Examples of Disclosures for Treatment, Payment and Health Operations:

• We will use your health information for treatment
  For example: Information obtained by our office will be recorded in your record and used to determine the course of treatment that should work best for you. We will also provide your physician or a subsequent healthcare provider with your health information in order to assist in your care.

• We will use your health information for payment
  For example: We may include information with a bill to a third-party payer that identifies you, your diagnosis, procedures performed, and supplies used in rendering the service.

• We will use your health information for regular health operations
  For example: We may disclose your health information to a third party business associate Who performs billing, consulting, transcription services, and photo imaging for our practice.

  • Business Associates: There are some services provided in our organization through contacts with business associates. Examples include physician services in the emergency department and radiology department, certain laboratory test, and a copy service we use when making copies of your health record. When these services are contracted, we may disclose your health information to our business associate so that they can perform the job we’ve asked them to do and bill you or your third-party payer for services rendered. To protect your health information, however, we require the business associate to appropriately safeguard your information.
  • Notification: We may use or disclose information to notify or assist in notifying a family member, personal representative, or another person responsible for your care, your location, and general condition.
  • Communication with family: Health professionals, using their best judgment, may disclose to a your caregivers, i.e. family members or a close personal friend, medical and financial information related to your treatment.

  • Research: We may disclose information to researchers when an institutional review board that has reviewed the research proposal and established protocols to ensure the privacy of your health information has approved their research.

  • Marketing: We may contact you to provide appointment reminders or information about treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.

  • Food and Drug Administration (FDA): We may disclose to the FDA health information relative to adverse events with respect to food, supplements, product and product defects, or post marketing surveillance information to enable product recalls, repairs, or replacement.

  • Worker Compensation: We may disclose health information to the extent, authorized and to the extent necessary to comply with laws relating to workers compensation or other similar programs established by law.

  • Public Health: As required by law, we may disclose your health information to public health or legal authorities charged with preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability.

  • Law Enforcement: We may disclose health information for law enforcement purposes as required by law or in response to a valid subpoena.

Federal law makes provisions for your health information to be released to an appropriate health oversight agency, public health authority or attorney, provided that a work force member or business associate believes in good faith that we have engaged in unlawful conduct or have otherwise violated professional or clinical standards and are potentially endangering one or more patients, workers or the public.

If you believe we have violated your medical information privacy rights, you have the right to file a complaint with our office or directly to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

To file a complaint, you must do so in writing within 180 days of the suspected violation, providing as much detail regarding the suspected violation and mail to: