For public health activities, including: to a public health authority for preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability; for purposes related to the quality, safety or effectiveness of an FDA-regulated product or activity; to a person who may have been exposed to a communicable disease or may otherwise be at risk of contracting or spreading a disease or condition; to an employer, about an individual who is a member of the workforce of the employer; and to a school, about an individual who is a student or prospective student of the school;

About an individual whom we reasonably believe to be a victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence to a public health authority or government authority, including a social service or protective services agency;

To a health oversight agency for oversight activities authorized by law or necessary for appropriate oversight, including audits, investigations, inspections, and other actions;

In the course of any judicial or administrative proceeding, if expressly authorized by a court or administrative tribunal order or in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process;

For a law enforcement purpose to a law enforcement official: if pursuant to process or as otherwise required by law; to identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person; about an individual who is or is suspected to be a victim of a crime; to alert law enforcement of a death, if we suspect the death resulted from criminal conduct; if we believe it constitutes evidence of criminal conduct on our premises; and in response to a medical emergency, if necessary to alert law enforcement to the commission and nature of a crime, the location or victim(s) of such crime, and the identity, description, and location of the perpetrator;

To a coroner or medical examiner for the purpose of identifying a deceased person, determining a cause of death, or other duties;

To organ procurement organizations or other entities engaged in the procurement, banking, or transplantation of cadaveric organs, eyes, or tissue for the purpose of facilitating transplantation;

For research, under certain conditions, regardless of the source of funding of the research;

To a person or persons reasonably able to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public, including to the target of the threat, if we believe, in good faith, the use or disclosure is necessary, or to law enforcement authorities to identify or apprehend an individual;

For specialized government functions, including: if you are Armed Forces personnel, activities deemed necessary by appropriate military command authorities to assure the proper execution of the military mission; to federal officials for lawful intelligence, counter-intelligence, and other national security activities, the provision of protective services to the President, foreign heads of state, or other authorized persons, or for certain investigations; and about an inmate or individual to a correctional institution or a law enforcement official having lawful custody of such inmate or other individual; and

As authorized by, and to comply with, laws relating to workers’ compensation or other similar programs, established by law, that provide benefits for work-related injuries or illness without regard to fault.

We may use or disclose your protected health information for the following purposes, provided that we inform you in advance of the use or disclosure and give you the opportunity to agree to or prohibit or restrict the use or disclosure. We may orally inform you of and obtain your oral agreement or objection to these uses and disclosures.

Involvement with care or payment: we may disclose to a family member, other relative, close personal friend, or any other person identified by you, the protected health information directly relevant to such person’s involvement with your health care or payment related to your health care.

Notification: we may use or disclose your protected health information to notify or assist in the notification of (including identifying or locating), a family member, your personal representative, or another person responsible for your care, of your location, general condition, or death.

Disaster Relief: we may use or disclose your protected health information to entities authorized by law to assist in disaster relief efforts, for the purpose of coordinating notification as described above.

If you are present for, or available prior to, the uses and disclosures in the immediately preceding paragraph, we may only use or disclose your protected health information if: 1) we obtain your agreement, 2) we provide you the opportunity to object and you do not object, or 3) we reasonably infer in our professional judgment that you do not object. If you are not present, or if the opportunity to agree or object cannot be provided because of your incapacity or an emergency, we will exercise our professional judgment to determine whether the disclosure is in your best interests and will disclose only the information directly relevant to the person’s involvement or needed for notification purposes. If you are deceased, we may disclose protected health information relevant to a family member or other person who was involved in your care or payment for health care prior to your death, unless doing so is inconsistent with your prior expressed preference known to us.

Any uses or disclosures of your protected health information not listed above, or otherwise required by law, will be made only with your written authorization, which you may revoke in writing at any time. Upon receipt of your written revocation of an authorization, Cape and Islands Home Healthcare will cease to use or disclose your protected health information in the previously authorized manner. The written authorization requirement includes most uses and disclosures of psychotherapy notes, most uses and disclosures of protected health information for marketing purposes, and the sale of protected health information.