Protected by the Privacy Practices of Original Medicare

Medicare is legally required to protect your privacy when it comes to your personal medical information. This doesn’t mean that your information is never shared; rather, it means that Medicare follows specific practices in order to protect you.

According to Medicare’s “Notice of Privacy Practices for the Original Medicare Plan”, there are a number of instances where they may use and give out your personal medical information. For instance, they can use your personal medical information to provide information to you or to your personal representative and to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (where required by law).

They may use your information in order to pay or deny your claims, collect premiums, share your benefit payment with your other insurers, or prepare Medicare Summary Notices.

Additionally, Medicare can use your personal medical information to ensure you and other people enrolled in Medicare are getting quality health care. They can use it to provide you with customer services, resolve complaints, or contact you about research studies.

There are also a number of limited circumstances under which Medicare is able to use or give out your personal medical information. These include, but are not limited to, reporting disease outbreaks, investigations of fraud, responding to a court order, and avoiding a severe threat to health and safety. If Medicare intends to use or share your personal Medicare information for any reason not identified in their “Notice of Privacy Practices of Original Medicare”, they are required to receive your written authorization.

To see the complete list of circumstances and to find out more information about Medicare’s Privacy Practices, visit http://www.medicare.gov/privacypractices.asp.