consent you provide to us or another third party, we will use and disclose your SUD patient record only as expressly permitted by you in your consent as provided to us. In no event will we use or disclose your SUD patient record, or testimony that describes the information contained in your SUD patient record, in any civil, criminal, administrative, or legislative proceedings by any Federal, State, or local authority, against you, unless authorized by your consent or the order of a court after it provides y ou notice of the court order. To Business Associates . We may contract with individuals or entities known as Business Associates to perform various functions on our behalf or to provide certain types of services. In order to perform these functions or to provide these services, Business Associates will recei ve, create, maintain, transmit, use, and/or disclose your PHI, but only after they agree in writing with us to implement appropriate safeguards regarding your PHI. For example, we may disclose your PHI to a Business Associate to proce ss your claims for Plan benefits or to provide support services, such as utilization management, pharmacy benefit management, or subrogation, but only after the Business Associate enters into a Business Associate contract with us. Treatment Alternatives or Health - Related Benefits and Services . We may use and disclose your protected health information to send you information about treatment alternatives or other health - related benefits and services that might be of interest to you. As Required by Law . We will disclose your PHI when required to do so by federal, state, or local law. For example, we may disclose your PHI when required by national security laws or public health disclosure laws. To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety . We may use and disclose your PHI when necessary 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. For exampl e, we may disclose your PHI in a proceeding regarding the licensure of a physician. To Plan Sponsors . For the purpose of administering the plan, we may disclose PHI to certain employees of the Employer. However, those employees will only use or disclose that information as necessary to perform plan administration functions or as otherwise required by HIP AA, unless you have authorized further disclosures. Your PHI cannot be used for employment purposes without your specific authorization. V. Special Situations In addition to the above, the following categories describe other possible ways that we may use and disclose your PHI without your specific authorization. For each category of uses or disclosures, we will explain what we mean and present some examples. Not every use or disclosure in a category will be listed. However, all of the ways we are permitted to use and disclose information will fall within one of the categories. Organ and Tissue Donation . If you are an organ donor, we may release your PHI after your death to organizations that handle organ procurement or organ, eye, or tissue transplantation or to an organ donation bank, as necessary to facilitate organ or tissue donation and transplantat ion. 3