Policies

As medical professionals, we feel very strongly that vaccinating children on schedule with currently available vaccines is absolutely the right thing to do for all children and young adults. We are making you aware of these facts not to scare you or coerce you, but to emphasize the importance of vaccinating your child. We are more than willing to discuss any questions you may have about vaccines, but do require all new patients to our practice to adhere to the vaccination schedule endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)

• We firmly believe in the effectiveness of vaccines to prevent serious illness and to save lives.
• We firmly believe in the safety of our vaccines.
• We firmly believe that all children and young adults should receive all of the recommended vaccines according to the schedule published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
• We firmly believe, based on all available literature, evidence, and current studies, that vaccines do not cause autism or other developmental disabilities.
• We firmly believe that thimerosal, a preservative that has been in vaccines for decades and remains in some vaccines, does not cause autism or other developmental disabilities.
• We firmly believe that vaccinating children and young adults may be the single most important health promoting intervention we perform as health care providers, and that you can support as parents/caregivers.

The recommended vaccines and the schedule of administration are the results of years and years of scientific study and data-gathering on millions of children by thousands of our brightest scientists and physicians.

The vaccine campaign is truly a victim of its own success. It is precisely because vaccines are so effective at preventing illness that we are even discussing whether or not they should be given. Because of vaccines, many of you have never seen a child with polio, tetanus, whooping cough, bacterial meningitis, or even chickenpox, or known a friend or family member whose child died of one of these diseases. Such success can make us complacent or even lazy about vaccinating. But such an attitude, if it becomes widespread, can only lead to tragic results.

Over the past several years, many people in Europe have chosen not to vaccinate their children with the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine after publication of an unfounded suspicion (later retracted) that the vaccine caused autism. As a result of under-immunization, there have been small outbreaks of measles and several deaths from complications of measles in Europe over the past several years. The United States experienced a record number of measles cases during 2019, with 1282 cases from 31 states reported to CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). This is the greatest number of cases since measles elimination was documented in the U.S. in 2000.

At Horizon Pediatrics we believe quality healthcare should be a right for all people. Currently Oregon has the Oregon Health Plan to help support families whom may not be able to recieve health insurance through other avenues. 

For uninsured families we do offer discounted visit cost as well as vaccines for children vaccines. 

You will be expeced to pay your portion or balance at the time of visit as collection costs are a financial burdon on the practice and drive healthcare costs up for everyone. We do our best to accomidate and work with every families unique situation. 

Please be preapared to pay for your co-pay, co-insurance, cost share at time of visit with either cash or card. Checks can no longer be accepted as forms of time of service payment. 

It is the policy of our practice that all physicians and staff preserve the integrity and the confidentiality of the protected health information pertaining to our patients. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that our practice and its physicians and staff have the necessary medical and protected health information (PHI) of our patients to the highest possible degree. Patients should not be afraid to provide information to our practice and its physicians and staff for the purpose of treatment, payment and healthcare operations. To that end, our practice and its physicians and staff will:

*Adhere to the standards set forth in the Notice of Privacy Practices.

*Collect, use and disclose PHI only in conformance with the state and federal laws and current patient covenants and/or authorizations, as appropriate. Our practice and its physicians and staff will not use or disclose PHI for use outside of Horizon Pediatrics, PC, such as marketing, employment, life insurance applications, etc. without an authorization from the patient.

*Use or disclose PHI to remind patients of their appointments unless they instruct us not to.

*Recognize that PHI collected about patients must be accurate, timely, complete, and available when needed. Our practice and its physicians and staff will update your information in a confidential manner as soon as we know it has changed.

*Act as reasonable information stewards and treat all PHI as sensitive and confidential. Consequently, our practice and its physicians and staff will:

*Treat all PHI data as confidential in accordance with professional ethics, accreditation standards, and legal requirements.

* Not disclose PHI data unless the patient (or his/her authorized representative) has properly authorized the release or the release otherwise noted by law.

* Recognize that although our practice “owns” the medical record, the patient has a right to inspect and obtain a copy of his/her PHI. In addition, patients have the right to request an amendment to his/her medical record if he/she believes the information is inaccurate or incomplete. Our practice and its physicians and staff will:

• Permit patient’s access to their medical records when written requests are approved by our practice. If a request is denied, then we must have an onsite healthcare professional review the patients appeals.

* Provide patients and opportunity to request the correction of inaccurate or incomplete PHI in their medical records in accordance with the law and professional standards.

* All physicians and staff of our practice will maintain a list of certain disclosures of PHI for the purpose other than TPA for each patient and those made pursuant to an authorization as required by HIPPA rules. We will provide this list to patients upon written request.

* All physicians and staff of our practice will adhere to any restrictions concerning the use or disclosure of PHI that patients have requested and have been approved by our practice.

* All physicians and staff of our practice must adhere to this policy. Our practice will not tolerate violations of this policy. Violation of this policy is grounds for disciplinary action, and includes termination of employment and criminal and professional sanctions in accordance with our practice’s personal rules and regulations.

* Our practice may change this privacy in the future. Any changes will be effective upon the release of a revised privacy policy and will be made available to patients upon request.

Privacy policy effective May 1, 2004