We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices at any time, provided such changes are permitted by applicable law. We reserve the right to make any changes in our privacy practices effective for all PHI that we maintain, including health information we created or received before we made the changes. In the event of a change in our practices, we will provide you with a copy of the revised Notice of Privacy Practices through one or more of the following methods: posting the Notice of Privacy Practices to our website, mailing you a copy, or providing you a copy at your next appointment with us. You may request a copy of our current Notice of Privacy Practices at any time.

HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION
Treatment: We may use or disclose your PHI to personnel in our office, as well as to physicians and other healthcare professionals within or outside our office, who are involved in your medical care and need the information to provide you with medical care and related services. For example, we may use or disclose your PHl in consultations and/or discussions regarding your medical care and related services with healthcare providers who we refer to and receive referrals from. We require authorization to disclose your PHI to healthcare providers not currently involved in your care.

Payment: We may use and disclose your PHI to obtain payment for services we provide to you. If you personally pay in full for service(s), you have the right to restrict us from disclosing your PHI with respect to that service(s) to your health plan/insurer. For example, we may give your health insurance provider information about you 5o that they will pay for your treatment.

Healthcare Operations: We may use and disclose your PHl in connection with our healthcare operations. Healthcare operations include quality assessment and improvement activities, reviewing the competence or qualifications of healthcare professionals, evaluating practitioner and provider performance, conducting training programs, accreditation, certification, licensing, and credentialing activities. For example, we may disclose PHI to medical students who are performing work with our office, or call your name in the reception area.

Appointment Reminders and Other Contacts: We may disclose PHl in the course of leaving phone messages and in providing you with appointment reminders via phone messages, postcards, or letters.

Business Associates: We may disclose PHI to our business associates, such as billing services or healthcare professionals providing services as independent contractors, for the purpose of performing specified functions on our behalf and/or providing us with services. PHI will only be used or disclosed if the information is necessary for such functions or services. All of our business associates are obligated to protect the privacy of PHI and are not allowed to use or disclose any PHI other than as specified in our contract with them.

Data Breach Notification Purposes: We may use or disclose your PHI to provide legally required notices of unauthorized access to or disclosure of your PHI.

Required by Law: We may use or disclose your PHI when we are required to do so by law. Such circumstances include, but are not limited to, compliance with a court order, mandatory reporting due to serious or imminent threats to the public, mandatory reporting of child abuse or neglect, in response to government agency audits or investigations, and reporting disclosures to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services as necessary for the purpose of investigating or determining our compliance with HIPAA and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act
(HITECH) rules.

YOU MAY PROVIDE ADDITIONAL AUTHORIZATION
Marketing Uses: We may only use or disclose your PHI for marketing purposes if you authorize us to do 50. Such authorization would allow us to disclose PHI to a third party vendor business associate for the purpose of providing you with targeted supplementary products or services when your physician believes such offerings will be of value to you. Your authorization may be revoked in writing at any time. Revocation of authorization will not affect any use or disclosures permitted by your authorization while it was in effect.

To Others Upon Your Specific Authorization: In addition to our use of PHI as described in this Notice of Privacy Practices, you may give us written authorization to use your PHI or to disclose it to anyone for any purpose. If you give us an authorization, you may revoke it in writing at any time. Your revocation will not affect any use or disclosures permitted by your authorization while it was in effect. If the Practice maintains any psychotherapy notes, they will not be released unless you sign an authorization or if otherwise required by law. Consistent with the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), our Practice will not use or disclose your genetic information to insurance providers or others for underwriting purposes.

PATIENT RIGHTS
You have the right to inspect and receive copies of your PHI, or to receive your PHI electronically, with limited exceptions. You may also request that we prepare a summary or an explanation of your PHI. If we maintain your PHI in electronic format, you may request to view your PHI in that format. You may request that we provide copies or the summary in a format other than photocopies. We will use the format you request unless it is not practicable. To obtain copies or a summary, you must make a request in writing and provide us a reasonable amount of time to respond, generally thirty (30) days. You may send a letter to or request a form from us using the contact information listed at the end of this Notice of Privacy Practices. We will charge you a reasonable cost-based fee for expenses such as copies, postage, scanning cost, electronic data compilation costs, and/or staff time.

QUESTIONS AND COMPLAINTS
If you want more information about our privacy practices or have questions or concerns, please contact us. If you are concerned that we may have violated your privacy rights, or you disagree with a decision we made about access to your health information or in response to a request you made to amend or restrict the use or disclosure of your health information or to have us communicate with you by alternative means or at alternative locations, you may complain to us using our contact information. You also may submit a written complaint to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

We will provide you with the address to file your complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services upon request. We support your right to the privacy of your health information. We will not retaliate in any way if you choose to file a complaint with us or with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.