Notice of Privacy Practice and Business Policy

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.
Effective April1, 2016, this Notice of Privacy Practices describes how we may use and disclose your protected health information to carry out treatment, payment or health care operations and for other purposes that are permitted or required by law. It also describes your rights to access and control your protected health information. “Protected health information” is information about you, including 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. We are required to abide by the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices. We may change the terms of our notice, at any time provided of course that they are in line with Federal law. The new notice will be effective for all protected health information that we maintain at that time. Upon your request, we will provide you with any revised Notice of Privacy Practices by calling the pharmacy and requesting that a revised copy be sent to you in the mail, by fax or asking for one at the time of your next visit.

  1. Uses and Disclosures of Protected Health Information Uses and Disclosures of Protected Health Information Treatment: We may use and disclose your protected health information to provide, coordinate, or manage your health care and any related services. This includes the coordination or management of your health care with a third party that has already obtained your permission to have access to your protected health information. For example, we would disclose protected health information to physicians who may be treating you when we have the necessary permission from you to disclose your protected health information. For example, your protected health information may be provided to a physician to whom you have been referred to ensure that the physician has the necessary information to diagnose or treat you. In addition, we may disclose your protected health information from time-to-time to another pharmacy or health care provider (e.g., a specialist or laboratory) who, at the request of your physician, becomes involved in your care by providing assistance with your health care diagnosis or treatment to your physician.
  2. Payment: Your protected health information will be used, as needed, to obtain payment for your health care services. This may include certain activities that your health insurance plan may undertake before it approves or pays for health care services, such as; making a determination of eligibility or coverage for insurance benefits, reviewing services provided to you for medical necessity, and undertaking utilization review activities. For example, obtaining approval for a prescription may require that your relevant protected health information be disclosed to the health plan to obtain approval for the prescription. We will call the number provided on the order profile on every online order in order to do verbal verification and due diligence  from a first time customer. If deemed necessary, we may call as many times a necessary in order to make sure that the safety of our customers is not compromised. If you do not list the correct phone number, we will refund and cancel the order and we cannot be held responsible for the order not being fulfilled. If you do not respond to our calls after 2 attempts, we will be forced to refund and cancel your order.
  3. Healthcare Operations: We may use or disclose, as-needed, your protected health information in order to support the business activities of your pharmacy. For example, we may ask your name and your physician’s name when you deliver a prescription to be filled. We may also call you by name when your prescription is ready. We may use or disclose your protected health information, as necessary, to contact you to remind you of a prescription that has not been picked up. We may share your protected health information with third party “business associates” that perform various activities (e.g., billing services/collection agency) for the pharmacy. Whenever an arrangement between our pharmacy and a business associate involves the use or disclosure of your protected health information, we will have a written contract that contains terms that will protect the privacy of your protected health information. We may use or disclose your protected health information, as necessary, to provide you with information about treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you. For example, your name and address may be used to send you a newsletter about our pharmacy and the services we offer. We may also send you information about products or services that we believe may be beneficial to you. You may contact our Privacy Contact to request that these materials not be sent to you. Uses and Disclosures of Protected Health Information Based upon Your Written Authorization Other uses and disclosures of your protected health information will be made only with your written authorization, unless otherwise permitted or required by law as described below. You may revoke this authorization, at any time, in writing, except to the extent that your pharmacist or the pharmacy has taken an action in reliance on the use or disclosure indicated in the authorization. Other Permitted and Required Uses and Disclosures That May Be Made With Your Authorization or Opportunity to Object We may use and disclose your protected health information in the following instances. You have the opportunity to agree or object to the use or disclosure of all or part of your protected health information. If you are not present or able to agree or object to the use or disclosure of the protected health information, then your pharmacist may, using professional judgment, determine whether the disclosure is in your best interest. In this case, only the protected health information that is relevant to your health care will be disclosed.
  4. Others Involved in Your Healthcare: Unless you object, we may disclose to a member of your family, a relative, a close friend or any other person you identify, your protected health information that directly relates to that person’s involvement in your health care. If you are unable to agree or object to such a disclosure, we may disclose such information as necessary if we determine that it is in your best interest based on our professional judgment. We may use or disclose your protected health information to an authorized public or private entity to assist in disaster relief efforts and to coordinate uses and disclosures to family or other individuals involved in your health care.
