Privacy Policies
Notice of Privacy Practices
This notice describes how health information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully. The privacy of your personal health information is important to us.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) requires that health providers keep your medical and dental information private. The HIPAA Privacy Rule states that health providers must also post in a clear and prominent location, and provide patients with a written Notice of Privacy Policy.
Our Legal Duty
We respect our legal obligation to keep health information that identifies you private. We are obligated by law to give you notice of our privacy practices. This Notice describes how we protect your health information and what rights you have regarding your health information. If you have any questions about this Notice, please contact us at the address, email, or phone number shown at the end of this Notice.
Your Authorization
In addition to our use of your health information for the following purposes, 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 was 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.
How We Collect Data about You:
Directly from you. This includes registration forms, sign up to get emails, scheduling an appointment, filling out webforms, or contacting us through phone, email, or texting.
Automatically. This includes cookies, server logs, apps, or other tools on our website or apps.
From other sources. These can include our affiliates, vendors, social media, publicly available sources, and other companies.
How We Use the Data:
Assist in scheduling appointments
Identify you when you visit our office
Prescreen applicants for credit
Complete transitions
Improve or create services and products
Conduct analytics
Connect with you (requests, inquiries, feedback, issues, etc.)
Market our products or services
Market products or services to our business partners
Find and prevent malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity
Find and prevent security incidents
Enforce our policies and agreements
Debug, find, fix errors that impair website and services
Comply with legal or regulatory obligations
Establish or exercise or rights
Defend against legal claims
Manage our relationships
For other reasons with your consent
Uses and Disclosures of Health Information
We may use and disclose health information about you for the following purposes.
Treatment: We may use or disclose your health information for your treatment. For example, we may disclose your health information to a physician or other healthcare provider providing treatment to you.
Payment We may use and disclose your health information to obtain payment for services we provide to you. For example, we may send claims to your dental health plan containing certain health information.
Healthcare Operations: We may use and disclose your health information in connection with our healthcare operations. For example, healthcare operations include quality assessment and improvement activities, reviewing the competence or qualifications of healthcare professionals, evaluating practitioner and provider performance, and conducting training programs, accreditation, certification, licensing and credentialing activities.
Incidental Disclosures: We may disclose your health information when a disclosure is an unavoidable by-product of other permitted uses or disclosures.
To You or Your Personal Representative: We must disclose your health information to you, as described in this Notice. We may disclose your health information to your personal representative, but only if you agree that we may do so.
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 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 absence or incapacity or in 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 healthcare. 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.
Disaster Relief: We may use or disclose your health information to assist in disaster relief efforts.
Marketing Health-Related Services: We will not use your health information for marketing communications without your written authorization. For the avoidance of doubt, this does not include notifications related to patient services, such as reminders of unscheduled or overdue care needs, updates on insurance coverage or limits, or communications to you from your doctor. We may communicate with you in the form of face-to-face conversations, written documents, telephone conversations, text messages, virtual conversations about services and treatment alternatives. We may also use your health information to contact you with information related to health benefits and services or about treatment alternatives that may be of interest to you. We may also disclose your health information to a business associate to assist us in these activities.
Required by Law: We may use or disclose your health information when we are required to do so by law.
Law Enforcement Purposes: We may disclose your health information for law enforcement purposes, such as is required by law (including court orders, warrants, and subpoenas), identifying a criminal suspect, material witness or missing person, request for information about crime victims or suspected criminal conduct and evidence of crime on premises.
Victim or Abuse, Neglect, or Domestic Violence: We may disclose health information to appropriate government authorities regarding victims of abuse, neglect, and domestic violence.
Public Health and Public Benefit: We may use or disclose your health information to report abuse, neglect, or domestic violence; to report disease, injury, and vital statistics; to report certain information to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); to alert someone who may be at risk of contracting or spreading a disease; for health oversight activities; for certain judicial and administrative proceedings; for certain law enforcement purposes; to avert a serious threat to health or safety; and to comply with workers' compensation or similar programs.
Decedents: We may disclose health information about a decedent as authorized or required by law.
Specialized Government Functions: We may disclose your health information regarding government functions such as military, national security, or intelligence activities.
Business Associates: Some services in our organization are provided through contacts with business associates. Examples include practice management software, cloud storage management, accountants, patient engagement software, & etc. When these services are contracted, we may disclose your health information to our business associates so that they can perform the job we have requested them to perform. All of our business associates are required to safeguard your information and to follow HIPAA Privacy Rules.
Appointment Reminders: We may use or disclose your health information to provide you with appointment reminders (such as voicemail messages, email, texts, postcards, or letters).
Marketing Health-Related Services: We may use your information internally to offer goods and services we believe may be of interest to you. We may use your information to contact you to inquire or survey about the patient experience at the office and the prospect of future services or improvements needed to continue as your services provider.
We may utilize one or more third-party service providers to send emails, texts, or other communications to you on our behalf, including patient satisfaction surveys. These service providers are prohibited from using your email address, phone number, or other contact information for any purpose other than to send communications on our behalf.
It is our intention to only send email and text message communications that would be useful to you and that you would want to receive. When you provide us with your email address and phone number as a part of the registration or appointment setting process, we will place you on our list of patients to receive informational and promotional emails and text messages.
Each time you receive a promotional email or text message, you will be provided the choice to “opt-out” of future emails by following the instructions provided.
We will never share your information without your permission for marketing purposes or sale of your information.
