We understand that medical information about you is personal and confidential. Be assured that we are committed to protecting that information. We are required by law to maintain the privacy of protected health information and to provide you with this Notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to protected health information. We are required by law to abide by the terms of this Notice, and we reserve the right to change the terms of this Notice, making any revision applicable to all the protected health information we maintain. If we revise the terms of this Notice, we will post a revised notice and make paper and electronic copies of this Notice of Privacy Practices for Protected Health Information available upon request. We are required by law to notify you in the event of a breach of your protected health information.

In general, when we release your personal information, we must release only the information needed to achieve the purpose of the use or disclosure. However, all of your personal health information that you designate will be available for release if you sign an authorization form, if you request the information for yourself, to a provider regarding your treatment, or due to a legal requirement. We will not use or sell any of your personal information for marketing purposes without your written authorization.

State Health Information Exchange: We may make your health information available electronically to other healthcare providers outside of our facility who are involved in your care.

Electronic Patient Chart Sharing: We may make your health information available electronically to other healthcare providers outside of our facility who are involved in your care.

Treatment Alternative: We may provide you notice of treatment options or health related services that improve your overall health.

Appointment Reminders: We may contact you as a reminder about upcoming appointments or treatment.

• Marketing
• Disclosures for any purposes which require thesale of your information
• Release of psychotherapy notes: Psychotherapynotes are the notes by a mental health professionalfor the purposes of documenting a conversationduring a private session. This session could bewith an individual or a group. These notes are keptseparate from the rest of the medical record and do not include; medications and how they affect you, start and stop time of sessions, types of treatments provided, results of test, diagnosis, treatment plan, symptoms, prognosis.

Other uses and disclosures of PHI not covered by this Notice, or by the laws that apply to us, will be made only with your written authorization. If you provide permission to use or disclose medical information about you, you may revoke that permission, in writing, at any time. You understand that we are unable to take back any disclosures we have already made with your permission, and that we are required to retain our records of the care that we provided you.

For uses and disclosures relating to treatment, payment, or health care operations, we do not need an authorization to use and disclose your medical information:

For treatment: We may disclose your medical information to doctors, nurses, and other health care personnel who are involved in providing your health care. We may use your medical information to provide you with medical treatment or services. For example, your doctor may be providing treatment for a heart problem and need to make sure that you don’t have any other health problems that could interfere. The doctor might use your medical history to determine what method of treatment (such as a drug or surgery) is best for you. Your medical information might also be shared among members of your treatment team, or with your pharmacist(s).

To obtain payment: We may use and/or disclose your medical information in order to bill and collect payment for your health care services or to obtain permission for an anticipated plan of treatment. For example, in order for Medicare or an insurance company to pay for your treatment, we must submit a bill that identifies you, your diagnoses, and the services provided to you. As a result, we will pass this type of health information on to an insurer to help receive payment for your medical bills.

For health care operations: We may use and/or disclose your medical information in the course of operating our practice. For example, we may use your medical information in evaluating the quality of services provided or disclose your medical information to our accountant or attorney for audit purposes.

In addition, unless you object, we may use your health information to send you appointment reminders or information about treatment alternatives or other health related benefits that may be of interest to you. For example, we may look at your medical record to determine the date and time of your next appointment with us, and then send you a reminder to help you remember. Or, we may look at your medical information and decide that another treatment or a new service we offer may interest you.

We may also use and/or disclose your medical information in accordance with federal and state laws for the following purposes:

• We may disclose your medical information to lawenforcement or other specialized governmentfunctions in response to a court order, subpoena,warrant, summons, or similar process.

• We may disclose medical information when a lawrequires that we report information aboutsuspected abuse, neglect or domestic violence, orrelating to suspected criminal activity, or inresponse to a court order. We must also disclosemedical information to authorities who monitorcompliance with these privacy requirements.

• We may disclose medical information when weare required to collect information about diseaseor injury, or to report vital statistics to the publichealth authority. We may also disclose medicalinformation to the protection and advocacyagency, or another agency responsible formonitoring the health care system for suchpurposes as reporting or investigation of unusualincidents.

• We may disclose medical information relating toan individual’s death to coroners, medicalexaminers or funeral directors, and to organprocurement organizations relating to organ, eye,or tissue donations or transplants.

• In certain circumstances, we may disclosemedical information to assist medical/psychiatricresearch.

• In order to avoid a serious threat to health orsafety, we may disclose medical information tolaw enforcement or other persons who canreasonably prevent or lessen the threat of harm, or to help with the coordination of disaster relief efforts.

• If people such as family members, relatives, orclose personal friends are involved in your care orhelping you pay your medical bills, we mayrelease important health information about yourlocation, general condition, or death.

• We may disclose your medical information asauthorized by law relating to worker’scompensation or similar programs.

• We may disclose your medical information in thecourse of certain judicial or administrativeproceedings.

You have several rights with regard to your health information. If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact our Medical Records Department in our office. Specifically, you have the following rights:

• Right to Request Restrictions – You have theright to ask that we limit how we use or discloseyour medical information. We require that anyrequests for use or disclosure of medicalinformation be made in writing. Written noticemust be sent to the attention of the OfficeManager at the practice and address indicated inthe header of this Notice. We will consider yourrequest, but in some cases, we are not legallyrequired to agree to these requests. However, if wedo agree to them, we will abide by theserestrictions. We will always notify you of ourdecisions regarding restriction requests in writing.We will not ask you the reason for your request.For example, for services you request noinsurance claim be filed and for which you payprivately, you have the right to restrict disclosuresfor these services for which you paid out ofpocket. You have the right to ask that we sendyou information at an alternative address or byalternative means. Your request must specify howor where you wish to be contacted. You have theright to opt out of communications for fundraisingpurposes.

• Right to Access, Inspect and Copy – With afew exceptions (such as psychotherapy notes orinformation gathered for judicial proceedings) you have a right to inspect and copy your protected health information if you put your request in writing. If we deny your access, we will give you written reasons for the denial and explain any right to have the denial reviewed. We may charge you a reasonable fee if you want a copy of your health information. You have a right to choose what portions of your information you want copied and to have prior information on the cost of copying. Consent is required prior to use or disclosure of an individual’s psychotherapy notes or the use of the individuals PHI for marketing purposes.

• Right to Amend – If you believe that there is amistake or missing information in our record ofyour medical information you may request that wecorrect or add to the record. Your request must bein writing and give a reason as to why your healthinformation should be changed. Any denial willstate the reasons for denial and explain your rightsto have the request and denial, along with anystatement in response that you provide, appendedto your medical information. If we approve therequest for amendment, we will amend themedical information and so inform you.

• Right to an Accounting of Disclosures – Insome limited circumstances, you have the right toask for a list of the disclosures of your healthinformation we have made during the previous sixyears. The list will not include disclosures madeto you; for purposes of treatment, payment orhealthcare operations, for which you signed anauthorization or for other reasons for which we arenot required to keep a record of disclosures. Therewill be no charge for up to one such list each year.There may be a charge for more frequent requests.

• Right to a Paper Copy of This Notice – You havea right to receive a paper copy of this Noticeand/or an electronic copy from our Web site. Ifyou have received an electronic copy, we willprovide you with a paper copy of the Notice uponrequest.

• We are required by law to maintain the privacyand security of your protected health information.

• We will let you know promptly if a breach occursthat may have compromised the privacy orsecurity of your information.

• We must follow the duties and privacy practicesdescribed in this notice and give you a copy of it.

• We will not use or share your information otherthan as described here unless you tell us we can inwriting. If you tell us we can, you may changeyour mind at any time and notify us in writing.

Questions and Complaints:

If you want more information about our privacy practices or have questions or concerns, we encourage you to contact us.

If you think we may have violated your privacy rights, or you disagree with a decision we made about access to your medical information, we encourage you to speak or write to our Privacy Officer.

If you have questions about this Notice or any complaints about our privacy practices, please contact:
Office of the HIPAA Privacy and Security Officer

Phone: 1.866.825.1606

1501 Yamato Road

Suite 200 West

Boca Raton, FL 33431

If you want more information about our privacy practices or have questions or concerns, we encourage you to contact us.

If you think we may have violated your privacy rights, or you disagree with a decision we made about access to your medical information, we encourage you to speak or write to our Privacy Officer.

You also may file a written complaint with the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at the Office for Civil Rights’ Region IV office.

Centralized Case Management Operations

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

200 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Room 509F HHH Bldg.

Washington, D.C. 20201

Email to OCRComplaint@hhs.gov

We will take no retaliatory action against you if you make complaints, whether to us or to the Department of Health and Human Services. We support your right to the privacy of your health information.

This Notice was effective on January 1, 2019.