We respect our legal obligation to keep and maintain the privacy and security of your protected health information. We are obligated by law to provide you with access to this notice 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 reasons we would use or disclose your health information is for treatment, payment, or business operations. We routinely use and disclose your medical information within the office on a daily basis. We do not need specific permission to use or disclose your medical information in the following matters, although you have the right to request that we do not.

Examples of how we might use or disclose health information for treatment purposes might include:

Setting up or changing appointments including leaving messages with those at your home or office who may answer the phone or leaving messages on answering machines, voice mails or emails; calling your name out in a reception room environment; prescribing glasses, contact lenses, or medications as well as relaying this information to suppliers by phone, fax or other electronic means including initial prescriptions and requests from suppliers for refills; notifying you that your ophthalmic goods are ready, including leaving messages with those at your home or office who may answer the phone, or leaving messages on answering machines, voice mails or emails; referring you to another doctor for care not provided by this office; obtaining copies of health information from doctors you have seen before us; discussing your care with you directly or with family or friends you have inferred or agreed may listen to information about your health; sending you postcards or letters or leaving messages with those at your home who may answer the phone or on answering machines, voice mails or emails reminding you it is time for continued care; at your request, we can provide you with a copy of your medical records via email transmission.

Examples of how we might use or disclose health information for payment purposes might include:

Asking you about your medical insurance plans or other sources of payment; preparing and sending bills to your insurance provider or to you; providing any information required by third party payors in order to insure payment for services rendered to you; sending notices of payment due on your account to the person designated as responsible party or head of household on your account with fee explanations that could include procedures performed and for what diagnosis: collecting unpaid balances either ourselves or through a collection agency, attorney, or district attorney’s office. At the patient’s request we may not disclose health care information that you have paid for out of pocket. This only applies to those encounters related to the care you want restricted.

Examples of how we might use or disclose health information for business operations might include:

Financial or billing audits; internal quality assurance programs; participation in managed care plans; defense of legal matters; business planning; certain research functions; informing you of products or services offered by our office; compliance with local, state, or federal government agencies request for information; oversight activities such as licensing of our doctors; Medicare or Medicaid audits; providing information regarding your vision status to the Department of Public Safety, a school nurse, or agency qualifying for disability status.

USES AND DISCLOSURES FOR OTHER REASONS NOT NEEDING PERMISSION

In some other limited situations, the law allows us to use or disclose your medical information without your specific permission. Most of these situations will never apply to you but they could.

• When a state or federal law mandates that certain health information be reported for a specific purpose
• For public health reasons, such as reporting of a contagious disease, investigations or surveillance, and notices to and from the federal Food and Drug Administration regarding drugs or medical devices
• Disclosures to government or law authorities about victims of suspected abuse, neglect, domestic violence, or when someone is or suspected to be a victim of a crime
• Disclosures for judicial and administrative proceedings, such as in response to subpoenas or orders of courts or administrative hearings
• Disclosures to a medical examiner to identify a deceased person or determine cause of death or to funeral directors to aid in burial
• Disclosures to organizations that handle organ or tissue donations
• Uses or disclosures for health-related research
• Uses or disclosures to prevent a serious threat to health or safety of an individual or individuals
• Uses or disclosures to aid military purposes or lawful national intelligence activities
• Disclosures of de-identified information
• Disclosures related to a workman’s compensation claim
• Disclosures of a “limited data set” for research, public health, or health care operations
• Incidental disclosures that are an unavoidable by-product of permitted uses and disclosures
• Disclosure of information needed in completing forms from a school-related vision screening, information to the Department of Public Safety, information related to certification for occupational or recreational licenses such as pilots license