We may use medical information about you to provide medical treatment or services. We may disclose your medical information to doctors, nurses, technicians, medical students, or other hospital personnel who are involved in your care. For example, a doctor treating you for a broken leg may need to know if you have diabetes. The doctor may need to tell the dietitian if you have diabetes so that we can arrange for appropriate meals. We may use and disclose medical information about you to obtain payment for treatment provided. For example, we may give your health plan information about services you received so your health plan will provide payment.

We may tell your health plan about a treatment you are going to receive to obtain prior approval or to determine whether your plan will cover the treatment. We may use and disclose medical information about you for hospital operations. For example, we may send you a survey asking about the care you received as a patient at MSHA. We may use your information to evaluate the performance of our staff. We may combine medical information about many hospital patients to decide what services we should offer and whether certain new treatments are effective. We may disclose information to doctors, nurses, medical students, and other hospital personnel for learning purposes.

We may contact you for appointment reminders or to tell you about possible treatment options, alternatives or other health related benefits/services that may be of interest to you. We may disclose medical information to the Mountain States Health Foundation so that the foundation may contact you regarding fundraising activities on behalf of MSHA. We only would release contact information, such as your name, address and phone number and the dates you received treatment or services at the hospital.

We may include certain information about you in the hospital directory. This information may include your name, location in the hospital, your general condition (e.g., fair, stable, etc.) and your religious affiliation. The directory information, except for your religious affiliation, may also be released to people who ask for you by name. Your religious affiliation may be given to a member of the MSHA clergy even if they don't ask for you by name. You may request not to be included in our hospital directory.

We may release medical information about you to a friend or family member who is involved in your medical care unless you request a restriction to such releases. We may give information to someone who helps pay for your care. In addition, we may disclose medical information about you to an entity assisting in a disaster relief effort so that your family can be notified about your condition, status and location.

We may use or disclose medical information about you for several other reasons; some of which can be without your prior authorization subject to certain requirements or legal obligations; others may require your authorization. You may revoke an authorization, in writing, unless we have taken action in reliance upon your prior authorization. Reasons for other uses and disclosures include: when required by federal or state law; to avert a serious threat to health or safety of the public or another person; to authorized federal officials for intelligence and national security activities; to authorized federal officials in order to protect the President and other authorized persons or foreign heads of state or conduct special investigations; as required by military authorities if you are a member of the armed forces; in response to a court or administrative order, subpoena or other lawful process; to law enforcement officials in response to a court order, subpoena or similar process to identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person; about the victim of a crime; about a death believed to be the result of criminal conduct; about criminal conduct at the hospital; and in emergency circumstances to report a crime; the location of the crime or victims; or the identity, description or location of the person who committed the crime; to report child/elder abuse or neglect or domestic violence; if you are an inmate, your information may be released to a correctional institution to provide you with health care; to protect your health and/or the health and safety of others; or for the safety and security of the correctional institution.

Additional reasons include: to an organ donation bank to facilitate organ or tissue donation; to workers' compensation or similar programs for work-related injuries or illness; for public health activities such as to prevent or control disease, injury or disability; to report births and deaths; to notify a person who may have been exposed to a disease or may be at risk for contracting or spreading a disease; to health oversight agencies for activities such as audits, investigations, inspections, and licensure.

These activities are necessary for the government to monitor the health care system, government programs, and compliance with civil rights laws; to a coroner or medical examiner to identify a deceased person or determine the cause of death and to funeral directors as necessary to carry out their duties; for research purposes. For example, a research project may involve comparing the health of all patients who received one medication to those who received another, for the same condition. All research projects are subject to a special approval process. Before we use or disclose the medical information, the project will have been approved through this research approval process.