Notice of HIPAA Privacy Practices

We are legally required to protect the privacy of health information that may reveal your identity. This information is commonly referred to as protected health information, or PHI. It includes information that can be used to identify you that we have created or received about your past, present or future health or condition, the provision of health care to you, or the payment of this health care. We must provide you with this notice about our privacy practices that explains how, when and why we use and disclose your PHI.

With some exceptions, we may not use or disclose any more of your PHI than is necessary to accomplish the purpose of the use or disclosure. We are legally required to follow the privacy practices that are described in this notice.

We reserve the right to change the terms of this notice and our privacy policies at any time. Any changes will apply to the PHI we already have. Before we make an important change to our policies, we will promptly change this notice and post a new notice. You can also request a copy of this notice at any time from our office during your next visit, or you can view a copy of the notice on our website.

How We May Use and Disclose Your Protected Health Information

We use and disclose health information for many different reasons. For some of these uses or disclosures, we need your prior consent or specific authorization. Below we describe the different categories of our uses and disclosures and give you some examples of each category.

During your intake, prior to receiving any health care services, you will be asked to sign a statement permitting Dr Aron and staff to release your health information for purposes of treatment, payment and health care operations:

1. Treatment. We may disclose your PHI to physicians, nurses, medical students, and other health care personnel who provide you with health care services or are involved in your care, including medical laboratory services, prescription services, EHR services, etc.
2. Payment. We may use and disclose your PHI in order to bill and collect payment for the treatment and services provided to you. For example, we may provide portions of your PHI to our billing partners and your health plan to get paid for the health care services we provided to you. We may also provide your PHI to our business associates, such as billing companies, claims processing companies and others that process our health care claims or provide services on our behalf, or provide services directly to you. For example if your HSA/FSA/credit card company requires additional proof of services/care received from our office.
3. Health Care Operations. We may disclose your PHI in order to operate our health care delivery system. For example, we may use your PHI in order to evaluate the quality of health care services that you received or to evaluate the performance of the health care professionals who provided health care services to you. We may also provide your PHI to our accountants, attorneys, consultants and other in order to make sure we are complying with the laws that affect us. To the extent we are required to disclose your PHI to contractors, agents and other business associates who need the information in order to assist us with obtaining payment or carrying our out business operations, we will have a written contract to ensure that our business associate also protects the privacy of your PHI.

Other Uses And Disclosures That Do Not Require Your Consent

We may use and disclose your PHI without your consent or authorization for the following reasons:

1. When a disclosure is required by federal, state or local law, judicial or administrative proceedings or law enforcement. We may disclose your PHI if we are ordered to do so by a court or administrative tribunal that is handling a lawsuit or other dispute.
2. For public health and health oversight activities. For example, we report information about controlled medications dispensed to governmental officials in charge of collecting that information.
3. Emergency Situations. We may use or disclose your PHI if you need emergency treatment, but we are unable to obtain your consent. If this happens, we will try to obtain your consent as soon as we reasonably can after we treat you.
4. Communication Barriers. We may use or disclose your PHI if we are unable to obtain your consent because of substantial communication barriers, and we believe you would want us to treat you if we could communicate with you.
5. Product Monitoring or Recall. We may disclose your information to a person or company that is required by the Food and Drug Administration to: report or track product defects or problems; repair, replace or recall defective or dangerous products; or monitor the performance of a product after it has been approved for use by the general public.
6. To avoid harm. In order to avoid a serious threat to the health or safety of a person or the public, we may provide PHI to law enforcement personnel or persons able to prevent or lessen such harm.

Additional Disclosures That Do Not Require Your Consent

Appointment reminders and health-related benefits or services. We may use PHI to provide appointment reminders or give you information about treatment alternatives or other health care services or benefits we offer and/or provide.

Incidental Disclosures. While we will take reasonable steps to safeguard the privacy of your PHI, certain disclosures of your PHI may occur during, or as an unavoidable result of our otherwise permissible uses or disclosures of your health information. For example, during the course of a treatment session, other patients in the treatment area may see, or overhear discussion of, your PHI.

Uses and Disclosures You to Have the Opportunity to Object

Disclosures to family, friends or others. We may provide your PHI to a family member, friend or other person that you indicate is involved in your care or the payment for your health care, unless you object in whole or part. The opportunity to consent may be obtained retroactively in emergency situations.

Other Uses and Disclosures Require Your Prior Written Authorization

In any other situation outside of the above, we will ask for your authorization before using or disclosing any of your PHI. If you choose to sign an authorization to disclose your PHI, you can later revoke that authorization in writing to stop any future uses and disclosures (to the extent that we have not taken any actions relying on the authorization).

You have the following rights with respect to your PHI:

1. The Right to Request Limits on Uses and Disclosures of Your PHI. You have the right to ask that we limit how we use and disclose your PHI. We will consider your request, but are not legally required to accept it. If we accept your request, we will put any limits in writing and abide by them except in emergency situations. You may not limit the uses and disclosures that we are legally required or allowed to make.
2. The Right to Choose How We Send PHI to You. You have the right to ask that we send information to you at an alternate address or by alternate means. We must agree to your request so long as we can easily provide it to the location and in the format you request.
3. The Right to See and Get Copies of Your PHI. In most cases, you have the right to look at or get copies of your PHI that we have, but you must make the request in writing. If we do not have your PHI but we know who does, we will tell you how to get it. We will respond to you within 90 days after receiving your written request. In certain situations, we may deny your request. If we do, we will tell you our reasons for the denial and explain your right to have the denial reviewed.
4. If you request copies of your PHI, we will charge you a fee for each page. Instead of providing the PHI you requested, we may provide you with a summary or explanation of the PHI as long as you agree to that and to the associated cost in advance.
5. The Right to Get a List of the Disclosures We Have Made. You have the right to get a list of instances in which we have disclosed your PHI. The list will not include uses or disclosures that you have already been informed of, such as those made for treatment, payment or health care operations, directly to you, to your family, or in our facility directory. The list also will not include uses and disclosures made for national security purposes, to corrections or law enforcement personnel.
6. Your request must state a time period for the disclosures you want us to include. We will respond within 90 days of receiving your request. The list we will give you will include disclosures made in the last year unless you request a shorter time. The list will include the date of the disclosure, to whom PHI was disclosed, a description of the information disclosed and the reason for the disclosure. We will provide the list to you at no charge, but if you make more than one request in the same calendar year, we will charge you for each additional request.
7. The Right to Correct or Update Your PHI. If you believe that there is a mistake in your PHI or that a piece of important information is missing, you have the right to request that we correct the existing information or add the missing information. You must provide the request and your reason for the request in writing. We will respond within 90 days of receiving your request. We may deny your request in writing if the PHI is (i) correct and complete, (ii) not created by us, (iii) not allowed to be disclosed, or (iv) not part of our records.
8. The Right to Get This Notice by E-Mail. You have the right to get a copy of this notice by e-mail. Even if you have agreed to receive notice via e-mail, you also have the right to request a paper copy of this notice.

If you have any questions about our privacy practices, please contact us in writing: Dr Oksana Aron, 7032 4th Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11209