Privacy Policy

Uses and Disclosures of Protected Health Information

We will use and disclose PHI and PII about you for treatment, payment, and health care operations. Following are examples of the types of uses and disclosures of your protected health care information that may occur. These examples are not meant to be exhaustive, but to describe the types of uses and disclosures that maybe made by our office.

​

Treatment: We will use and disclose your PHI and PII to provide, coordinate or manage your healthcare and any related services. This includes the coordination or management of your health care with a third party. For example, we would disclose your PHI and PII, as necessary, to a home health agency that provides care to you. We will also disclose PHI and PII to other physicians who may be treating you. For example, your PHI and PII may be provided to a physician to whom you have been referred to ensure that the physician has the necessary information to diagnose or treat you.

In addition, we may disclose your PHI and PII from time to time to another physician or health care provider (e.g., a specialist or laboratory) who, at the request of your physician, becomes involved in your care by providing assistance with your health care diagnosis or treatment to your physician.

​

Payment: Your PHI and PII will be used, as needed, to obtain payment for your health care services. This may include certain activities that your health insurance plan may undertake before it approves or pays for the health care services, we recommend for you, such as: making a determination of eligibility or coverage for insurance benefits, reviewing services provided to you for protected health necessity, and undertaking utilization review activities. For example, obtaining approval for a hospital stay may require that your relevant protected health information be disclosed to the health plan to obtain approval for the hospital admission.

​

Health Care Operations: We will share your PHI and PII with third party “business associates” that perform various activities (e.g., billing, transcription services) for the practice. Whenever an arrangement between our office and a business associate involves the use or disclosure of your PHI and PII, we will have a written contract that contains terms that will protect the privacy of your PHI and PII.

​

Uses and Disclosures Based On Your Written Authorization: Other uses and disclosures of your PHI and PII will be made only with your authorization, unless otherwise permitted or required by law.

​

Marketing: We may use your PHI and PII to contact you with information about treatment alternatives that may be of interest to you. We may send general newsletters to you but you can choose to opt-out.

​

Process and Proceedings: We may disclose your PHI and PII in response to a court or administrative order, subpoena, discovery request or other lawful process, under certain circumstances. Under limited circumstances, such as a court order, warrant or grand jury subpoena, we may disclose your PHI and PII to law enforcement officials.

​

Security: We protect your information with appropriate safeguards and security measures. The Practice maintains personal information in a combination of paper and electronic files.  Recent paper records concerning individuals’ personal information are stored in files kept onsite at our office.

Access to personal information will be authorized only for the physicians and employees associated with the Practice, and other agents who require access in the performance of their duties, and to those otherwise authorized by law.

We provide information to health care providers acting on your behalf, on the understanding that they are also bound by law and ethics to safeguard your privacy.  Other organizations and agents must agree to abide by our Privacy Policy and may be asked to sign contracts to that effect.  We will give them only the information necessary to perform the services for which they are engaged, and will require that they not store, use or disclose the information for purposes other than to carry out those services.

Our computer systems are password-secured and constructed in such a way that only authorized individuals can access secure systems and databases.

If you send us an e-mail message that includes personal information, such as your name included in the “address”, we will use that information to respond to your inquiry.  Please remember that e-mail is not necessarily secure against interception.  If your communication is very sensitive, you should not send it electronically unless the e-mail is encrypted or your browser indicates that the access is secure.​​