Privacy Policy

THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. 

 

If you have any questions about this Notice of Privacy Practices, please contact our office at 512-469-0535

 

1. Introduction. Presence Wellness and its affiliates (“Ethos”) are required by law to maintain the privacy of Protected Health Information (“PHI”), to provide individuals with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to PHI and to notify affected individuals following a breach of unsecured PHI. PHI is information that may identify you and that relates to your past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition and relates to the provision of healthcare or payment for the provision of healthcare for your past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition and related healthcare services. This Notice of Privacy Practices (“Notice”) describes how we may use and disclose PHI to carry out treatment, obtain payment or perform our healthcare operations and for other specified purposes that are permitted or required by law. The Notice also describes your rights with respect to PHI about you.
2. Presence is required to follow the terms of this Notice currently in effect. We will not use or disclose PHI about you without your written authorization, except as described in this Notice. We reserve the right to change our practices and this Notice and to make the new Notice effective for all PHI we maintain. Upon request, we will provide any revised Notice to you.
3. Our Pledge. The privacy of your personal health information (PHI) is important to us. Your PHI includes, but is not limited to, medical, dental, pharmacy, and mental health information. The Notice describes our privacy practices. Our privacy practices must be followed by all of our employees and staff. This Notice tells you about the ways in which we may use and disclose your PHI. Also described are your rights and certain obligations we have regarding the use and disclosure of your PHI. We use and disclose your PHI is compliance with all applicable state and federal laws.

This notice describes our practices and

• Any health care professional authorized to enter information into your chart.
• Any member of a volunteer group we allow to help you while you are in the office.
• All employees, staff and other personnel.

All these entities, sites and locations follow the terms of this notice. In addition, these entities, sites and locations may share medical information with each other for treatment, payment or health care operations purposes described in this notice.

We understand that medical information about you and your health is personal. We are committed to protecting medical information about you. We create a record of the care and services you receive at the office. We need this record to provide you with quality care and to comply with certain legal requirements.

This notice applies to all of the records of your care generated by the office, whether made by office personnel or your personal doctor. Your personal doctor may have different policies or notices regarding the doctor’s use and disclosure of your medical information created in the doctor’s office or clinic.

This notice will tell you about the ways in which we may use and disclose medical information about you. We also describe your rights and certain obligations we have regarding the use and disclosure of medical information.

We are required by law to:

• Make sure that medical information that identifies you is kept private (with certain exceptions);
• Give you this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to medical information about you; and
• Follow the terms of the notice that is currently in effect.

How We May Use and Disclose Medical Information about You:

 

The following categories describe different ways that we use and disclose medical information. For each category of uses or disclosures we will explain what we mean and try to give some examples. Not every use or disclosure in a category will be listed. However, all of the ways we are permitted to use and disclose information will fall within one of the categories.

For Special Purposes: We are permitted under federal and applicable state law to use or disclose your PHI without your permission only when certain circumstances may arise. We may use or disclose your PHI without your permission for the following purposes:

• Individuals Involved in Your Care or Payment for Your Care: When appropriate we may disclose to a close personal friend or family member who is involved in your medical care or payment for your care. Unless you object, we may disclose to a member of your family, a relative, a close friend or any other person you identify, your Protected Health Information that directly relates to that person’s involvement in your health care. If you are unable to agree or object to such a disclosure, we may disclose such information as necessary if we determine that it is in your best interest based on our professional judgement.
• Disclosures to Parents or Legal Guardians: If you are a minor, we may release your PHI to your parents or legal guardians when we are permitted or required under federal and applicable state law.
• Worker’s Compensation: We may disclose your PHI to the extent authorized by and necessary to comply with laws relating to worker’s compensation or other similar programs established by law.
• Public Health: We may disclose your PHI to federal, state, or local authorities, or other entities charged with preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability for public health activities.
• Health Oversight Activities: We may disclose your PHI to an oversight agency for activities authorized by law. These oversight activities include audits, investigations, and inspections as necessary for our licensure and for government monitoring of the healthcare system, government programs, and compliance with federal and applicable state law.
• Law Enforcement: We may disclose your PHI for law enforcement purposes as required by law or in response to a court order, subpoena, warrant, summons, or similar process; to identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person; about a death resulting from criminal conduct; about crimes on the premises or against a member of our workforce; and in emergency circumstances, to report a crime, the location, victims, or the identity, description, or location of the perpetrator of a crime.
• Judicial and Administrative Proceedings: If you are involved in a lawsuit or a legal dispute, we may disclose your PHI in response to a court or administrative order, subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process that meets the requirements of federal regulations 42 C.F.R. Part 2 concerning Confidentiality of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Patient Records. Please note also that if your records are not actually “patient records” within the meaning of 42 C.F.R. Part 2 (e.g., if your records are created as a result of your participation in the program at another non-treatment setting), your records may not be subject to protections of 42 C.F.R. Part 2.
• United States Department of Health and Human Services: Under federal law, we are required to disclose your PHI to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to determine if you are in compliance with federal laws and regulations regarding the privacy of health information.
• Research: Under certain circumstances, we may use or disclose your PHI for research purposes. However, before disclosing your PHI, the research project must be approved by an institutional review board or a privacy board that has reviewed the research proposal and established protocols to ensure the privacy of your PHI.
• Coroners, Medical Examiners, and Funeral Directors: We may release your PHI to assist in identifying a deceased person or to determine a cause of death.
• Organ or Tissue Procurement Organizations: Consistent with applicable law, we may disclose your PHI to organ procurement organizations or other entities engaged in procurement, banking, or transplantation of organs for the purpose of tissue donation and transplant.
• Notification: We may use or disclose your PHI to assist in a disaster relief effort so that your family, personal representative, or friends may be notified about your condition, status, and location.
• Correctional Institutions: If you are or become an inmate of a correctional institution, we may disclose to the institution or its agents PHI necessary for your health and the health and safety of others.
• To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety: We may use your PHI to appropriate authorities when necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or the health and safety of another person or the public. We may disclose your health information to appropriate authorities if we reasonably believe that you are a possible victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic abuse or the possible victim of other crimes.
• Military and Veterans: If you are a member of the armed forces, we may release your PHI as required by military command authorities. We may also release PHI about foreign military personnel to the appropriate military authority.
• National Security, Intelligence Activities and Protective Services for the President and Others:We may disclose your PHI to authorized federal officials for intelligence, counterintelligence, provision of protection to the President, other authorized persons or foreign heads of state, and other national security activities authorized by law.
• As Required by Law: We must disclose your PHI when required to do so by applicable federal or state law.
• Health-Related Benefits and Services: We may use and disclose your PHI to tell you about health-related benefits or services that may be of interest to you.
• Appropriate Reminders: We may use or disclose your PHI to provide you with appointment reminders (such as voicemail messages, postcards, or letters). You have a right, as explained below, to request restrictions or limitations on the PHI we disclose. You also have a right, as explained below, to request that information can be communicated with you in a certain way or at a certain location.