Your Rights
Access: You have the right to look at or get copies of your health information, with limited exceptions. You must make this request in writing to us with your name, date of birth, date of request, contact information including phone number, email, and mailing address, a specified list of the dates and the type of health information you’re requesting, and a reasonable date in which the information is needed by. You may request that we provide copies in a format other than photocopies. We will use the format you request unless we cannot practicably do so. We will charge you a reasonable cost-based fee for the cost of supplies and labor of copying. If you request an alternative format, we will charge a cost-based fee for providing your health information in that format. If we deny your request for access to your health information, we will notify you of the reason for the denial in writing.
Disclosure Accounting: You have the right to receive a list of instances in which we or our business associates disclosed your health information for purposes other than treatment, payment, healthcare operations, and certain other activities, for the last 6 years, but not before January 1, 2023. You must request this accounting in writing to us with your name, date of birth, date of request, contact information including phone number, email, and mailing address, a specified list of the dates and type of accounting information you’re requesting, and a reasonable date in which the information is needed by. If you request this accounting more than once in a 12-month period, we may charge you a reasonable, cost-based fee for responding to these additional requests.
Restrictions: You have the right to request that we place additional restrictions on our use or disclosure of your health information. In most cases we are not required to agree to these additional restrictions, but if we do, we will abide by our agreement (except in certain circumstances where disclosure is required or permitted, such as an emergency, for public health activities, or when disclosure is required by law). We must comply with a request to restrict the disclosure of protected health information to a health plan for purposes of carrying out payment or health care operations (as defined by HIPAA) if the protected health information pertains solely to a health care item or service for which we have been paid out of pocket in full. You must make this request in writing to us with your name, date of birth, date of request, contact information including phone number, email, and mailing address, and a list of the specific restrictions you are requesting.
Alternative Communication: You have the right to request that we communicate with you about your health information by alternative means or at alternative locations. (You must make your request in writing.) Your request must specify the alternative means or location, and provide satisfactory explanation of how payments will be handled under the alternative means or location you request. We must accommodate your request if: it is reasonable, specifies the alternative means or location; and provides a satisfactory explanation of how payments will be handled under the alternative means or location you request.
Marketing Health-Related Services: You have the right to “opt-out” or promotional emails or text messages.You will be provided the choice to “opt-out” of future emails and texts by following the instructions provided.
Amendment: You have the right to request that we amend your health information. Your request must be in writing, and it must explain why the information should be amended. We may deny your request under certain circumstances.
Electronic Notice: You may receive a paper copy of this notice upon request.
Your Choices:
You have the right to make the following choices:
Access. You may request access to your personal data or confirmation that we have data about you.
List of Third-Party Recipients. You may request a list of specific third parties to which we have disclosed personal information. Some areas also allow you to obtain a list of the categories of third parties to which we have disclosed personal information.
Change. You can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete registration data by contacting us at the address below. We may keep historical data in our backup files as permitted by law.
Deletion. You may ask us to delete your personal data. If required by law, we will grant such a request, but note that in many cases, we must keep your personal data to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, or for other business purposes.
Promotional Emails. You may provide us with your email address to allow us to send newsletters, surveys, offers, or other promotional content. You can stop receiving such emails by following the unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of those emails. If you choose not to receive such emails, we may still send you service-related communications.
Promotional Mailings. If you do not want to receive offers and/or circulars from us, email us with “NO SNAIL MAIL” in the subject line, and include your name, address, and zip code. Note that our mailings are prepared before we send them. We will remove your name from our mailing list after receiving your request, but you may receive mailings from us that were prepared prior to processing your request.
Promotional Text Messages. If you get a text message from us that has promotional content, you can opt-out of future text messages by replying “STOP.”
Not all the rights above are absolute, and they do not apply in all circumstances. We may limit or deny a request because the law permits or requires us to. We will not discriminate against individuals who exercise a privacy right.
How We Protect Data
No method of internet transmission or electronic storage is completely secure. While we use reasonable efforts to protect personal data, we cannot guarantee its security.
How We Retain Data
We keep your personal data for only as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes in this Notice unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. This includes the purposes of satisfying legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the data. We also weigh the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of the data, the purposes for which we obtained the data and whether we can meet those purposes through other means, as well as applicable legal requirements.
Third-Party Apps & Websites
We may provide links to websites and other third-party content or services that we do not own or operate. We have no control over the privacy practices of websites or services we do not own. For details about such third parties’ privacy practices, see their privacy notices.
Notice of a Breach
If there is a breach involving your unsecured PHI, we will notify you, government officials, and enforcement authorities, as necessary and appropriate under HIPAA.
Changes to this Notice
We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and the terms of this Notice at any time, provided such changes are permitted by law. We reserve the right to make the changes in our privacy practices and the new terms of our Notice effective for all health information that we maintain, including health information we created or received before we made the changes. If we make a significant change in our privacy practices, we will amend this Notice and make the new notice available upon request.
Sharing and Joint Use of your Health Information
We may contract with one or more third parties (our business associates) in the course of our business operations. We may disclose your health information to business associates who may have access to or be given your health information in order to provide the contracted services. This includes, but is not limited to, cloud storage services. We require that our business associates sign a business associate agreement and agree to safeguard the privacy and security of your PHI as required by HIPAA.
Questions: If you would like more information about our privacy practices or have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Complaints: If you think that we have not properly respected the privacy of your health information, you are free to complain to us or to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. 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. If you want to complain to us, send a written complaint to us at the address or email shown below. If you prefer, you can discuss your complaint in person or by phone.