Notice of Privacy Practices

This notice describes how your health information may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully. The privacy of your health information is important to us.

Our Legal Duty

Federal and state laws require us to maintain the privacy of your health information. We are also required to provide this notice about our offices privacy practices, our legal duties and your rights regarding your health information. We are required to follow the practices that are outlined in this notice while it is in effect. This notice takes effect 01/31/2023 and will remain in effect until we replace it. We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and the terms of this notice at any time, provided such changes are permitted by applicable law. We reserve the right to make changes in our privacy practices and the new terms of our notice effective for all health information we maintain, including health information we created or received before making the changes. Before we make a significant change in our privacy practices, we will change this notice and make the new notice available upon request. For more information about our privacy practices or additional copies of this notice, please get in touch with us

Uses and Disclosures of Health Information

We use and disclose health information about you for treatment, payment and healthcare operations.

For example:  Treatment: We disclose medical information to our employees and others who are involved in providing the care you need. We may use or disclose your health information to another dentist or other health care providers providing treatment we do not provide. We may also share your health information with a pharmacist in order to provide you with a prescription or with a laboratory that performs tests or fabricates dental prostheses or orthodontic appliances.

Payment We may use and disclose your health information to obtain payment for services we provide to you, unless you request that we restrict such disclosure to your health plan when you have paid out-of-pocket and in full for services rendered.

Health Care Operations   We may use and disclose your health information in connection with our health care operations. Health care operations include, but are not limited to, quality assessment and improvement activities, reviewing the competence or qualifications of health care professionals, evaluating practitioner and provider performance, conducting training programs, accreditation, certification, licensing or credentialing activities.

Your Authorization   In addition to our use of your health information for treatment, payment or health care operations, you may give us written authorization to use your health information 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 is in effect. Unless you give us a written authorization, we cannot use or disclose your health information for any reason except those described in this notice.

To Your Family and Friends   We must disclose your health information to you, as described in the Patient Rights section of this notice. You have the right to request restrictions on disclosure to family members, other relatives, close personal friends or any other person identified by you.

Unsecured Email   We will not send you unsecured emails pertaining to your health information without your prior authorization. If you do authorize communications via unsecured email, you have the right to revoke the authorization at any time.

Persons Involved in Care   We may use or disclose health information to notify or assist in the notification of (including identifying or locating) a family member, your personal representative or another person responsible for your care, of your location, your general condition or your death. If you are present, then prior to use or disclosure of your health information, we will provide you with an opportunity to object to such uses or disclosures. In the event of your incapacity or emergency circumstances, we will disclose health information based on a determination using our professional judgment disclosing only health information that is directly relevant to the person’s involvement in your health care. We will also use our professional judgment and our experience with common practice to make reasonable inferences of your best interest in allowing a person to pick up filled prescriptions, medical supplies, X-rays or other similar forms of health information.

Marketing Health- Services   We may contact you about products or services to your treatment, case management or care coordination or to propose other treatments or health- benefits and services in which you may be interested. We may also encourage you to purchase a product or service when you visit our office. If you are currently an enrollee of a dental plan, we may receive payment for communications to you in relation to our provision, coordination or management of your dental care, including our coordination or management of your health care with a third party, our consultation with other health care providers relating to your care or if we refer you for health care. We will not otherwise use or disclose your health information for marketing purposes without your written authorization. We will disclose whether we receive payments for marketing activity you have authorized. C

Change of Ownership If this dental practice is sold or merged with another practice or organization, your health records will become the property of the new owner. However, you may request that copies of your health information be transferred to another dental practice.

Required by Law
We may use or disclose your health information when we are required to do so by law.

Public Health We may, and are sometimes legally obligated to, disclose your health information to public health agencies for purposes to preventing or controlling disease, injury or disability; reporting abuse or neglect; reporting domestic violence; reporting to the Food and Drug Administration problems with products and reactions to medications; and reporting disease or infection exposure. Upon reporting suspected elder or dependent adult abuse or domestic violence, we will promptly inform you or your personal representative unless we believe the notification would place you at risk of harm or would require informing a personal representative we believe is responsible for the abuse or harm.

Abuse or Neglect

We may disclose your health information to appropriate authorities if we reasonably believe that you are a possible victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence or the possible victim of other crimes. We may disclose your health information to the extent necessary to avert a serious threat to your health or safety or the health or safety of others.

We may disclose to military authorities the health information of Armed Forces personnel under certain circumstances. We may disclose to authorized federal officials health information required for lawful intelligence, counterintelligence and other national security activities. We may disclose to correctional institutions or law enforcement officials having lawful custody of protected health information of inmates or patients under certain circumstances.

We may contact you to provide you with appointment reminders via voicemail, postcards or letters. We may also leave a message with the person answering the phone if you are not available.

Upon arriving at our office, we may use and disclose medical information about you by asking that you sign an intake sheet at our front desk. We may also announce your name when we are ready to see you.