Notice of HIPAA 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.

Air Methods Corporation is required by law to maintain the privacy of certain confidential healthcare information (known as Protected Health Information or “PHI”), to provide you and other individuals with a notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your PHI, and to notify affected individuals following a breach of unsecured PHI. Air Methods Corporation is also required to abide by the terms of the version of this notice currently in effect. Your PHI may be stored electronically and is subject to electronic disclosure.

Uses and Disclosures of PHI.

Air Methods Corporation may use and disclose PHI for the purposes of treatment, payment, and healthcare operations.

For treatment: We may use and disclose your PHI to provide you with our services. This includes such things as obtaining information about your medical condition and treatment from you as well as from others, such as doctors and nurses who give orders to allow us to provide treatment to you. We may give your PHI to other healthcare providers involved in your treatment, including hospitals or dispatch centers.

For payment: We may use and disclose your PHI in order to get reimbursed for the services we provide to you, including such activities as submitting bills to insurance companies, making medical necessity determinations, and collecting on outstanding accounts. We may provide PHI to entities that help us submit bills and collect amounts owed, such as a collection agency. We may also disclose PHI to other providers who treat you for their own payment purposes.

For healthcare operations: We may use and disclose your health information for operational purposes. This includes quality assurance activities, licensing, and training programs to ensure that our personnel meet our standards of care and follow established policies and procedures, as well as certain other management functions. In certain situations, we may also disclose PHI to other providers who treat you for their own healthcare operations.

Health Information Exchange: We may participate in one or more health information exchanges and may use and disclose your PHI through these exchanges for certain purposes described in this notice. For example, we may obtain your information from other participants in a health information exchange that have treated you in order to coordinate your care. We may use a health information exchange to obtain information for payment for the care you receive. We may disclose your health information to an electronic health information registry to report certain diseases or for other public health purposes.

Other uses and disclosures of PHI Without your Authorization. 

Air Methods Corporation may use and disclose PHI without your written authorization as follows:

  • We may disclose your PHI as required by law. For example, we are required to disclose information about you to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services if it requests such information to determine that we are complying with federal privacy law.
  • We may disclose PHI to a family member, other relative, or close personal friend or other individual involved in your care or payment for your care if we obtain your verbal agreement to do so or if we give you an opportunity to object to such a disclosure and you do not raise an objection. We may also disclose PHI to disaster relief agencies to assist them in notifying those involved in your care of your location and general condition. If you are not present, you are incapacitated, or there is an emergency, we may, using our professional judgment, determine that it is in your best interests for us to disclose PHI that is directly relevant to the person’s involvement with your care.
  • We may use and disclose your PHI for public health activities such as assisting public health authorities to prevent or control disease, injury, or disability; reporting reactions to medications or problems with products; enabling product recalls; repairs or replacements to the FDA; and conducting post marketing surveillance.
  • We may disclose PHI to government authorities if we believe that an individual is the victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence. We will make such disclosures only when required or authorized by law or the individual agrees to the disclosure.
  • We may disclose PHI for health oversight activities including audits or government investigations, inspections, disciplinary proceedings, and other administrative or judicial actions undertaken by the government (or their contractors) by law to oversee the healthcare system.
  • We may disclose PHI for judicial and administrative proceedings as required by a court or administrative order, or in some cases, in response to a subpoena or other legal process.
  • We may disclose PHI to law enforcement officials in limited situations, such as when responding to a warrant or to assist in apprehending a suspect.
  • We may disclose your PHI for military, national defense, security, and other special government functions.
  • We may disclose your PHI as necessary to avert a serious threat to the health and safety of you or any other person or the public at large.
  • We may use and disclose PHI for workers’ compensation purposes, and in compliance with workers’ compensation laws.
  • We may disclose PHI to coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors for identifying a deceased person, determining cause of death, or carrying on their duties as authorized by law.
  • If you are an organ donor, we may release health information to organizations that handle organ procurement or organ, eye, or tissue transplantation or to an organ donation bank, as necessary to facilitate organ donation and transplantation.
  • We may use and disclose PHI for research projects, but this will be subject to strict oversight and approvals.
  • We may disclose PHI to third parties called “business associates” that perform services for us and that agree by written contract to protect the privacy and security of your PHI.

