Contact Us
Integrity & Compliance Program
3430 Burnett Avenue
Cincinnati, OH
Report a Concern:
1-800-856-1947
EthicsPoint Website
On February 21, 2024, Change Healthcare Inc. (CHC), a service provider to Cincinnati Children’s and many other healthcare organizations in the U.S., identified a deployment of ransomware in its computer system. CHC took steps to stop the attack and contacted law enforcement, but healthcare data was compromised. On April 22, 2024, CHC confirmed the impacted data could cover a substantial proportion of people in America.
CHC is reviewing the impacted data containing protected health information (PHI) and is notifying affected customers and individuals. So far, Cincinnati Children’s has NOT been notified that any PHI involving our patients was affected. However, CHC has posted a HIPAA Substitute Notice to provide more information on the incident, information on protecting your privacy, and information on enrolling in complimentary credit monitoring and identity theft protection services for individuals concerned their data may have been affected. We encourage you to review this information.
Additional information on the incident and enrolling in CHC’s offered services can be found at www.changecybersupport.com or by calling 1-866-262-5342.
CHC’s complete HIPAA Substitute Notice can be found at www.changehealthcare.com/hipaa-substitute-notice.
We will continue to monitor for additional updates from CHC.
This notice describes how information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. We follow the law as mandated in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (Cincinnati Children’s) is required by law to maintain the privacy of patient protected health information, provide patients with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices regarding protected health information, and notify individuals when a breach of unsecured protected health information occurs. We understand that your health information is highly personal. We are committed to safeguarding your privacy.
Please read this Notice thoroughly. It describes how we may use and disclose your protected health information for treatment, payment, and health care operations purposes, and for other purposes that the law allows. It also describes your legal right to access and control the use and disclosure of your protected health information.
The rights outlined below belong to the patient or the patient’s personal representative, which is the patient’s parent, legal guardian or any person that has the legal authority to represent the interests of the patient and act on the patient’s behalf. If there is any question as to whether a person is legally qualified to act as a patient’s personal representative, please contact the Privacy Officer at the phone number or address listed at the end of this Notice.
This Notice covers information about your health condition, health care treatment, or payment for health care treatment that could reasonably identify who you are. It includes information in the possession of any Cincinnati Children’s department or division. This Notice applies to all personnel, volunteers, contractors, or anyone working here who might have access to your health information.
We have an Organized Health Care Arrangement Agreement with our Medical Staff, which makes this Notice and the rights and obligations contained herein, applicable to both Cincinnati Children's and to our Medical Staff when they are providing services to patients here.
We are permitted to use or disclose to others outside Cincinnati Children’s your health information without permission from you for three basic types of activities:
We are permitted to use your health information or disclose it to others outside Cincinnati Children’s to provide proper medical care to you. This means we can provide your health information to nurses, technicians, doctors, medical students, or outside laboratories involved in your care.
For example, dietitians may need to know your condition if it requires special meals; X-ray and laboratory technicians may need to know your condition to conduct the proper test; other physicians may need to have your information to advise those providing your care.
In some circumstances, we may require you to complete an Authorization form for disclosure of your protected health information to an outside health care provider.
We are permitted to use your health information or disclose it to others outside Cincinnati Children’s to submit bills for the care and services you receive.
For example, information about your care or services may be sent to your insurance company, a government insurance program, or another company that processes the information and submits it for payment
We may also provide information to your health plan about treatment you may receive so they may determine whether you are covered for that care.
We are permitted to use your health information or disclose it to others outside Cincinnati Children’s in order to run the hospital and ensure high quality care.
For example, we may use or disclose your information to review how we provide care to you, help us improve how we operate the hospital, meet compliance or licensing requirements, or send you appointment reminders.
There are some other situations in which we may use your information or disclose it to others outside Cincinnati Children’s without a written authorization from you, such as:
We may use or disclose your health information to tell you about or recommend possible treatment-related options, activities, or alternatives that may be helpful to you.
We may use or disclose your health information to tell you about health-related benefits or services that may be of interest to you.
We may contact you to raise funds for Cincinnati Children’s, and you have the right to opt out of receiving fund-raising communications. We may use or disclose your health information to contact you for fundraising activities for or by Cincinnati Children’s or on our behalf by others.
In fundraising, we will only use or disclose demographic information (name, address and contact information, age, gender, and date of birth) and health insurance status, dates of care provided, department of service, treating physician, and outcome information.
