Privacy Policy

The following categories describe different ways that we use and disclose medical information. For each category of uses or disclosures, we will elaborate on the meaning and provide specific 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 Payment.

We may use and disclose medical information about you so that the treatment and services you receive at the practice may be billed to and payment may be collected from you, an insurance company or a third party. For example, it may be essential that you provide us with your health plan information regarding care you receive at the practice so that your health plan will pay us or reimburse you for those services. In addition, we may tell your health plan about a treatment you are going to receive in order to obtain necessary approval or to determine whether your plan will cover the treatment.

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, medical students, or other practice personnel who are involved in taking care of you at the practice. For example, a doctor treating you for atrial fibrillation may need to know if you have asthma so that he/she can make sure that an inappropriate medical therapy is not being used during heart rate control.

Different sections of our  practice also may share medical information about you in order to coordinate the different services you need, such as prescriptions, lab work and x-rays. We also may disclose medical information about you to people outside the practice who may be involved in your medical care after you leave the practice, such as family members or other persons that are considered part of your ongoing medical care.

For Health Care Operations.

We may use and disclose medical information about you for practice operations. These uses and disclosures are necessary to run the practice and ensure that all of our patients receive quality care. For example, we may combine medical information about a variety of practice patients to decide what additional services the practice should offer, what services are not needed, and whether certain new treatments are effective.

We may also disclose information to doctors, nurses, technicians, medical students, and other practice personnel for review and learning purposes. We may combine the medical information we have along with medical information from other practices to compare how we are doing and thus, evaluate where we can make improvements in the care and services we provide. We may remove information that identifies you from this set of medical information so that others may use it to study health care and health care delivery, without learning the identity of the patients.