  5. Other Permitted and Required Uses and Disclosures That May Be Made Without Your Authorization or Opportunity to Object We may use or disclose your protected health information in the following situations without your authorization. These situations include: Required By Law: We may use or disclose your protected health information to the extent that the use or disclosure is required by law. The use or disclosure will be made in compliance with the law and will be limited to the relevant requirements of the law. You will be notified, as required by law, of any such uses or disclosures.
  6. Public Health: We may disclose your protected health information for public health activities and purposes to a public health authority that is permitted by law to collect or receive the information. The disclosure will be made for the purpose of controlling disease, injury or disability. We may also disclose your protected health information, if directed by the public health authority, to a foreign government agency that is collaborating with the public health authority.
  7. Health Oversight: We may disclose protected health information to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law, such as audits, investigations, and inspections. Oversight agencies seeking this information include government agencies that oversee the health care system, government benefit programs, other government regulatory programs and civil rights laws.
  8. Abuse or Neglect: We may disclose your protected health information to a public health authority that is authorized by law to receive reports of child abuse or neglect. In addition, we may disclose your protected health information if we believe that you have been a victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence to the governmental entity or agency authorized to receive such information. In this case, the disclosure will be made consistent with the requirements of applicable federal and state laws.
  9. Food and Drug Administration: We may disclose your protected health information to a person or company required by the Food and Drug Administration to report adverse events, product defects or problems, biologic product deviations, track products; to enable product recalls; to make repairs or replacements, or to conduct post marketing surveillance, as required.
  10. Proceedings: We may disclose protected health information in the course of any judicial or administrative proceeding, in response to an order of a court or administrative tribunal (to the extent such disclosure is expressly authorized), in certain conditions in response to a subpoena, discovery request or other lawful process. Law Enforcement: We may also disclose protected health information, so long as applicable legal requirements are met, for law enforcement purposes. These law enforcement purposes include (1) legal processes and otherwise required by law, (2) limited information requests for identification and location purposes, (3) pertaining to victims of a crime, (4) suspicion that death has occurred as a result of criminal conduct, (5) in the event that a crime occurs on the premises of the pharmacy and (6) medical emergency (not on the pharmacy’s premises) and it is likely that a crime has occurred.
  11. Criminal Activity: Consistent with applicable federal and state laws, we may disclose your protected health information, if we believe that the use or disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public. We may also disclose protected health information if it is necessary for law enforcement authorities to identify or apprehend an individual.
  12. Workers’ Compensation: Your protected health information may be disclosed by us as authorized to comply with workers’ compensation laws and other similar legally-established programs. Inmates: We may use or disclose your protected health information if you are an inmate of a correctional facility and your pharmacy created or received your protected health information in the course of providing care to you.
  13. Required Uses and Disclosures: Under the law, we must make disclosures to you and when required by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate or determine our compliance with the requirements of Section 164.500 et. seq.
  14. All activity, visits, incoming and outgoing calls at or around or about  Cura Vita LLC dba Summerwood Pharmacy dba Summerwood Pharmacy and Compounding are recorded  and will always be subject to  audio and video recording. By visiting any part of this website or visiting Summerwood Pharmacy, the visitor/user/patient/customer/online shopper hereby gives Summerwood Pharmacy and all its  representatives, owners, associates, employees both past present and future full authorization with no reservations to record audio and or  video of patient/customer/visitor/online shopper without any reservation and at the full discretion of Summerwood Pharmacy and its representatives. Patient/customer/visitor of Summerwood Pharmacy holds Cura Vita LLC dba  Summerwood Pharmacy dba Summerwood Pharmacy and Compounding harmless of any and all present and future liability, legal, financial or civil penalties or judgements as a result of recording video or audio  either physically or over the phone. This notice/ authorization/ release applies to every state in the United States of America and its territories  as well as every Country in the world unless it is unlawful for an individual to consent audio and video recording in that region. By visiting this website, the online store of this website, Facebook, Instagram or any websites associated with Summerwood Pharmacy and any of its past present or future owners or representaives, the visitor agrees to be recorded via audio and video and agrees to hold Summerwood Pharmacy harmless of any future litigation and agrees to support and fully defend  Summerwood Pharmacy in any and all litigation or legal proceedings.  The authorization to record video and audio  shall be valid in perpetuity unless revoked in writing to Summerwood Pharmacy via the legal representative of the patient/customer/visitor. This revocation must be submitted via a trackable delivery service with a requirement of a signature of an adult and will not be considered valid until a written response confirming receipt is returned to the requestor’s legal counsel.