If you do not want to be contacted for fundraising efforts, you must notify the Director of Business Operations in writing at Department of Development, MLC 9002, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229-3039.
We may include your name, hospital location, general condition, and religious affiliation in the hospital’s electronic patient directory while you are a patient at the hospital.
This information, except for your religious affiliation, may be disclosed to any person, including a member of the media who asks for you by name.
Your religious affiliation may be given to a member of the clergy.
During registration, you will be given an opportunity to withhold your information from the patient directory. If, at any time, you wish to remove your information from the patient directory, you must notify the registration desk or a customer service representative.
During times of treatment, we will disclose your health information to you or your personal representative.
We may also disclose your health information to individuals involved in your care or payment for your care that relates to that involvement or to an entity assisting in a disaster relief effort so that your family can be notified about your condition, status, and location.
Under certain circumstances, we may use and disclose your health information for research purposes. For example, we may disclose your information to researchers preparing to conduct an investigation to help them look for patients with specific medical conditions.
We will disclose your information when required by law.
We may use and disclosure your information for public health activities, such as reporting of diseases, injuries, vital events, or exposures to communicable diseases.
We may use and disclosure your information to a health oversight agency responsible for overseeing, for example, the health care system or government benefits and regulatory programs.
In some circumstances, such as if we believe a crime has been or is being committed on our premises, in an emergency, or for national security purposes, we may disclose limited information to law enforcement officials.
We may use and disclose your health information to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or the health and safety of the public or another person. Any disclosure, however, would only be to someone able to help prevent the threat.
If you are an organ donor and/or recipient, we may release medical information to organizations that handle organ procurement or organ, eye or tissue transplantation or to an organ donation bank to support the process.
These entities include, but are not limited to, Ohio Solid Organ Transplant Consortium, United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) and Ohio Valley Life Center.
We are not permitted to use your information in order to conduct marketing activities unless you have specifically authorized the communication.
Psychotherapy notes are notes recorded by a mental health professional that document or analyze the contents of a conversation in a counseling session and are kept separated from the rest of your medical record. There are very limited circumstances in which we will use or disclose psychotherapy notes without a written authorization from you.
The originator of the notes may use them for treatment purposes. Cincinnati Children’s may use psychotherapy notes in its own mental health counseling training programs.
We may also use psychotherapy notes in defense of a legal action or other proceeding brought by you, as required by law, or to avert a serious threat to a person’s or the public's health or safety.
We are not permitted to sell your information unless you have specifically authorized the disclosure.
In order for us to use or disclose your information, other than as described in the previous section, we will generally need to obtain your written authorization which you may revoke at any time to stop any future uses and disclosures.
You have the right to look at or have a copy of your health information, except for psychotherapy notes; information that may be used in a civil, criminal or administrative action or proceeding; or where prohibited by law.
Cincinnati Children's may also deny you or your personal representative access to your health information if a licensed health care provider determines that releasing it could endanger or cause substantial harm to you or someone else. If you are denied access under these circumstances, you may appeal that decision and another licensed health care professional at Cincinnati Children’s who did not make the original decision to deny your request will review the request and provide a written response to you.
A request for inspection or a copy of your health information must be in writing and directed to Health Information Management (MLC 5015) or Professional Billing Services/Patient Financial Services (MLC 9013), Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229. We will charge a fee for copying costs.
If you believe the information we have about you is incorrect or if important information is missing, you have the right to request that we correct the existing information or add the missing information.
The request must be in writing and directed to Health Information Management (MLC 5015), Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229.
You may request that when we send your information to you, we do so in a specific way that is convenient for you, such as only using a work number or by mail. We are not required to follow your request, but we will make every reasonable effort to do so or find a mutually satisfactory alternative.
You also have the right to receive a list of instances where we have disclosed your health information to others for reasons other than for purposes of treatment, payment, operations, national security or intelligence, or to notify persons involved in your care, or for use a facility directory, to you or persons involved in your care, or as a part of a limited data set, or as authorized by you.
The request must be in writing and directed to Health Information Management (MLC 5015), Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229.
You may request in writing that we not use or disclose your information for treatment (other than emergency treatment), payment, or operations purposes, or to individuals involved in your care, unless required by law.
We will consider your request and respond, but we are not required to accept the request. However, we will accept a request for a restriction on a disclosure of your information to a health for payment or operations purposes, if not otherwise required by law, if the information pertains solely to an item or service for which or someone other than a health plan on your behalf has paid in full.
You have the right to obtain a paper copy of this Notice upon request.
