HIPAA Privacy Policy

Uses and Disclosures of Health Information

We use and disclose your health information about you for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations. For example:

Treatment

We may use or disclose your health information to a physician or other healthcare provider providing treatment to you.

Payment

We may use and disclose your health information to obtain payment for services we provide to you.

Healthcare Operations

We may use and disclose your health information in connection with our healthcare operations. Healthcare operations include quality assessment and improvement activities, reviewing the competence or qualifications of healthcare professionals, evaluating practitioner and provider performance, conducting training programs, accreditation, certification, licensing or credentialing activities.

To Your Family and Friends

We must disclose your health information to you, as described in the Patient Rights section of this Notice. We may disclose your health information to a family member, friend or other person to the extent necessary to help with your healthcare or with payment for your healthcare, but only if you agree that we may do so.

Persons Involved in Care

We may use or disclose health information to notify, or assist in the notification of (including identifying or locating) a family member, your personal representative or another person responsible for your care, of your location, your general condition, or death. If you are present, then prior to use or disclosure of your health information, we will provide you with an opportunity to object to such uses or disclosures. In the event of your incapacity or emergency circumstances, we will disclose health information based on a determination using our professional judgment and our experience with common practice to make reasonable inferences of your best interest in allowing a person to pick up filled prescriptions, medical supplies, x-rays, or other similar forms of healthcare information.

Your Rights

You have the following rights regarding health information we maintain about you:

• Right to Inspect and Copy: You have the right to inspect and copy your health information that may be used to make decisions about your care.
• Right to Amend: If you feel that health information we have about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask us to amend the information.
• Right to an Accounting of Disclosures: You have the right to request an accounting of disclosures. This is a list of the disclosures we made of medical information about you.
• Right to Request Restrictions: You have the right to request a restriction or limitation on the health information we use or disclose about you for treatment, payment or healthcare operations.
• Right to Request Confidential Communications: You have the right to request that we communicate with you about medical matters in a certain way or at a certain location.
• Right to a Paper Copy of This Notice: You have the right to a paper copy of this notice.

Changes to This Notice

We reserve the right to change this notice. We reserve the right to make the revised or changed notice effective for health information we already have about you as well as any information we receive in the future. We will post a copy of the current notice in our office and on our website.

Complaints

If you are concerned that we may have violated your privacy rights, or you disagree with a decision we made about access to your health information, or in response to a request you made to amend or restrict the use or disclosure of your health information, or to have us communicate with you by alternative means or at alternative locations, you may complain to us using the contact information listed at the end of this Notice. You also may submit a written complaint to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. We will provide you with the address to file your complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services upon request.

We support your right to the privacy of your health information. We will not retaliate in any way if you choose to file a complaint with us or with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Contact Information

If you have any questions about this notice or wish to exercise any of your rights, please contact us: