Effective Date: April 14, 2003

HOME CARE PLUS NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

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

HOME CARE PLUS' COMMITMENT TO OUR PATIENTS
Home Care Plus cares about you, our patients, and your privacy. We understand that medical information about you is personal, and protecting that information is important. We create records of the care and services you receive by our agency so that we can continue to provide you with quality care and so that we can comply with certain legal and accreditation requirements.

This notice tells you the way in which we may use and disclose your personal information and our obligations to keep your information private. This notice also describes your privacy rights.

We are required by law to keep your personal health information private; to give you this notice of our legal duties and our privacy practices; and to follow the terms of the notice currently in effect.

HOW MAY WE USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR MEDICAL INFORMATION

To Provide Treatment. Home Care Plus may use your health information to coordinate care with others involved in your care, such as your doctor and other health care professionals who have agreed to assist our agency in coordinating care. For example, doctors involved in your care will need information about your symptoms in order to prescribe appropriate medications. We also may disclose your health care information to individuals outside of our agency involved in your care including family members, pharmacists, suppliers of medical equipment or other health care professionals.

To Obtain Payment. Your health information may be used or disclosed so that we can receive payment for the care you receive from our agency. For example, Home Care Plus may be required by your health insurer to provide information regarding your health care status so that the insurer will reimburse you or our agency. Home Care Plus also may need to obtain prior approval from your insurer and may need to explain to the insurer your need for home care and the services that will be provided to you.

To Conduct Health Care Operations. Your health information may be used or disclosed for a variety of health care related purposes which are necessary for Home Care Plus to function. We may use your information to ensure that all our patients receive quality care and to ensure that we continue to earn professional accreditation. For example, we may use your information so that we can evaluate the performance of our staff in caring for you.

In addition, we may utilize your information to contact you for purposes such as the following: Appointment Reminders: We may use and disclose your health information to contact you as a reminder that you have an appointment for a home visit. Treatment Alternatives: We may use and disclose your health information to tell you about alternate treatments or health related service that may be of interest to you. Individuals involved in your care: With your permission we may release information about you to a family member or friend who is involved in your care. We may also release information about you to such an individual in a medical emergency. Fundraising Activities: We may use and disclose limited information about you (name, address, phone number, dates of care) in order to contact you to raise money for Home Care Plus. If you prefer not to receive such fundraising notices, you must notify our Privacy Officer in writing.

Special Situations: In addition to the above, there may be times when we use or disclose your health information for the following reasons:

As Required by Law: We will disclose health information about you when required to do so by federal, state or local laws.

To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety: We may use and disclose health information about you when necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to your health and safety or to the health and safety of the public or another person. Any disclosure, however would only be to someone able to help prevent the threat. This may include disaster relief agencies.

Public Health Risks: We may use and disclose your health information for public activities and purposes in order to: * Prevent or control disease, injury or disability (to report child abuse or neglect); * Report reactions to medications or problems with products; to enable product recalls, repairs and replacement; * Notify a person who has been exposed to a communicable disease or who may be at risk of contracting or spreading a disease; * Report disease, injury, vital events as required by law; * Assist with public health surveillance, investigations and interventions; * Notify an employer about an individual who is a member of the workforce as legally required.

Abuse, Neglect Or Domestic Violence: We may disclose information about you to social service or government authorities if we believe you have been the victim of abuse, neglect, exploitation, or domestic violence if you agree or if we are required by law and we believe it is necessary to prevent serious harm.

Health Oversight Activities: We may disclose your health information to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law. These many include audits, civil administrative or criminal investigations, inspections, licensure or disciplinary action. Home Care Plus, however, may not disclose your health information if you are the subject of an investigation and your health information is not directly related to your receipt of health care or public benefits.

Judicial And Administrative Proceedings: We may disclose your health information in response to a subpoena, discovery request or other lawful process, but only when Home Care Plus makes reasonable efforts to either notify you about the request or to obtain an order protecting your health information.

Law Enforcement: we may release health information if asked to do so by a law enforcement official as part of law enforcement activities; in investigations of criminal conduct or of victims of crime; in response to court orders; in emergency circumstances, or when required to do so by law.

To Coroners And Medical Examiners: We may disclose your health information to coroners and medical examiners for purposes of determining your cause of death or for other duties, as authorized by law.

Funeral Directors: We may disclose your health information to funeral directors consistent with applicable law and if necessary, to carry out their duties with respect to your funeral arrangements. If necessary to carry out their duties, Home Care Plus may disclose your health information prior to and in reasonable anticipation of your death.

For Workers' Compensation: We may release health information about you to workers' compensation or similar programs.

Research: We may use and disclose health information about you for officially approved research as permitted by law, when a waiver of authorization is obtained from an Institutional Review Board or a Privacy Board or through a limited set of information. Otherwise, we will only use or disclose your information for research with your specific authorization.

Organ and Tissue Donation: We may release your health information to organ procurement organizations or other entities engaged in the procurement, banking or transplantation of organs, eyes or tissue for the purpose of facilitating the donation and transplantation.