Other Uses and Disclosures of PHI.

Any use or disclosure of PHI other than those listed above will only be made with your written authorization. Subject to compliance with limited exceptions, we will not use or disclose psychotherapy notes, use or disclose your PHI for marketing purposes, or sell your PHI unless you have signed an authorization. You may revoke such a written authorization in writing at any time. Upon receipt of the written revocation, we will stop using or disclosing PHI about you, except to the extent that we have already used or disclosed PHI in reliance on that authorization.

Patients Rights

As a patient, you have a number of rights with respect to your PHI, including:

The right to access, copy or inspect your PHI: You may inspect and obtain a copy of your health information that we maintain, or direct us to send a copy of your health information to another person designated by you in writing. In most cases we will provide this access to you, or the person you designate, within 30 days of your request. We may also charge you a reasonable fee for the costs of copying, mailing or other supplies associated with your request. In certain cases we may deny your request, and you may appeal certain types of denials. We have available forms to request access to your PHI and we will provide a written response if we deny you access and let you know your appeal rights. If you wish to request access to or a copy of your PHI, you should contact our privacy officer at the address listed at the end of this notice.

The right to confidential communications: You may request a confidential communication of your health information by alternative means or at alternative locations. If you wish to request confidential communications, you should contact our privacy officer at the address listed at the end of this notice.

The right to amend your PHI: You have the right to ask us to amend written medical information that we may have about you. We will generally amend your information within 60 days of your request and will notify you when we have amended the information. We may deny your request to amend your medical information only in certain circumstances, like when we believe the record you have asked us to amend is complete and accurate. You have the right to submit a written statement disagreeing with the denial which will be included with any subsequent disclosure. If you wish to request that we amend the medical information that we have about you, you should contact our Privacy Officer at the address listed at the end of this notice.

The right to request an accounting: You may request an accounting (a list) from us of certain disclosures of your PHI that we have made in the six years prior to the date of your request. We are not required to give you an accounting of disclosures for purposes of treatment, payment or healthcare operations, or for disclosures you authorize. If you wish to request an accounting, you should contact our privacy officer at the address listed at the end of this notice.

The right to request that we restrict the uses and disclosures of your PHI: You have the right to request restrictions on our use or disclosure of your PHI for purposes of treatment, payment, or healthcare operations. Your request must state the specific restriction and to whom you want the restriction to apply. We are not required to agree to those restrictions, unless the disclosure is to a health plan for a payment or healthcare operation purpose and is not otherwise required by law, and the PHI relates solely to a healthcare item or service for which we have been paid out-of-pocket in full. If you wish to request a restriction, contact our privacy officer at the address at the end of this notice.

If you have given another individual a medical power of attorney, or if another individual is appointed as your legal guardian or is authorized by law to act on your behalf, that individual may exercise any of the rights listed above for you. We will confirm this individual has the authority to act on your behalf before we take any action.

Internet, Electronic Mail, and the Right to Obtain Copy if Paper Notice on Request: We will prominently post a copy of this Notice on our website. If you allow us, we may forward you this Notice by electronic mail instead of on paper. You may always request a paper copy of the Notice, even if you have previously agreed to receive an electronic copy.

Revisions to this Notice.

Air Methods Corporation reserves the right to change the terms of this Notice at any time, and the changes will be effective immediately and will apply to all protected health information that we maintain. Any material changes to the Notice will be promptly posted to our website. You can get a copy of the latest version of this Notice by contacting our privacy officer.

You also have the right to complain to us, or to the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, if you believe your privacy rights have been violated. You will not be retaliated against in any way for filing a complaint with us or to the government.

Contact Us

Should you have any questions, comments or complaints, please direct them to our privacy officer:

Privacy Officer
Air Methods Corporation
5500 South Quebec Street, Suite 300
Greenwood Village, CO 80111

Phone: 303-792-7400
Email: 

For questions about your account, please call our Patient Advocacy Team at 855-896-9067.

Effective Date of this Notice:

March 11, 2021