Pacific Northwest Eye Associates and Your Medical Information

In response to growing concerns about keeping health information private, Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The legislation includes a privacy rule that creates national standards to protect individuals' personal health information. Most health-care providers in the country were required to implement these standards by April 14, 2003.

Pacific Northwest Eye Associates has a long-standing, successful practice of protecting patients' privacy and maintaining confidentiality. We are implementing additional methods to further protect patients' medical information in the electronic age and are fully compliant with HIPAA requirements. The HIPAA privacy rule does not significantly change the way Pacific Northwest Eye Associates had been protecting medical information.

While it is true that many employees involved in a patient's visit -- from registration through patient care and billing -- have access to medical information, Pacific Northwest Eye Associates limits that access to only the pertinent medical information those employees need to do their jobs. We believe that appropriate access to your medical record by members of our staff enables us to provide you with the most comprehensive care available.

Pacific Northwest Eye Associates takes seriously its responsibility for protecting patients' medical information, and comply with the rules mandated by HIPAA. Pacific Northwest Eye Associates is participating in this effort along with most other health-care providers in the United States. Compliance with the HIPAA privacy rule is important to continuing our tradition of patient confidentiality.