Legal/Privacy

Women to Women was founded in 1985 to provide healthcare services to women of all ages through three venues: clinical care from its base in Yarmouth, Maine; medical/health educational services through its clinic and website nationally; and a personalized, at-home program for hormonal balance designed to support a foundation of health for all women.

The Healthcare Center and the Personal Program are separate organizations that share this website. As a medical practice, the Healthcare Center conforms to the strict regulations of Federal law, as detailed below. Both organizations protect your privacy to the fullest extent required by law.

Privacy Practices of the Personal Program

Women to Women’s Personal Program will protect your privacy, including any health-related information, to the fullest extent of the law. We will not disclose any such information to any third party — not even your name and address — for any purpose other than the fulfillment of orders you have placed for our products and services. We will restrict our employees’ access to such information on a need-to-know basis, and require that each of them sign a firm, written confidentiality agreement.

Legal rights regarding the website
These electronically-transmitted pages belong to Women to Women’s Healthcare Center and the Personal Program, and are offered for your personal use. All rights are reserved. These pages may not be duplicated or reproduced without the express written consent of Women to Women, except in the form of brief excerpts or quotations for the purposes of review. The information contained here is for personal use of the reader. Specific medical advice should be obtained from the reader’s personal healthcare professional. Making copies of these pages or any portion for any purpose other than your personal use is a violation of United States copyright laws.

Disclaimer regarding the website
Women to Women and its employees and affiliates have used their best efforts in preparing this website. Women to Women and its employees and affiliates make no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, with regard to the pages or the information contained here.

The information contained in this website is not intended to serve as a substitute for regular, in-person, professional medical care.

Prices for products offered by Women to Women are subject to change without notice.

Limits of liability regarding the website
Women to Women and its employees or contractors shall not be liable in the event of incidental or consequential damages in connection with, or arising out of, the provision of information offered here.

Advertising
The Women to Women website does not accept paid endorsements of products or display banner advertising of any kind.

Notice of privacy practices regarding Women to Women’s Healthcare Center

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.

If you have any questions about this Notice please contact our Privacy Officer: Donna Poulin, Practice Manager.

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. 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 accessing our website at www.womentowomen.com , by calling the office at (207) 846-6163 and requesting that a revised copy be sent to you in the mail or requesting one from a front office staff member.

Understanding your health record/information
Each time you visit a healthcare provider, a record of your visit is made. Typically, this record contains your symptoms, examination and test results, diagnoses, treatment, and a plan for future care or treatment. This information, often referred to as your health or medical record, serves as a:

basis for planning your care and treatment;
means of communication among the many health professionals who contribute to your care;
legal document describing the care you received;
means by which you or a third-party payer can verify that services billed were actually provided a tool in educating heath professionals;
source of data for medical research;
source of information for public health officials charged with improving the health of the nation;
source of data for facility planning and marketing;
a tool with which we can assess and continually work to improve the care we render and the outcomes we achieve.

Understanding what is in your record and how your health information is used helps you to:

ensure its accuracy;
better understand who, what, when, where, and why others may access your health information;
make more informed decisions when authorizing disclosure to others.

Your health information rights
Although your health record is the physical property of the healthcare practitioner or facility that compiled it, the information belongs to you. You have the right to:

request a restriction on certain uses and disclosures of your information;
obtain a paper copy of the notice of information practices upon request;
inspect and obtain a copy of your health record
amend your health record;
obtain an accounting of disclosures of your health information;
request communications of your health information by alternative means or at alternative locations;
revoke your authorization to use or disclose health information except to the extent that action has already been taken.

Our responsibilities
This organization is required to:

maintain the privacy of your health information;
provide you with a notice as to our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to information we collect and maintain about you;
abide by the terms of this notice;
notify you if we are unable to agree to a requested restriction;
accommodate reasonable requests you may have to communicate health information by alternative means or at alternative locations.

We will not use or disclose your health information without your authorization, except as described in this notice.

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you can file a complaint with our Privacy Office or with the Secretary of Health and Human Services. There will be no retaliation for filing a complaint. You may contact our Privacy Officer, Donna Poulin, at (207) 846-6163 or by e-mail at wtwmanager@yahoo.com for further information about the complaint process.

Examples of disclosures for treatment and payment

We will use your health information for treatment.
For example: Information obtained by a therapist or other member of your healthcare team will be recorded in your record and used to determine the course of treatment that should work best for you. We may provide your physician or a subsequent healthcare provider with copies of various reports that should assist him or her in treating you.

We will use your health information for payment.
For example: A bill may be sent to you or a third-party payer. The information on or accompanying the bill may include information that identifies you, as well as your diagnosis, procedures, and supplies used.

Business associates: There are some services provided in our organization through contacts with business associates. Examples include our billing service and a copy service we use when making copies of your health record. When these services are contracted, we may disclose your health information to our business associate so that they can perform the job we’ve asked them to do and bill you or your third-party payer for services rendered. To protect your health information, however, we require the business associate to appropriately safeguard your information.

Notification: We may use or disclose information to notify or assist in notifying a family member, personal representative, or another person responsible for your care, your location, and general condition.

Communication with family: Health professionals, using their best judgment, may disclose to a family member, other relative, close personal friend or any other person you identify, health information relevant to that person’s involvement in your care or payment related to your care.

Research: We may disclose information 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 health information.

Marketing: We may contact you to provide appointment reminders or information about treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA): We may disclose to the FDA health information relative to adverse events with respect to food, supplements, product and product defects, or post marketing surveillance information to enable product recalls, repairs, or replacement.

Workers’ Compensation: We may disclose health information to the extent authorized by and to the extent necessary to comply with laws relating to Workers’ Compensation or other similar programs established by law.

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

Correctional institution: Should you be an inmate of a correctional institution, we may disclose to the institution or agents thereof health information necessary for your health and the health and safety of other individuals.

Law enforcement: We may disclose health information for law enforcement purposes as required by law or in response to a valid subpoena.

Federal law makes provision for your health information to be released to an appropriate health oversight agency, public health authority or attorney, provided that a work force member or business associate believes in good faith that we have engaged in unlawful conduct or have otherwise violated professional or clinical standards and are potentially endangering one or more patients, workers or the public.

This notice was published and becomes effective on April 14, 2003.

Original Publication Date: 04/14/2003

Last Modified: 08/14/2008