Privacy Policy

Freedom institute’s privacy practices and confidentiality notice

This Notice describes how demographic, medical and substance-use-related information about you may be used and disclosed, and how you can get access to this information. GENERAL INFORMATION Information about your treatment and care, including payment for care, is protected by two Federal laws: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”)* and the Confidentiality Law**. Under these laws Freedom Institute (the Program) may not say to a person outside of the Program that you attend the Program, nor may the Program disclose any information identifying you as an alcohol or drug user/misuser/addict, or disclose any other protected information except as permitted by the Federal laws referenced below.

The Program must obtain your written consent before it can disclose information about you for payment purposes. For example, the Program must obtain your written consent before it can disclose information to your health insurer in order to be paid for services. Generally, you must also sign a written consent before the Program can share information for treatment purposes or for health care operations. However, Federal law permits the Program to disclose information in the following circumstances without your written permission: 

  1. To Program staff to provide treatment and maintain the clinical record;

  2. Pursuant to an agreement with a Business Associate (e.g. clinical laboratories, pharmacy, record storage services, billing services);

  3. For audit, evaluation or research (e.g. New York State licensing review, accreditation, program data reporting as required by the State and/or Federal government);

  4. To the NYS Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs, with whom the Program has a Qualified Service Organization Agreement, to report suspected abuse or neglect of a vulnerable person;

  5. To report a crime committed on Program premises or against Program personnel;

  6. To medical personnel in a medical/psychiatric emergency ;

  7. To appropriate authorities to report suspected child abuse or neglect;

  8. To report certain infectious illnesses as required by state law;

  9. As allowed by a court order. 

Before the Program can use or disclose any information about your health in a manner, which is not described above, it must first obtain your specific written consent allowing the disclosure. You may revoke any such written consent in writing. (Note: Revoking consent to disclose information to a court, child protective services, a probation department, parole office, etc. may violate an agreement that you have with that organization. Such a violation may result in legal consequences for you.)

YOUR RIGHTS

  • Under HIPAA you have the right to request restrictions on certain uses and disclosures of your health and treatment information. The Program is not required to agree to any restrictions that you request, but if it does agree with them, it is bound by that agreement and may not use or disclose any information which you have restricted except as necessary in a medical emergency. 

  • You have the right to request that we communicate with you by alternative means or at an alternative location (e.g. another address). The Program will accommodate such requests that are reasonable and will not request an explanation from you. 

  • Under HIPAA you also have the right to inspect and copy your own health and treatment information maintained by the Program, except to the extent that the information contains psychotherapy notes or information compiled for use in a civil, criminal or administrative proceeding or in other limited circumstances. 

  • Under HIPAA you also have the right, with some exceptions, to amend health care information maintained in the Program’s records, and to request and receive an accounting of disclosures of your health-related information made by the Program during the six (6) years prior to your request. 

  • If your request to any of the above is denied, you have the right to request a review of the denial by the Program Administrator. 

  • To make any of the above requests, you must fill out the appropriate form that will be provided by the Program. 

  • You also have the right to receive a paper copy of this notice. 

THE USE OF YOUR INFORMATION AT THEPROGRAM In order to provide you with the best care, the Program will use your health and treatment information in the following ways: 

  • Communication among Program staff (including students or other interns) for the purposes of treatment needs, treatment planning, progress reporting and review, staff supervision, incident reporting, medication administration, billing operations, medical record maintenance, discharge planning, and other treatment related processes. 

  • Communication with Business Associates such as clinical laboratories (blood work, urinalysis), food service (special dietary needs), agencies or individuals that provide on- site services (lectures, group therapy), and/or organizations that provide long-term record storage in compliance with State law. 

  • Reporting data to the New York State OASAS Client Data System.

  • Communication directly with you, post-discharge (program completion), for the purposes of sending public education and awareness materials, client follow-up, client satisfaction surveys, alumni relations and program evaluation. 

The Program, as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, may use certain information (name, address, telephone number or e-mail address, age, date of birth, gender, dates of service, treating provider information or outcome information) upon your discharge to contact you for the purpose of raising money for Freedom Institute (for example, sending you an invitation to our annual gala). You have the right to opt-out of receiving such future communications. The money raised will be used to expand and improve the services and programs we provide to the community. You are free to opt-out of any or all fundraising solicitations and your decision will have no impact on your treatment or payment for services at Freedom Institute. You also have the option to opt out of receiving Freedom Institute’s semi-annual printed newsletter, and/or quarterly e-news. You may opt out in several ways: verbally communicating it to your individual counselor, emailing info@freedominstitute.org, or noting it on paperwork upon admissions. 