Military and Veterans: If you are a member of the armed forces, we may release health information about you as required by military authorities.

Specified Government Functions: In certain circumstances, the federal regulations authorize Home Care Plus to use or disclose your health information to facilitate specified government functions relating to military and veterans, national security and intelligence activities, protective services for the President and others, medical suitability determinations and inmates and law enforcement custody.

OTHER USES OF MEDICAL INFORMATION:
Other than is stated above, Home Care Plus will not disclose your health information other than with your written authorization. If you or your representative authorizes Home Care Plus to use or disclose your health information, you may revoke that authorization in writing at any time. If you revoke your permission, thereafter we will no longer use or disclose medical information about you for the reasons covered by your written authorization. You must understand that we are unable to take back any disclosures we have already made with your permission, and that we are required to retain our records of the care that we provided to you.

YOUR RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION

You have the following rights regarding your health information that Home Care Plus maintains:

Right to inspect and copy your health information. You have the right to inspect and copy your health information that may be used by Home Care Plus to make decisions about you. Usually, this includes medical and billing records, but it does not include psychotherapy notes.

To make a request to inspect and copy your health information, you must submit your request in writing to our Privacy Officer. If you request a copy of the information, we may charge a fee for the cost of copying and postage.

We may deny your request to inspect and copy your information in certain very limited circumstances. If so, we will inform you of the denial, the reason for it, and how to request a review of the denial. A licensed health care professional not involved with the denial will review your request and the denial. We will comply with the outcome of the review.

Right to amend health care information. If you feel that your health information is incorrect or incomplete, you or your representative have the right to request that Home Care Plus amend the information. This request may be made as long as the information is maintained by our agency.

A request for an amendment of records must be made in writing to our Privacy Officer. In addition, you must provide a reason that supports your request. We may deny the request if it is not in writing or does not include a reason for the amendment. In addition, we may deny your request if you ask us to amend information that was created by another health care provider. But we will inform you of the source of that information if we know it. We may also deny your request if we believe the information is complete and accurate, and for other reasons as permitted by law.

Right to an accounting. You have the right to "an accounting of certain disclosures." This is a list or report of the disclosures we made of medical information about you for reasons other than your care, payment, and other agency purposes for which you did not sign an authorization.

To request this list or accounting of disclosures, you must submit your request in writing to our Privacy Officer. Your request must state a time period that may not be longer than six years prior to the request date and may not include dates before April 14, 2003. Home Care Plus will provide the first accounting you request during any 12-month period without charge. Subsequent accounting requests may be subject to a reasonable cost-based fee.

Right to request restrictions. You have the right to request a restriction or limitation on the medical information we use or disclose about you for treatment, payment, or agency operations. You also have the right to request a limit on the health information we disclose about you to someone who is involved in your care or the payment of your care, such as a family member or friend. We are not required to agree to your request. If we do agree, we will comply with your request unless the information is needed to provide you with emergency treatment.

To request restrictions, you must make your request in writing to our Privacy Officer. In your request, you must state: (1) what use or disclosure you want to limit, (2) what information you want to limit, and/or (3) to whom you want the limits to apply.

Right to receive confidential communications. You have the right to request that we communicate with you in a certain way or at a certain location. For example, you may ask that we only conduct communications pertaining to your health information with you privately with no other family members present. To request confidential communications, you must make your request in writing to our Privacy Officer. We will not ask your for the reason for your request and will attempt to honor your reasonable requests for confidential communications.

Right to a paper copy of this notice. You or your representative have a right to a paper copy of this Notice at any time even if you or your representative have received this Notice previously. To obtain a separate paper copy, please contact the Privacy Officer at 203-874-8414. (You may also obtain a copy of the current version of Home Care Plus' Notice of Privacy Practices at its website, www.homecareplus.org.)

CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE
We reserve the right to change this notice. We reserve the right to make the revised or changed notice effective for medical information we already have about you, as well as any information we receive in the future. If the Notice is changed, Home Care Plus will provide a copy of the revised Notice to you and your appointed representative. The Notice will contain the effective date in the top right hand corner of the first page.

COMPLAINTS
If you believe your privacy rights have been violated or Home Care Plus is not in compliance with these privacy practices, you may file a complaint with our agency's Privacy Officer or with the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). All complaints must be submitted in writing. All complaints will be investigated by Home Care Plus. You will not be penalized in any way for filing a complaint.

Complaints filed with the Secretary of DHHS must be in writing and sent within 180 days of when you knew (or should have know) that the act or omission occurred. Your letter must include: (1) the name of the agency or provider; and (2) a description of the acts or omission that you believe are in violation of privacy requirements. Send to the US Department of Health & Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, 200 Independence Avenue SW, Room F, HHH Building, Washington D.C. 20201.

PRIVACY OFFICER

Home Care Plus has designated a Privacy Officer as its contact person for all issues regarding patient privacy and your rights under the Federal privacy standards. To request any of the above rights, or for further information about this Notice please contact:
Joyce Lindsay, Privacy Office
Home Care Plus
309 Seaside Avenue
Milford, CT 06460
Telephone: 203-874-8414.