Our Practice

Asheville Arthritis & Osteoporosis Center is a full-service rheumatology practice caring for adults and children with arthritis, osteoporosis, and systemic autoimmune diseases and rheumatic diseases. Services available include:  a certified laboratory; radiology including digital x-ray, ultrasound, and bone density testing; and an infusion center for treatment of autoimmune disease and osteoporosis.

Systemic autoimmune and rheumatic diseases are conditions that occur when the immune system sends inflammation to areas of the body when it is not needed. This inappropriate inflammation causes symptoms and damage. These diseases can affect the joints, muscles, and bones causing pain, swelling, stiffness, and deformity. These diseases can also affect the eyes, skin, nervous system, and all other internal organs. Educational materials about conditions we treat are available here.

Inflammation of the joints (arthritis) is a major symptom of many of these disorders, but all other organ systems (such as muscles, heart, lungs, blood, kidneys, and skin) can be involved. Several of these diseases, such as gout and infectious arthritis, are well understood and the treatment is straightforward. Others, which involve alterations of the body’s immune system, such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, are less well understood and more difficult to treat.

Appointments

In order to serve our patients more effectively, our doctors see patients only by appointment. If you have signed up for our Patient Portal, you may request an appointment by logging in to the portal and sending a request. You can also make an appointment with one of our physicians by calling 828-258-9533 between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm Monday through Thursday and 8:00 am until 12:00 pm on Friday. If you are unable to keep your appointment please inform us at least 24 hours in advance so that other patients may be scheduled.

While we make every effort to remain on schedule, occasionally events occur that are unavoidable and can result in schedule delays. True emergencies of a life-threatening nature take priority over existing appointments and will be so handled. If the physician with whom you are scheduled is unavoidably detained by an emergency, you will be notified, if possible, so that you are not inconvenienced and will be offered the opportunity to reschedule within the immediate future.

Will I Still Need a Family Doctor?

It is best to have a family doctor or general internist in charge of your overall care. We will be working with this primary care physician, and he or she will direct your overall health care. Your primary care physician will be kept informed of the results of exams, studies, and treatment plans.

Prescription Refills

We encourage you to request refills for any medications from your physician at the time of your follow-up visits. This allows the doctor to thoroughly review your medications with you and to discuss potential side effects. You may also ask your pharmacy to electronically request refills via our ePrescription network. If you have signed up for our patient portal, you may request refills via the portal.

When absolutely necessary, prescription refills can be requested by calling your doctor’s nurse at 258-9533 during regular office hours. When calling about medications, please have your pharmacy’s telephone number available to expedite matters.

We feel that it is not good medical practice to renew routine medications without access to a patient’s medical record. For this reason, prescription refills should not be requested except during regular office hours. Certain medications, including pain medications and others to which Federal Drug Control regulations apply, will not be refilled outside of our regular office.

Employment Opportunities

Asheville is a sophisticated medical community, with an award winning medical center and an excellent variety of well trained medical and surgical specialists. Asheville itself is a notable destination, located in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, often listed in national magazines as a top ten location for travel, retirement, mountain sports, and more.

Interested applicants may send their CV to gaye@ashevillearthritis.com.

We are committed to protect the privacy of your protected health information (PHI).

This Notice of Privacy Practices (Notice) describes how we may use within our practice or network and disclose (share outside of our practice or network) your PHI to carry out treatment, payment or health care operations. We may also share your information for other purposes that are permitted or required by law. This Notice also describes your rights to access and control your PHI.

We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your PHI. We will follow the terms outlined in this Notice.

We may change our Notice, at any time. Any changes will apply to all PHI. Upon your request, we will provide you with any revised Notice by:

• Posting the new Notice in our office.
• If requested, making copies of the new Notice available in our office or by mail.
• Posting the revised Notice on our website at www.ashevillearthritis.com

Uses and Disclosures of Protected Health Information

We may use or disclose (share) your PHI to provide health care treatment for you.

Your PHI may be used and disclosed by your physician, our office staff and others outside of our office that are involved in your care and treatment for the purpose of providing health care services to you.

EXAMPLE: Your PHI may be provided to a physician to whom you have been referred for evaluation to ensure that the physician has the necessary information to diagnose or treat you. We may also share your PHI from time-to-time to another physician or health care provider (e.g., a specialist or laboratory) who, at the request of your physician, becomes involved in your care by providing assistance with your health care diagnosis or treatment to your physician.

We may also share your PHI with people outside of our practice that may provide medical care for you such as home health agencies.

We may use and disclose your PHI to obtain payment for services. We may provide your PHI to others in order to bill or collect payment for services. There may be services for which we share information with your health plan to determine if the service will be paid for.

PHI may be shared with the following:

• Billing companies
• Insurance companies, health plans
• Government agencies in order to assist with qualification of benefits
• Collection agencies

We may use or disclose, as-needed, your PHI in order to support the business activities of this practice which are called health care operations.

EXAMPLES:

• Training students, other health care providers, or ancillary staff such as billing personnel to help them learn or improve their skills.
• Quality improvement processes which look at delivery of health care and for improvement in processes which will provide safer, more effective care for you.
• Use of information to assist in resolving problems or complaints within the practice.