We are required to protect the privacy of your information, establish Policies and Procedures that do so, provide this Notice about our privacy practices, and to follow the practices described in this Notice.
We reserve the right to change our Policies and Procedures for protecting health information. When we make a significant change in how we use or disclose your health information, we will also change this Notice and post the new Notice in waiting rooms and registration areas. You can request a written copy of the most recent version of this Notice at any time. It is also posted on our website at www.cincinnatichildrens.org.
If you believe we have not properly protected your privacy, have violated your privacy rights, or you disagree with a decision we made about access to your protected health information, you may contact our Privacy Officer at the address listed below.
You also may send a written complaint to the US Department of Health and Human Services. The Cincinnati Children’s Privacy Officer can provide you with the appropriate address upon request. There will not be retaliation against those who choose to file a complaint.
To act on any of the information provided in this Notice or for more information about our privacy practices, you may contact our Privacy Officer.
Phone: 1-800-344-2462 or 513-636-4707
Fax: 513-636-4076
Email: privacyofficer@cchmc.org
Mail:
Cincinnati Children's Privacy Officer
Risk Management / Corporate Compliance, MLC 9010
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
3333 Burnet Ave.
Cincinnati, OH 45229-3039
This Notice was issued on August 15, 2013.
ESTE AVISO DESCRIBE CÓMO SE PUEDE USAR Y DIVULGAR LA INFORMACIÓN MÉDICA SOBRE USTED Y CÓMO USTED PUEDE TENER ACCESO A ESTA INFORMACIÓN.POR FAVOR, LÉALO CON CUIDADO.
La ley exige a Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (Cincinnati Children’s - Hospital Pediátrico y Centro Médico de Cincinnati) que mantenga la privacidad de la información de salud protegida de los pacientes, que proporcione a los pacientes aviso de nuestras obligaciones legales y prácticas de privacidad con respecto a información de salud protegida y que notifique a las personas cuando ocurra una infracción con respecto a información de salud protegida no segura. Entendemos que su información de salud es muy personal. Tenemos el compromiso de proteger su privacidad.
Lea este Aviso en su totalidad. En el aviso se describe cómo podemos usar y divulgar su información de salud protegida para propósitos relacionados con tratamiento, pago y operaciones de atención de salud y para otros propósitos que la ley permite. También se describe su derecho legal a tener acceso y controlar el uso y divulgación de su información de salud protegida.
Los derechos indicados a continuación pertenecen al paciente o al representante personal del paciente, que es el padre, madre o tutor legal del paciente o cualquier persona que tiene autoridad legal para representar los intereses del paciente y actuar en nombre del paciente. Si hay alguna duda sobre si una persona está calificada legalmente para actuar como representante personal de un paciente, comuníquese con el Encargado de Privacidad al teléfono o dirección mencionados al final de este Aviso.
Este Aviso cubre información sobre su condición de salud, tratamiento de atención de salud o pago por tratamiento de atención de salud que podría de manera razonable permitir identificar quién es usted. Incluye información en posesión de cualquier departamento o división de Cincinnati Children’s. Este Aviso se aplica a todo el personal, voluntarios, contratistas o cualquier persona que trabaje aquí y que pueda tener acceso a su información de salud. Tenemos un Acuerdo de criterios para atención de salud organizada con nuestro personal médico, que hace que este Aviso y los derechos y obligaciones contenidos en este documento sean aplicables tanto a Cincinnati Children’s como a nuestro personal médico cuando están proporcionando servicios a los pacientes aquí.
Se nos permite usar o divulgar a terceros fuera de Cincinnati Children’s su información de salud sin su permiso para tres tipos básicos de actividades:
Hay algunas otras situaciones en las que podemos usar su información o divulgarla a otras personas fuera de Cincinnati Children’s sin su autorización por escrito, por ejemplo:
Se nos exige que protejamos la privacidad de su información, que establezcamos Políticas y Procedimientos para hacerlo, que proporcionemos este Aviso sobre nuestras prácticas de privacidad y que sigamos las prácticas que se describen en este Aviso.
Nos reservamos el derecho de cambiar nuestras Políticas y Procedimientos para proteger la información de salud. Cuando hagamos un cambio significativo en la manera en que usamos o divulgamos su información de salud, cambiaremos también este Aviso y publicaremos el nuevo Aviso en salas de espera y áreas para registro. Puede pedir una copia por escrito de la versión más reciente de este Aviso en cualquier momento. También se publica en nuestro sitio web en www.cincinnatichildrens.org.