Psychotherapy Notes: We will not use or disclose psychotherapy notes without your written authorization, and only as permitted by law.

Marketing Health-Related Services: We will not use or disclose your protected health information for marketing communications without your written authorization, and only as permitted by law.

Sale of PHI: We will not sell your protected health information without your written authorization, and only as permitted by law.

At Your Request: We may disclose information when requested by you. This disclosure requires a written consent.

For Treatment: We may use medical information about you to provide you with medical treatment or services. We may disclose medical information about you to doctors, nurses, technicians, health care students, or other office personnel who are involved intaking care of you at the office. For example, a doctor treating you for a broken leg may need to know if you have diabetes because diabetes may slow the healing process. In addition, the doctor may need to tell the dietitian if you have diabetes so that we can arrange for appropriate meals. The office also may share medical information about you in order to coordinate the different things you need, such as prescriptions, lab work and X-rays. We also may disclose medical information about you to people outside the center who may be involved in your medical care after you leave the office, such as skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, and physicians or other practitioners. For example, we may give your physician access to your health information to assist your physician in treating you.

For Payment: We may use and disclose medical information about you so that the treatment and services you receive at the office maybe billed to and payment may be collected from you, an insurance company or a third party. For example, we may need to give your health plan information about surgery you received at the office so your health plan will pay us or reimburse you for the surgery. We may also tell your health plan about a treatment you are going to receive to obtain prior approvalor to determine whether your plan will cover the treatment. We may also provide basic information about you and your health plan, insurance company or other source of payment to practitioners outside the office who are involved in your care, to assist them in obtaining payment for services they provide to you.

For Healthcare Operations: We may use and disclose medical information about you for health care operations. These uses and disclosures are necessary to run the office and make sure that all of our patients receive quality care. For example, we may use medical information to review our treatment and services and to evaluate the performance of our staff in caring for you. We may also combine medical information about many office patients to decide what additional services the office should offer, what services are not needed, and whether certain new treatments are effective. We may also disclose information todoctors, nurses, technicians, medical students, and other offi ce personnel for review and learning purposes. We may alsocombine the medical information we have with medical information from other offi ces to compare how we are doing andsee where we can make improvements in the care and services we offer. We may remove information that identifies you from this set of medical information so others may use it to study health care and health care delivery without learning who the specific patients are.

Appointment Reminders: We may use and disclose medical information to contact you as a reminder that you have an appointment for treatment or medical care at the office.

Treatment Alternatives: We may use and disclose medical information to tell you about or recommend possible treatment options or alternatives that may be of interest to you.

Health-Related Products and Services: We may use and disclose medical information to tell you about our healthcare-related products or services that may be of interest to you.

Office Directory: We may include certain limited information about you in the office directory while you are a patient at the office. This information may include your name, and location/program in the office, Unless there is a specific written request from you to the contrary, this directory information, may be released to people who ask for you by name.

To Individuals Involved In Your Care or Payment for Your Care: We may release medical information about you to a friend or family member who is involved in your medical care. We may also give information to someone who helps pay for your care.

Unless there is a specific written request from you to the contrary, we may also tell your family or friends your condition and that you are in the office.

In addition, we may disclose medical information about you to an entity assisting in a disaster relief effort so that your family can be notified about your condition, status and location. If you arrive at the emergency department either unconscious or otherwise unable to communicate, we are required to attempt to contact someone we believe can make health care decisions for you (e.g., a family member or agent under a health care power of attorney).

Data Collected:

MOBILE NUMBER DATA
When you provide us with your mobile number, we use it solely for the purpose of sending you transactional SMS messages as you have agreed to receive. SMS opt-in or phone numbers collected for SMS purposes are not being shared. 

MESSAGE FREQUENCY
You may receive a varying number of SMS messages from us, depending on your engagement and interaction with our services.  You can expect to receive up to 5 messages per month, unless otherwise specified.

MESSAGE AND DATA RATES
“Message and data rates may apply.” This means that your mobile carrier may charge you for receiving our messages, as per your mobile plan. We are not responsible for these charges.

If you want more information about our privacy practices or have questions or concerns, please contact us.