THE PROGRAM’S DUTIES 

The Program is required by law to maintain the privacy of your health information and to provide you with notice of its legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your health information. 

The Program is required by law to abide by the terms of this notice. The Program reserves the right to change the terms of this notice and to make new notice provisions effective for all protected health information it maintains. The Program will provide current clients with an updated notice and will provide affected former clients with new notices when substantive changes are made in the notice. 

CLIENTS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

Pursuant to the protection of all clients’ rights to confidentiality and privacy, clients are not permitted to disclose any information about any other client at the Program (including name, identifying information, or presence in treatment) to any person outside the Program.

FILING COMPLAINTS AND REPORTING VIOLATIONS

Clients have the right to make a complaint about the Confidentiality and Privacy of their Health Information. Any client may complete a Privacy Complaint form and submit the form to: 

Clinical Director Freedom Institute
515 Madison Avenue, Suite 13A New York, NY 10022
Phone (212) 838-0044
Fax (212) 838-2275

If you file a form, a copy of the completed Privacy Complaint Form will be provided to you, and a copy is placed in your Case Record. The Deputy Director who receives the complaint will review it and will consult with an appropriate individual, based on the nature of the complaint. The Deputy Director will complete the Privacy Complaint Resolution form. Copies of the Privacy Complaint Resolution Form will be forwarded to you, your counselor, the President of Freedom Institute. 

Clients may also register a complaint with the: 

Office for Civil Rights U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Jacob Javits Federal Building
26 Federal Plaza--Suite 3313
New York, New York, 10278
Phone (212) 264-3313
FAX (212) 264-3039
TDD (212) 264-2355
OCR Hotlines-Voice: 1-800-368-1019

You will not be retaliated against for filing such a complaint. Violation of the Confidentiality law by a program is a crime. Suspected violations of the Confidentiality Law may be reported to the United States Attorney in the district where the violation occurs. 

We are strongly committed to protecting the privacy of visitors to our website. Our Privacy Policy is set forth below.

By using this website, you agree to abide by the following terms and conditions. If you do not accept these conditions, do not use this website. We at Freedom Institute may change this agreement from time to time, based upon any changes to our website and our users experience on it. You are advised to consult this policy regularly for any such changes.

How Freedom Institute Uses and Collects Information About You

Our primary goal in collecting personal information is to provide you with an efficient and informative experience while visiting our website, to send you information upon your request, and to increase your knowledge and awareness of chemical dependency resources and treatments.

Aggregate Data

We may record usage information, such as the number and frequency of visitors to this website. This information may include the websites that you access immediately before and after your visit to our website, the Internet browser you are using and your IP address. If we use such data at all, it will be on an aggregate basis, and we will not disclose to third parties any information that could be used to identify you personally.

Personally Identifiable Information

If you submit information to our website in a request for information, we will, of course, record and use any personally identifiable information, such as your name, phone number and e-mail address for such purposes. From time to time, we may use your email address to contact you with information about upcoming events. If you do not wish to be contacted by our organization in the future, please indicate your wishes in your initial communication with us. The personally identifiable information that you provide to us through this website will never be used in any manner other than as described in this Privacy Notice, unless we have your permission.

We may use external service providers to operate our website and employ other persons to perform work on our behalf, such as sending postal mail and e-mail. These persons, as well as our own employees, may have access to the personally identifiable information you submit through the website, but only for the purpose of performing their duties and may not use it for any other purpose.

We will not provide any personally identifiable information to any other persons, except if we are required to make disclosures to the government or private parties in connection with a lawsuit, subpoena, investigation or similar proceeding. We can (and you authorize us to) disclose any such information in those circumstances.

Cookies

Cookies are small files placed on your hard drive; each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser preferences allow it. You can configure your browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when a cookie is set. (Each browser is different, so check the “Help” menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences.) You are always free to decline our cookies if your browser permits. In addition, a number of companies offer utilities designed to help you visit websites anonymously.

Cookies help us to provide customized services and information that is targeted to your interests. We use cookies to tell us how and when pages in our website are visited, what our users’ technology preferences are and whether our website is functioning properly.