NOTICE OF PRIVACY

Ø                  Payment  We may use and disclose protected health information about you so that we can bill and receive payment for the treatment and services you receive from us. For billing and payment purposes we may disclose your protected health information to an insurance company, Medicare, Medicaid or any other third party payer. We may also disclose information to other healthcare providers to assist them in obtaining payment for services they have provided to you. We may give your health plan information about you before it pays for the health care services we recommend for you. Such as: making a determination of eligibility or coverage for insurance benefits, preauthorization for services. As required by your health plan, we may disclose information about you for reviewing services provided to you for medical necessity and undertaking utilization review activities.

Ø                  Health Care Operations  We may use and disclose protected health information about you in a number of different ways related to how we run our practice.  These uses and disclosures are necessary to run our practice and ensure that all of our patients receive quality care.  For example, we may use protected health information to review our treatment and services and to evaluate the performance of our providers in caring for you.  We may also disclose information to doctors, nurses, technicians, and medical students for review and learning purposes.  Information may also be disclosed for activities relating to protocol development, case management and care coordination, reviewing qualifications of physicians, clinical trials and conducting or arranging for other business operations of our practice. We may disclose information as it relates to healthcare operations when we leave messages on your answering machine or at your place of employment when the contact phone number is given us as a method of reaching you. We may call you by name when you are in our practice. We may disclose information to computer technology and support technicians. If we share office space with other healthcare providers, we may disclose information when we call your name or store your information at a shared location.

We will disclose your protected health information with third party "business associates" that perform various activities (e.g., billing, transcription services, answering services, attorney/legal services, consultants or accountants, risk managers) for this practice. Whenever an arrangement with a business associate involves the use or disclosure of your protected health information, we will have a written contract that contains terms that will protect the privacy of your protected health information.

Other Uses and Disclosures We May Make Without your Written Authorization:

Under the law, we may use and disclose your protected health information for which you do not have to give authorization or otherwise have the opportunity to agree or object. “Use” refers to our internal use of your protected health information. “Disclosure” refers to the provision of information by us to parties outside of our practice. We may make the following uses and disclosures of your protected health information without a written authorization from you in situations such as:

Ø                  Appointment Reminders/Sign in Sheets We may use and disclose protected health information to contact you as a reminder that you have an appointment or to see your physician or are due to schedule follow up appointments. We may ask you to sign in when you arrive at our office. We may call your name when we are ready to see you. We may display photo images, which you have sent us, such as birth announcements, greeting cards, any of which may have your name or the names and images of other members of your family.

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