THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW HEALTH INFORMATION MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
I understand that health information about you and your health care is personal. I am committed to protecting health information about you. I create a record of the care and services you receive from me. I need this record to provide you with quality care and to comply with certain legal requirements. This notice applies to all of the records of your care generated by this practice. This notice will tell you about the ways in which I may use and disclose health information about you. I also describe your rights to the health information I keep about you, and describe certain obligations I have regarding the use and disclosure of your health information. I am required by law to:
I can change the terms of this Notice, and such changes will apply to all information I have about you. The new Notice will be available upon request, in my office, and on my website.
The following categories describe different ways that I use and disclose health information. For each category of uses or disclosures I will explain what I mean and try to give some examples. Not every use or disclosure in a category will be listed. However, all of the ways I am permitted to use and disclose information will fall within one of the categories.
For Treatment Payment, or Health Care Operations: Federal privacy rules (regulations) allow health care providers who have direct treatment relationship with the patient/client to use or disclose the patient/client’s personal health information without the patient’s written authorization, to carry out the health care provider’s own treatment, payment or health care operations. I may also disclose your protected health information for the treatment activities of any health care provider. This too can be done without your written authorization. For example, if a health care provider were to consult with another licensed health care provider about your condition, we would be permitted to use and disclose your personal health information, which is otherwise confidential, in order to assist the health care provider in diagnosis and treatment of your condition.
Disclosures for treatment purposes are not limited to the minimum necessary standard. Because other health care providers need access to the full record and/or full and complete information in order to provide quality care. The word “treatment” includes, among other things, the coordination and management of health care providers with a third party, consultations between health care providers and referrals of a patient for health care from one health care provider to another.
Lawsuits and Disputes: If you are involved in a lawsuit, I may disclose health information in response to a court or administrative order. I may also disclose health information about your child in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process by someone else involved in the dispute, but only if efforts have been made to tell you about the request or to obtain an order protecting the information requested.
Any use or disclosure of medical records requires your Authorization unless the use or disclosure is:
Marketing Purposes. As a health care provider, I will not use or disclose your PHI for marketing purposes.
Sale of PHI. As a health care provider, I will not sell your PHI in the regular course of my business.
Subject to certain limitations in the law, I can use and disclose your PHI without your Authorization for the following reasons:
Specialized government functions, including, ensuring the proper execution of military missions; protecting the President of the United States; conducting intelligence or counterintelligence operations; or, helping to ensure the safety of those working within or housed in correctional institutions.
Appointment reminders and health related benefits or services. I may use and disclose your PHI to contact you to remind you that you have an appointment with me. I may also use and disclose your PHI to tell you about treatment alternatives, or other health care services or benefits that I offer.
Disclosures to family, friends, or others. I may provide your PHI to a family member, friend, or other person that you indicate is involved in your care or the payment for your health care, unless you object in whole or in part. The opportunity to consent may be obtained retroactively in emergency situations.
Data Collected
This Practice collects personally identifiable information provided by you, such as your e-mail address, name, home or work address or telephone number. This Practice also collects anonymous demographic information, which is not unique to you, such as your ZIP code, age, gender, preferences, interests, and favorites. There is also information about your computer hardware and software that is automatically collected by this website. This information can include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring website addresses. This information is used for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of this website. Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through public message boards, this information may be collected and used by others. This Practice encourages you to review the privacy statements of websites you choose to link to from the website so that you can understand how those websites collect, use and share your information. This Practice is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on any other websites.
Registration Data
If you register on our website, we store your name, phone and your email address and any additional personal information added to your user profile. You can see, edit, or delete your personal information at any time. Website administrators can also see and edit this information.
Information submitted through the contact form on our site is sent to our company email.
These submissions are kept for customer service, appointment reminders, cancellations, and marketing purposes. They are never shared with third parties.
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics on our site for anonymous reporting of site usage. So, no personalized data is stored. If you would like to opt-out of Google Analytics monitoring your behavior on our website please use this link: Google Analytics Opt-out.
Cases for Using the Personal Data
We use your personal information in the following cases:
Consent for Messaging
By filling out a Facebook lead form, appointment or contact form on our website, you consent to receive messages via email and SMS from us. These messages are intended to provide you with important information about your appointments and our services.
Opting In and Opting Out
You opt-in to receive messages from us when you complete our Facebook lead form, or fill out a contact form on our website. If at any time you wish to stop receiving messages from us, you can opt-out by sending a text message with STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE request. We will process your opt-out request promptly and with no additional cost to you.