Si cree que no hemos protegido de manera adecuada su privacidad, que hemos infringido sus derechos de privacidad, o no está de acuerdo con una decisión que hemos tomado sobre el acceso a su información de salud protegida, puede comunicarse con nuestro encargado de privacidad en la dirección que se menciona a continuación. También puede enviar una queja por escrito al U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. El Encargado de Privacidad de Cincinnati Children’s puede proporcionarles la dirección correspondiente si lo solicitan. No se tomarán medidas contra quienes decidan presentar una queja.
Para actuar con respecto a cualquier información proporcionada en este Aviso o para obtener más información sobre nuestras prácticas de privacidad, puede contactar a nuestro Encargado de Privacidad, teléfono: 1-800-344-2462 o 513-636-4707; fax: 513-636-4076; correo electrónico: privacyofficer@cchmc.org; o por correo: CCHMC Privacy Officer, Risk Management/Corporate Compliance, MLC 9010. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229-3039.
FECHA DE VIGENCIA DE ESTE AVISO
Este Aviso fue emitido el 15 Agosto, 2013.
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has developed social media sites to share information, videos, comments and more. These social media sites include Facebook and LinkedIn, but this policy is intended to address all similar "community sites" with user-generated content. By accessing, viewing and/or posting any content to any of these sites you agree to the following terms of use:
This is how Cincinnati Children’s will handle information learned about you from your visit to our website. The information we receive depends upon what you do when visiting our site. For each visitor to the website, the Cincinnati Children’s web server automatically recognizes the consumer’s domain name and email address (where possible).
Cincinnati Children’s collects the domain name and email address (where possible) of visitors to our website, aggregates information on what pages consumers access or visit (e.g. number of site visitors, time on site), user-specific information on what pages consumers access or visit and information volunteered by the consumer, such as survey information and / or site registrations. Cincinnati Children’s collects this information by using “cookies,” which are small files stored on your computer’s hard drive. Cookies are text information files that your web browser places on your computer when you visit a website. Most browsers accept cookies automatically but can be configured not to accept them or to indicate when a cookie is being sent.
The information we collect is used to improve the content of the website, offer online features that are helpful to visitors, customize the content and / or layout of our page for each individual consumer, and contact consumers for marketing purposes. Through the use of Google Analytics and Google Remarketing code on the website, Google gathers anonymous data via “cookies.” If you do not want information collected in this manner, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to decline the use of cookies. To opt out of Google ads, go to Ads Preference Manager. If you do not want to receive email from Cincinnati Children’s, send an email to marketing@cchmc.org, and indicate you do not want to receive email from the institution.
You also may decide to send Cincinnati Children’s personally identifying information, for example, in an electronic mail message or by voluntarily disclosing that information by completing an online survey. We may use personally identifying information from you to respond to your inquiries or for other internal business purposes. This information will not be sold or rented to third parties. You should be aware, however, that others may access such information and use it, though any such use would be without the consent of Cincinnati Children’s.
We will not obtain personally identifying information about you when you visit our site, unless you choose to provide such information.
The Cincinnati Children’s website is managed in the State of Ohio, United States of America. We make no representation that material found at the site is appropriate or available for use in other locations. If you access the Cincinnati Children’s site from other locations, you are responsible for compliance with local laws.
When you sign up for text messages from Cincinnati Children’s, you are signing up to receive text messages related to your relationship with Cincinnati Children’s, including updates related to your visits, MyChart account, one-time passcode, billing notifications, prescription reminders, and care management.
You can opt-out of SMS messages by texting STOP to respective short code. Your opt-out request will generate one final message confirming that you have been unsubscribed. You will no longer receive SMS messages from the short code you opted out from. If you want to join again, sign up using MyChart or text HELP to the short code for instructions.
If you are experiencing issues with the messaging program you can reply with the keyword HELP for more assistance, or you can get help directly at 513-636-4200, mychart@cchmc.org or https://mychart.cincinnatichildrens.org/mychart.
Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.
Message and data rates may apply for any messages sent to you from us and to us from you. Message frequency may vary.
SMS messages are unsecure and may be read by third parties.
Our Privacy Policy is https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/privacy-data-security-notices. Contact us at 513-636-4200, mychart@cchmc.org or https://mychart.cincinnatichildrens.org/mychart.
Integrity & Compliance Program
3430 Burnett Avenue
Cincinnati, OH
Report a Concern:
1-800-856-1947
EthicsPoint Website