We may use and disclose your PHI in other situations without your permission:

• If required by law: The use or disclosure will be made in compliance with the law and will be limited to the relevant requirements of the law.
• Public health activities: The disclosure will be made for the purpose of controlling disease, injury or disability and only to public health authorities permitted by law to collect or receive information. We may also notify individuals who may have been exposed to a disease or may be at risk of contracting or spreading a disease or condition.
• Health oversight agencies: We may disclose protected health information to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law, such as audits, investigations, and inspections. Oversight agencies seeking this information include government agencies that oversee the health care system, government benefit programs, other government regulatory programs and civil rights laws.
• Legal proceedings: To assist in any legal proceeding or in response to a court order, in certain conditions in response to a subpoena, or other lawful process.
• Police or other law enforcement purposes: The release of PHI will meet all applicable legal requirements for release.
• Special government purposes: Information may be shared for national security purposes, or if you are a member of a military, to the military under limited circumstances.
• Correctional institutions: Information may be shared if you are an inmate or under custody of law which is necessary for your health or the health and safety of other individuals.

Other uses and disclosures of your health information.

• Business Associates: Some services are provided through the use of contracted entities called “Business Associates”. We will always release only the minimum amount of PHI necessary so that the business associate can perform the identified services. We require the business associate(s) to appropriately safeguard your information.
• Health Information Exchange: We may make your health information available electronically to other healthcare providers outside of our facility who are involved in your care.
• Treatment alternatives: We may provide you notice of treatment options or other health related services that may improve your overall health.
• Appointment Reminders: We may contact you as a reminder about upcoming appointments or treatment.

We may use or disclose your PHI in the following situations UNLESS you object.

• We may share your information with family members, or other persons directly identified by you at the level they are involved in your care or payment of services. If you are not present or able to agree/object, the healthcare provider using professional judgment will determine if it is in your best interest to share the information. For example, we may discuss post procedure instructions with the person who drove you to the facility unless you tell us specifically not to share the information.
• We may use or disclose protected health information to notify or assist in notifying a family member, personal representative or any other person that is responsible for your care of your location, general condition or death.
• We may use or disclose your protected health information to an authorized public or private entity to assist in disaster relief efforts.

The following uses and disclosures of PHI require your written authorization:

• Marketing
• Disclosures of for any purposes which require the sale of your information
• Release of psychotherapy notes: Psychotherapy notes are notes by a mental health professional for the purpose of documenting a conversation during a private session. This session could be with an individual or with a group. These notes are kept separate from the rest of the medical record and do not include: medications and how they affect you, start and stop time of counseling sessions, types of treatments provided, results of tests, diagnosis, treatment plan, symptoms, prognosis.

All other uses and disclosures not recorded in this Notice will require a written authorization from you or your personal representative.

Written authorization simply explains how you want your information used and disclosed. Your written authorization may be revoked at any time, in writing. Except to the extent that your doctor or this practice has used or released information based on the direction provided in the authorization, no further use or disclose will occur.

Your Privacy Rights

You have certain rights related to your protected health information. All requests to exercise your rights must be made in writing. Request should be addressed to the Practice Administrator at Asheville Arthritis & Osteoporosis Center, 4 Vanderbilt Park Dr., Suite 200, Asheville, N.C. 28803.

You have the right to see and obtain a copy of your protected health information.

This means you have the right to review or obtain a copy of your protected health information. If requested we will provide you a copy of your records in an electronic format. There are some exceptions to records which may be copied and the request may be denied. We may charge you a reasonable cost based fee for a copy of the records.

You have the right to request a restriction of your protected health information.

You may request for this practice not to use or disclose any part of your protected health information for the purposes of treatment, payment or healthcare operations. We are not required to agree with these requests. If we agree to a restriction request we will honor the restriction request unless the information is needed to provide emergency treatment.

Here is one exception: we must accept a restriction request to restrict disclosure of information to a health plan if you pay out of pocket in full for a service or product unless it is otherwise required by law.

You have the right to request for us to communicate in different ways or in different locations.

We will agree to reasonable requests. We may also request alternative address or other method of contact such as mailing information to a post office box. We will not ask for an explanation from you about the request.

You may have the right to request an amendment of your health information.

You may request an amendment of your health information if you feel that the information is not correct along with an explanation of the reason for the request. In certain cases, we may deny your request for an amendment at which time you will have an opportunity to disagree.

You have the right to a list of people or organizations who have received your health information from us.

This right applies to disclosures for purposes other than treatment, payment or healthcare operations. You have the right to obtain a listing of these disclosures that occurred after April 14, 2003. You may request them for the previous six years or a shorter timeframe. If you request more than one list within a 12 month period you may be charged a reasonable fee.

Additional Privacy Rights

• You have the right to obtain a paper copy of this notice from us, upon request. We will provide you a copy of this Notice the first day we treat you at our facility. In an emergency situation we will give you this Notice as soon as possible.
• You have a right to receive notification of any breach of your protected health information.

Complaints

If you think we have violated your rights or you have a complaint about our privacy practices you can contact:

Asheville Arthritis & Osteoporosis Center
Attn: Practice Administrator
4 Vanderbilt Park Dr., Suite 200
Asheville, N.C. 28803

You may also complain to the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights have been violated by us.

If you file a complaint we will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.

This notice was published and becomes effective on September 17, 2013.