  15. Your Rights 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. You have the right to inspect and copy your protected health information. This means you may inspect and obtain a copy of protected health information about you that is contained in a designated record set for as long as we maintain the protected health information. A “designated record set” contains prescription and billing records and any other records that your pharmacy uses for making decisions about you. Under federal law, however, you may not inspect or copy the following records: information compiled in reasonable anticipation of, or use in, a civil, criminal, or administrative action or proceeding, and protected health information that is subject to law that prohibits access to protected health information. Depending on the circumstances, a decision to deny access may be review able. In some circumstances, you may have a right to have this decision reviewed. Please contact our Privacy Contact if you have questions about access to your medical record. You have the right to request a restriction of your protected health information. This means you may ask us not to use or disclose any part of your protected health information for the purposes of treatment, payment or healthcare operations. You may also request that any part of your protected health information not be disclosed to family members or friends who may be involved in your care or for notification purposes as described in this Notice of Privacy Practices. Your request must state the specific restriction requested and to whom you want the restriction to apply. Your pharmacist is not required to agree to a restriction that you may request. If the pharmacist 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. If your pharmacist does agree to the requested restriction, we may not use or disclose your protected health information in violation of that restriction unless it is needed to provide emergency treatment. With this in mind, please discuss any restriction you wish to request with your pharmacist. You may request a restriction by contacting the Pharmacy or privacy officer. You have the right to request to receive confidential communications from us by alternative means or at an alternative location. We will accommodate reasonable requests. We may also condition this accommodation by asking you for information as to how payment will be handled or specification of an alternative address or other method of contact. We will not request an explanation from you as to the basis for the request. Please make this request in writing to our Privacy Contact. You may have the right to have your pharmacist amend your protected health information. This means you may request an amendment of protected health information about you in a designated record set for as long as we maintain this information. In certain cases, we may deny your request for an amendment. If we deny your request for amendment, you have the right to file a statement of disagreement with us and we may prepare a rebuttal to your statement and will provide you with a copy of any such rebuttal. Please contact our Privacy Officer to determine if you have questions about amending your medical record. You have the right to receive an accounting of certain disclosures we have made, if any, of your protected health information. This right applies to disclosures for purposes other than treatment, payment or healthcare operations as described in this Notice of Privacy Practices. It excludes disclosures we may have made to you, to family members or friends involved in your care, or for notification purposes. You have the right to receive specific information regarding these disclosures that occurred after April 1, 2016. You may request a shorter timeframe. The right to receive this information is subject to certain exceptions, restrictions and limitations. All activity in summerwood pharamcy are subject to audio and video recording at every time. We reserve the right to refuse service for any reason. We also reserve the right make inquiries and counter claims or bring suit against any person or entity who makes false claims against summerwood pharmacy and subjects summerwood pharmacy to any hardship that may or may not result in emotional financial loss or defamation of character. Complaints:  You may complain to us or to the Secretary of Health and Human Services if you believe that we have violated your privacy rights. You may file a complaint with us by notifying our Privacy Officer Marie Ekpema, PharmD of your complaint. For further information about the complaint process you may call our Privacy Officer Marie Ekpema, PharmD  at: (281) 225-4300 or write to: 13176 West Lake Houston Parkway Suite 1 Houston, TX 77044.
  16. Online Orders: We have the right to refuse all orders for any reason. We will call the number provided on the order profile on every online order in order to do verbal verification and due diligence  from a first time customer. If deemed necessary, we may call as many times a necessary in order to make sure that the safety of our customers is not compromised. If you do not list the correct phone number, we will refund and cancel the order and we cannot be held responsible for the order not being fulfilled. If you do not respond to our calls after 2 attempts, we will be forced to refund and cancel your order.

WE WILL NOT RETALIATE AGAINST YOU FOR FILING A COMPLAINT.

To complain against the practice of pharmacy, contact the Texas state board of pharmacy at 333 Guadalupe Austin, TX 78701