HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices

This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. please review it carefully.

We respect our legal obligation to keep your personal health information private. We are obligated by law to give you this document, a description of our privacy practices. This Notice describes how we protect your health information and what rights you have regarding it.

Treatment, Payment, and Health Care Operations

The most common reason we use or disclose your health information is for treatment, payment or health care operations. Examples of how we use or disclose information for treatment purposes are: setting up an appointment for you; examining your eyes; prescribing glasses, contact lenses, or eye medications and faxing them to be filled; referring you to another doctor or clinic for eye care; filling prescriptions, duplicating eyewear or getting copies of your health information from a doctor you have seen before us. Examples of how we use or disclose your health information for payment purposes are: asking you about your health or vision care plans, or other sources of payment; preparing and sending bills or claims; and collecting unpaid amounts (either ourselves or through a collection agency or attorney). "Health care operations" mean those administrative and managerial functions that we have to do in order to run our office. Examples of how we use or disclose your health information for health care operations are: participation in managed care plans; and defense of legal matters.

We routinely use your health information inside our office for these purposes without any special permission. We share your information with other health care providers, insurers, and administrative entities when necessary to provide appropriate treatment, secure payment, or carry out administrative functions.

Uses and Disclosures for Other Reasons Without Permission

The law allows or requires us to use or disclose your health information without your permission. Not all of these situations will apply to us; some may never come up at our office at all. Such uses or disclosures are:

• when a state or federal law mandates that certain health information be reported for a specific purpose;
• for public health purposes, such as contagious disease reporting, investigation or surveillance; and notices to and from the federal Food and Drug Administration regarding drugs or medical devices;
• to governmental authorities about victims of suspected abuse, neglect or domestic violence;
• for health oversight activities, such as for the licensing of doctors; for audits by Medicare or Medicaid; or for investigation of possible violations of health care laws;
• for judicial and administrative proceedings, such as in response to subpoenas or orders of courts or administrative agencies;
• for law enforcement purposes, such as to provide information about someone who is or is suspected to be a victim of a crime; to provide information about a crime at our office; or to report a crime that happened somewhere else;
• to a medical examiner to identify a dead person or to determine the cause of death; or to funeral directors to aid in burial; or to organizations that handle organ or tissue donations;
• to prevent a serious threat to health or safety;
• for specialized government functions, such as for the protection of the president or high ranking government officials; for lawful national intelligence activities; for military purposes; or for the evaluation and health of members of the foreign service;
• for purposes of worker's compensation programs;
• incidental disclosures that are an unavoidable by-product of permitted uses or disclosures;
• disclosures to "business associates" who perform health care operations for us and who commit to respect the privacy of your health information (for example, placing a contact lens order for you).

Unless you object, we may also share relevant information about your care with family or friends who are helping you with your eye care.

Appointment Reminders and Notification

We may call or write to remind you of scheduled appointments, that it is time to make a routine appointment or that your eyewear is ready. We may also call or write to notify you of other treatments or services available at our office that might help you. Unless you tell us otherwise, we may mail you an appointment reminder or notification about the status of your eyewear on a post card, and/or leave you a reminder or notify you about the status of your eyewear on your home answering machine or with someone who answers your phone if you are not home.

Other Uses and Disclosures

We will not make any other uses or disclosures of your health information unless you sign a written "authorization form." The content of an "authorization form" is determined by federal law. Sometimes, we may initiate the authorization process if the use or disclosure is our idea. Sometimes, you may initiate the process if it's your idea for us to send your information to someone else. Typically, in this situation, you will give us a properly completed authorization form, or you can use one of ours.

If we initiate the process and ask you to sign an authorization form, you do not have to sign it. If you do not sign the authorization, we cannot make the use or disclosure. If you do sign one, you may revoke it at any time unless we have already acted in reliance upon it. Revocations must be in writing. Send them to the office contact person named at the beginning of this Notice.

HIV-Related Information and Information Concerning Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services

New York State law includes special protections for HIV-related information. We will not disclose information concerning your HIV status or HIV testing without obtaining a specific written authorization, except under certain circumstances it is authorized or required by law. For example, we would be permitted to disclose such information to certain agents or employees of your health care providers that are authorized to obtain such information for treatment or payment purposes, to health care facility staff committees and health care facility accreditation or oversight organizations, to a public health officer when mandated by law, to your health insurer or vision plan for purposes of securing reimbursement if we obtained your general consent to such disclosure, pursuant to a court order.

Health information possessed by federally-supported alcohol and substance abuse treatment programs is also subject to special protections under federal law. If we receive information about you from one of these programs, we will not disclose it without your specific written authorization, except under circumstances in which a disclosure is authorized or required by law, such as to medical personnel who need this information of providing you with emergency treatment, to the Food and Drug Administration for the purpose of identifying potentially dangerous products, to authorized persons conducting on-site audits of our records, subject to the requirement that these persons not remove the information from our facilities and agree in writing to safeguard the information, and in response to an appropriate court order.