This is taken from material distributed to our patients at their first visit:

The Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA") is a federal program that requires that all medical records and other individually identifiable health information used or disclosed by us in any form, whether electronically, on paper, or orally, are kept properly confidential. This Act gives the patient, significant new rights to understand and control how health information is used. "HIPAA" provides penalties for covered entities that misuse personal health information.

As required by "HIPAA", we have prepared this explanation of how we are required to maintain the privacy of patient health information and how we may use and disclose health information.

We may use and disclose patient medical records only for each of the following purposes: treatment, payment and health care operations.

• Treatment means providing, coordinating, or managing health care and related services by one or more health care providers. An example of this would include a physical examination.
  
  
• Payment means such activities as obtaining reimbursement for services, confirming coverage, billing or collection activities, and utilization review. An example of this would be sending a bill for a visit to an insurance company for payment.
  
  
• Health care operations include the business aspects of running our practice, such as conducting quality assessment and improvement activities, auditing functions, cost-management analysis, and customer service. An example would be an internal quality assessment review.

We may also create and distribute de-identified health information by removing all references to individually identifiable information.

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

Any other uses and disclosures will be made only with written authorization. A patient may revoke such authorization in writing and we are required to honor and abide by that written request, except to the extent that we have already taken actions relying on that authorization.

Patients have the following rights with respect to their protected health information, which they can exercise by presenting a written request to the Privacy Officer:

• The right to request restrictions on certain uses and disclosures of protected health information, including those related to disclosures to family members, other relatives, close personal friends, or any other person identified by the patient. We are, however, not required to agree to a requested restriction. If we go agree to a restriction, we must abide by it unless the patient agrees in writing to remove it.
  
• The right to reasonable requests to receive confidential communications of proctected health information from us by alternative means or at alternative locations.
  
• The right to inspect and copy their protected health information.
  
• The right to amend their protected health information.
  
• The right to receive an accounting of disclosure of protected health information.
  
• The right to obtain a paper copy of the privacy notice from us upon request.

We are required by law to maintain the privacy of protected health information and to provide patients with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to protected health information.

This is notice is effective as of April 14, 2003 and we are required to abide by the terms of the Notice of Privacy Practices currently in effect. We reserve the right to change the terms of our Notice of Privacy Practices and to make the new notice provisions effective for all protected health information that we maintain. We will post and patients may request a written copy of a revised Notice of Privacy Practices from this office.

Patients have recourse if they feel that their privacy protections have been violated. Patients have the right to file written complaint with our office, or with the Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Civil Rights, about violations of the provisions of this notice or the policies and procedures of our office. We will not retaliate against patients for filing a complaint.

Please contact us for more information:
Office Home Page

For more information about HIPAA or to file a complaint, contact:
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Office of Civil Rights
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.D. 20201
(202) 619-0257
Toll Free: 1-877-696-6775