Notice of Privacy Practices​

Treatment, Payment and Health Care Operations 

The most common reason we use or disclose your health information is for treatment payment or health care operations Examples we setting up an appointment for you, testing or examining your eyes, prescribing glasses, contacts and eye medications, referring you to a specialist and obtaining your records from other eyecare professionals samples of how we use or disclose your health information for payment purposes are asking about your health or Vision care insurance plants or other source of payment preparing and sending bills or claims and collecting unpaid amounts (either ourselves or a collection agency Health care operations mean those administrative and managerial functions that we have to do in order to run our office Examples are financial or billing audits personnel descens, participation in managed care plans, defense of legal matters and business planning. 

We routinely use your health information inside our office for these purposes without any special permission if we need to disclose your health information outside of our office for these reasons we usually will not ask you for special written permission. 

Uses and Disclosures for Other Reasons without Permission 

In some limited situations the law allows or requires us to use or disclose your health information without your permission. Not all of these situations will apply to us; some may never come up at our office at all Such uses and disclosures are: 

• When a state or federal law mandates that certain health information be reported for a specific purpose 
• For public health such as contagious disease reporting, investigating for surveillance, and notices to and from the federal Food and Drug Administration regarding drugs or medical devices.
• Disclosures to governmental authorities about victims of suspected abuse, neglect for domestic violence.
• Uses and disclosures of health oversight activities such as the licensing of doctors, for audits by Medicare or Medicaid or fort investigations of possible violations of health care laws .
• Disclosures for judicial and administrative proceedings such as in response to subpoenas or orders of courts of administrative agencies.
• Disclosures for law enforcement purposes such as to provide information about someone who is suspected to be a victim of a crime to provide information about a crime in our office or to report a crime somewhere else.
• Disclosure to medical examiner to identify a dead person or to determine the cause of death, or to funeral directors to aid in burial, or to organizations that handle organ donations.
• Uses or disclosures for health related research or to prevent a serious threat to health of safety.
• Uses or disclosures for specialized governmental functions such as the protection of the president or high ranking officials for lawful national intelligence activities, for the evaluation and health of members of the foreign service.
• Disclosures of de-identified information .
• Disclosures relating to workers compensation.
• Disclosures of a limited data set for research, public healthcare operations.
• Privacy incidental disclosures that are an unavoidable by product of permitted use or disclosures.
• Disclosures to “business associates” who perform heath care operations for us and who commit to respect the of your health information. Unless you object, we will also share relevant information about your care with our family or friends who are helping you with your eye care.

Appointment Reminders

We may call or write you of scheduled appointments or that it is time to make a routine appointment. We may also call or write to notify you of other treatments or services available at our office that might help you. Unless you tell us otherwise we will mail you an appointment reminder felter and or leave you messages on your home answering machine or with someone who answers your place if you are not home. We also will contact you to inform you that glasses or contacts are ready for pick up.

Other uses and disclosures

We will not make any other uses or disclosures of your health information unless you sign a written “authorization form”. Federal law determines the content of this form. Sometimes we may initiate the authorization process if the disclosure is our idea. Sometimes, you may initiate the process if you request us to send information to someone else Typically in this situation you will give us a properly completed authorization form or you can use one of ours.

If we initiate the process and ask you to sign the form you do not have to sign it. If you do not sign it, we cannot use the disclosed information. If you do sign a form you may revoke it at any time unless we have already acted in reliance upon it. Revocations must be in writing. Send them to the office contact named at the beginning of this document.

Your Rights Regarding Your Health Information

The law gives you many rights regarding your health information. You can:

• Ask us to restrict our uses and disclosures for purposes of treatment (except emergency treatment) payment or health care operations. We do not have to agree to do this but if we agree, we must honor the restrictions that you want. To ask for a restriction, send a written request to the office contact person at the beginning of this document.
• Ask us to communicate with you in a confidential way, such as phoning you at work rather than home, by mailing health information to another address or by using E-mail. We will accommodate these requests if they are reasonable and if you incur any costs. If you want to ask for confidential communication send a written request to the office contact person.
• Ask to see or get photocopies of your health information. By law, there are a few limited situations in which we can refuse to permit access or copying. For the most part, however you will be able to review or have a copy of your health information within 30 days of asking us. You may have to pay for photocopies in advance. If we deny your request we will send you a written explanation and instructions about how to get an impartial review of our denial if one is legally available. By law we can have one 30 day extension of the time for us to give you access or photocopies if we send you a written notice of the extension. If you want to review or get copies of your health information send a written request to the office contact person.
•  Ask us to amend your health information if you think that it is incorrect or incomplete. If we agree, we will amend the information within 60 days from the date we are asked. We will send the corrected information to the persons who we know got the wrong information and others you specify. If we do not agree you can write a statement of your position and we will include it with your health information along with a rebuttal statement we write. Once your statement of position and or rebuttal is included in your health information we will send it along whenever we make a permitted disclosure. By law we can have one 30 day extension of time to consider a request for an amendment if we notify you in writing of the extension. If you want to ask us to amend your health information send a written request including your reason to the office contact person. 
• Get a list of the disclosures that we have made of your health information within the past 6 years. By law the list will not include: disclosures for purposes of treatment, payment or health care operations, disclosures with your permission, incidental disclosures, disclosures required by law and some other limited disclosures. You are entitled to one such list per year without charge. If you want more frequent lists you will have to pay for them in advance. We will usually respond to your request within 60 days. By law we can receive one 30 day extension in writing. If you want a list please notify the office contact person.

Our notice of privacy practices

By law we must abide by the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices until we choose to change it. We reserve the right to change this notice at any time as allowed by law. If we change this Notice the new privacy practices will apply to your health information that we already have as well as to such information that we may generate in the future. If we change our Notice of Privacy Practices we will post the new notice in our office and have copies available for you.

Complaints

If you think that we have not properly respected the privacy of your health information, you are free to complain to us or the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights. We will not retaliate against you if you make a complaint. If you want to complain to us, send a written complaint to the office contact person. If you prefer you can discuss your complaint in person or by phone.