request. You may request a copy of this Notice at any time. Even if you have agreed to receive this Notice electronically, you are still entitled to a paper copy.

Request a restriction on certain uses and disclosures of PHI. You have the right to request additional restrictions on our use or disclosure of PHI about you. We are not required to agree to such restrictions unless they are regarding disclosure of health information to your health insurance company and: (1) the disclosure is for the purpose of carrying out payment or health care operations and is not otherwise required by law; and (2) the health information pertains solely to a health care item or service for which you or another person (other than your health insurance company) paid for in full. If we agree to your requested restriction, we will comply with your request unless the information is needed to provide you emergency treatment.

Inspect and obtain a copy of PHI. You have the right to access and copy PHI about you contained in a designated record set for as long as vidapharmacy maintains the PHI. The designated record set usually will include prescription and billing records. We may charge you a fee as authorized by law to fulfill your request. Upon receiving your request to access your PHI, we are required to respond to you no later than 30 days after the receipt of your request. We may deny your request to inspect and copy in certain limited circumstances. If you are denied access to PHI about you, you may request that the denial be reviewed. You may request access to your health information in a certain electronic form and format, if readily producible, or, if not readily producible, in a mutually agreeable electronic form and format. Further, you may request in writing that we transmit such a copy to any person or entity you designate. Your written, signed request must clearly identify such designated person or entity and where you would like us to send the copy.

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Request an amendment of PHI. If you feel that PHI we maintain about you is incomplete or incorrect, you may request that we amend it. You may request an amendment for as long as we maintain the PHI (or someone maintains the PHI for us), and you must include a reason that supports your request. We will respond to your request within 60 days with up to a 30-day extension, if needed. In certain cases, we may deny your request for amendment. If we deny your request for amendment, you have the right to file a statement of disagreement with the decision and we may give a written rebuttal to your statement.

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Receive an accounting of disclosures of PHI. You have the right to receive an accounting of the disclosures we have made of PHI about you for most purposes other than treatment, payment, or health care operations. The accounting will exclude certain disclosures, such as disclosures made directly to you, disclosures you authorize, disclosures to friends or family members involved in your care, and disclosures for notification purposes. The right to receive an accounting is subject to certain other exemptions, restrictions, and limitations. Your request must specify the time period, but it may not be longer than six years. We are required to provide you the accounting within 60 days plus one 30-day extension, if needed. The first accounting you request within a 12-month period will be provided free of charge, but you may be charged a reasonable fee for the cost of providing additional accountings. We will notify you of the cost involved and you may choose to withdraw or modify your request at that time before any costs have been incurred.

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Request communications of PHI by alternative means or at alternative locations. You have the right to request that we communicate your health information to you in a certain manner or at a certain location. For instance, you may request that we contact you about medical matters only in writing, or at a different residence or post office box. Your request must state how or where you would like to be contacted. We will attempt to accommodate all reasonable requests and will not request an explanation from you to be the basis for your request.

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To exercise any of your rights under this Notice, you may email us at MSTMANAGEMENT3@GMAIL.COM, or call 704-837-4410 and leave a message for our Privacy Officer.  Please be specific in your request, as described above. To protect your privacy, vidapharmacy will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before reviewing and fulfilling such requests.

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How We May Use and Disclose PHI

The following are descriptions and examples of ways we use and disclose PHI:

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The law permits or requires us to use or disclose your PHI for various reasons, which we explain in this Notice. We have included some examples, but we have not listed every permissible use or disclosure.

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We will use your PHI for treatment purposes, such as dispensing prescription medications, communicating with covered entities or business associates about your care, and reviewing and counseling you about your health and/or the appropriate usage of your medications. We will document in your record information related to the medications dispensed to you and services provided to you.

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We will contact your health care payor, insurer or pharmacy benefit manager (or their designated agents or business associates) for payment purposes, such as determining payment for your prescription and the amount of your co-payments.  We will bill you or a third-party payer for the cost of prescription medications dispensed to you. The information on or accompanying the bill may include information that identifies you, as well as the prescriptions you are taking. We may also disclose your PHI to other HIPAA covered entities or business associates who may need it for processing of your health care payment activities.

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We may use information in your health record for vidapharmacy’s operations, such as monitoring the performance of the care team providing treatment and care to you, monitoring and analyzing our operations and effectiveness, or communicating with you about opportunities to improve our service to you. This information will be used in an effort to continually improve the quality and effectiveness of the health care and services we provide. We may also use your PHI to create de-identified data, which removes identifiable data elements in a way that no longer identifies you.

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Other Uses and Disclosures

Business associates: There are some services provided by us through contracts with business associates. Examples include the electronic transmission of prescription claims to insurers and pharmacy benefit managers, creation of paper billings for services that cannot be electronically transmitted, and payment reconciliation services. We may also contract with business associates to provide data aggregation services relating to our health care operations. When these services are contracted for, we may disclose PHI about you to our business associate so that they can perform the job we have asked them to do or to bill you or your third-party payor for services rendered. To protect PHI about you, we require our business associates to appropriately safeguard the PHI.

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Food and Drug Administration (FDA): We may disclose to the FDA, or persons under the jurisdiction of the FDA, PHI relative to adverse events with respect to drugs, foods, supplements, products and product defects, or post marketing surveillance information to enable product recalls, repairs, or replacement.

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Public health: As required by law, we may disclose PHI about you to public health or legal authorities charged with preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability.

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Health oversight activities: We may disclose PHI about you to an oversight agency for activities authorized by law. These oversight activities include audits, investigations, and inspections, as necessary for our licensure and for the government to monitor the health care system, government programs, and compliance with civil rights laws.

Worker’s compensation: We may disclose PHI about you as authorized by and as necessary to comply with laws relating to worker’s compensation or similar programs established by law.

Law enforcement: We may disclose PHI about you for law enforcement purposes to a law enforcement official as required by law, court order, warrant, or administrative request.

Judicial and administrative proceedings: If you are involved in a lawsuit or dispute, we may disclose PHI about you in response to a court or administrative order.

As required by law: We must disclose PHI about you when required to do so by law.

Research: We may disclose PHI about you to researchers when their research has been approved by an institutional review board that has reviewed the research proposal and established protocols to ensure the privacy of your information.

Coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors: We may release PHI about you to a coroner or medical examiner. This may be necessary, for example, to identify a deceased person, determine the cause of death or other duties as authorized by law. We may also disclose PHI to funeral directors, consistent with applicable law, to carry out their duties.

Organ or tissue procurement organizations: Consistent with applicable law, we may disclose PHI about you to organ procurement organizations or other entities engaged in the procurement, banking, or transplantation of organs for the purpose of tissue donation and transplant.

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 avert a serious threat to health or safety: We may use and disclose PHI about you when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or the health and safety of the public or another person and the disclosure is to a person reasonably able to prevent the threat. We may disclose your PHI for a medical emergency when we are unable to obtain your consent or authorization due to your condition or the nature of the medical emergency

Victims of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence: We may disclose PHI about you to a government authority, such as a social service or protective services agency, if we reasonably believe, in our professional judgment, you are a victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence. We will only disclose this type of information (1) to the extent required by law, (2) if you agree to the disclosure, or (3) if the disclosure is allowed by law and we believe it is necessary to prevent serious harm to you or someone else or the law enforcement or public official that is to receive the report represents that it is necessary and will not be used against you.

Military and veterans: If you are a member of the armed forces, we may release PHI about you as required by military command authorities. We may also release PHI about foreign military personnel to the appropriate military authority.

National security and intelligence activities: We may release PHI about you to authorized federal officials for intelligence, counterintelligence, and other national security activities authorized by law.

Protective services for the President and others: We may disclose PHI about you to authorized federal official so they may provide protection to the President, other authorized persons or foreign heads of state or conduct special investigations.

vidapharmacy will obtain your written authorization before using or disclosing PHI about you for purposes other than those provided for above or as otherwise permitted or required by law. You may revoke an authorization in writing at any time. Upon receipt of the written revocation, we will stop using or disclosing PHI about you, except to the extent that we have already taken action in reliance on the authorization.

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For More Information or to Report a Problem

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If you have questions or would like additional information about vidapharmacy’s privacy practices, you may call vidapharmacy at 704-837-4410 or write to vidapharmacy, 4438 The Plaza, Ste D, Charlotte, NC 28215. If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you can file a complaint with our pharmacy or with the Secretary of Health and Human Services.You can do so by sending it to 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20201, calling 1-877-696-6775, or visiting www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/. There will be no retaliation for filing a complaint.

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