It is the policy of our practice that all physicians and staff 
preserve the integrity and the confidentiality of protected health 
information (PHI) pertaining to our patients.
The purpose of this policy is to ensure that our practice and its physicians 
and staff have the necessary medical and PHI to provide the highest quality 
medical care possible while protecting the confidentiality of the PHI of 
our patients to the highest degree possible.
Patients should not be afraid to provide information to our practice and 
its physicians and staff for purposes of treatment, payment and healthcare 
operations (TPO). To that end, our practice and its physicians and staff will:

-- Adhere to the standards set forth in the Notice of Privacy Practices.

-- Collect, use and disclose PHI only in conformance with state and federal 
laws and current patient covenants and/or authorizations, as appropriate.  
Our practice and its physicians and staff will not use or disclose PHI for 
uses outside of practice's TPO, such as marketing, employment, life insurance 
applications, etc. without an authorization from the patient.

-- Use and disclose PHI to remind patients of their appointments unless they 
instruct us not to.

-- Recognize that PHI collected about patients must be accurate, timely, 
complete, and available when needed.  Our practice and its physicians and 
staff will:- Implement reasonable measures to protect the integrity of all 
PHI maintained about patients.

-- Recognize that patients have a right to privacy.

-- Our practice and its physicians and staff respect the patient's 
individual dignity at all times.

-- Our practice and its physicians and staff will respect patient's privacy 
to the extent consistent with providing the highest quality medical care 
possible and with the efficient administration of the facility.

-- Act as responsible information stewards and treat all PHI as sensitive 
and confidential. Consequently, our practice and its physicians and staff 
will:- 
Treat all PHI data as confidential in accordance with professional ethics, 
accreditation standards, and legal requirements. 

-- Not disclose PHI data unless the patient (or his or her authorized 
representative) has properly authorized the release or the release 
is otherwise authorized by law.
 
-- Recognize that, although our practice "owns" the medical record, 
the patient has a right to inspect and obtain a copy of his/her PHI.  
In addition, patients have a right to request an amendment to his/her 
medical record if he/she believes his/her information is inaccurate or 
incomplete.  
Our practice and its physicians and staff will:- Permit patient's access to 
their medical records when their written requests are approved by our 
practice. If we deny their request, then we must inform the patients that 
they may request a review of our denial.
In such cases, we will have an on-site healthcare professional review the 
patients' appeals.

-- Provide patients an opportunity to request the correction of inaccurate 
or incomplete PHI in their medical records in accordance with the law and 
professional standards.

-- All physicians and staff of our practice will maintain a list of certain 
disclosures of PHI for purposes other than TPO for each patient and those 
made pursuant to an authorization as required by HIPAA rules. 

We will provide this list to patients upon request, so long as their 
requests are in writing.

-- All physicians and staff of our practice will adhere to any restrictions 
concerning the use or disclosure of PHI that patients have requested and have 
been approved by our practice.

-- All physicians and staff of our practice must adhere to this policy. 
Our practice will not tolerate violations of this policy. Violation of this 
policy is grounds for disciplinary action, up to and including termination 
of employment and criminal or professional sanctions in accordance with our 
practice's personnel rules and regulations. 

-- Our practice may change this privacy policy in the future.  
Any changes will be effective upon the release of a revised privacy policy 
and will be made available to patients upon request.