Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (Privacy) Policy

This notice describes the office’s policy for how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how your privacy is being protected. In order to maintain the level of service that you expect from our office, we may need to share limited personal medical and financial information in the following cases:

Payment: In order to secure payment we may disclose health care information to your insurance company or with Health Savings Accounts, Flexible Spending or Worker’s Compensation (and your employer as well in this instance).
Treatment: Your health care information may be disclosed to other healthcare professionals within the practice or other medical practitioners that you authorize.
Emergencies: In the event of an emergency, we may need to notify a family member or other person responsible for your care that you have been in an emergency situation.
Public Health: As required by law, we may disclose your health information to public health authorities for the purpose of preventing or controlling disease, reporting child or elder abuse or neglect, reporting domestic violence or reporting disease or infectious exposure, for example
Judicial and Administrative Proceedings or Law Enforcement: For example in the case of complying with a court order or subpoena.
Other Communication: For example, if the office called your home to remind you of an appointment. No protected health information would be provided on this call except for the date and time of your scheduled appointment.

Privacy safeguards in place at the office include:

Limited access to facilities where information is stored
Policies and procedures for handling information.
Requirements for third parties to contractually comply with privacy laws.

Please also note, some of my clinical locations or events could take place in a communal setting. If you receive care in such a setting there is potential for personal medical information that you share to be overheard by others.

In administering your health care, we gather and maintain information that may include:

Non-public personal information
Information about your financial transactions with us (billing transactions)
Medical history, treatment notes, medical test results, and any letters, faxes, emails or telephone conversations to or from this office, to or from other health care practitioners, from health care providers, insurance companies, worker’s compensation and your employer, and other third party administrators (e.g. requests for medical records, claim payment information).