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.
This notice applies to Joy Children's Clinic (“the practice”). We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your Protected Health Information (PHI), to give you this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, and to follow the terms of the notice currently in effect. This notice is different from our website Privacy Policy, which covers only information submitted through this website.
1. How We May Use and Disclose Your Health Information
We may use and disclose your PHI, without further authorization, for:
- Treatment — providing, coordinating and managing your care, and sharing information with other providers involved in it: for example, sending a referral to a specialist, or a prescription to your pharmacy.
- Payment — billing and collecting payment for your care: for example, sending a claim to your insurer, or confirming your coverage before a visit.
- Health care operations — running the practice: quality review, training, licensing, scheduling, and appointment reminders.
We may also use or disclose your PHI, in the circumstances and within the limits the law sets, without your authorization: when required by law; for public health activities (including disease reporting and vaccine registries); to report suspected abuse, neglect or domestic violence; for health oversight audits and inspections; for judicial and administrative proceedings in response to a valid order; for limited law-enforcement purposes; to coroners, medical examiners and funeral directors; for organ and tissue donation; to reduce a serious and imminent threat to health or safety; for specialized government functions; for workers' compensation; and, subject to formal safeguards, for research. Unless you object, we may share information relevant to your care with a family member or friend involved in your care.
2. Uses That Require Your Written Authorization
We will not use or disclose your PHI for the following purposes without your written authorization, which you may revoke at any time in writing (except to the extent we have already relied on it): marketing; sale of your information (we do not sell PHI); most uses and disclosures of psychotherapy notes; and any other purpose not described in this notice. Where state law gives your health information more protection than federal law, we follow the stricter rule.
3. Your Rights
- See and get a copy of your record. You may inspect and obtain a copy of your medical and billing records, on paper or electronically. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee for copies.
- Ask us to correct your record. If you believe information in your record is wrong or incomplete, you may request an amendment in writing. If we deny the request we will tell you why in writing.
- An accounting of disclosures. You may request a list of the disclosures we have made of your PHI in the previous six years, other than for treatment, payment, operations and certain other purposes.
- Request restrictions. You may ask us to limit how we use or share your PHI. We are not required to agree to every request — but if you pay for a service in full, out of pocket, and ask us not to tell your health plan about it, we must agree unless the law requires the disclosure.
- Confidential communications. You may ask us to contact you in a specific way or at a specific place. We will accommodate reasonable requests.
- A paper copy of this notice. You may ask for a paper copy at any time, even if you agreed to receive it electronically.
- Choose someone to act for you. A parent of a minor, a guardian, or a person with medical power of attorney may exercise your rights on your behalf.
- Breach notification. We will notify you if a breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your information.
To exercise any of these rights, call us at +1-469-573-0020 or ask at the front desk.
4. Our Duties
We are required by law to maintain the privacy and security of your PHI, to notify you of breaches, to give you this notice, and to abide by its current terms. We may change this notice and make the new notice apply to all PHI we maintain; the current version will always be posted on this page and available at our office, with its effective date shown at the top.
5. Complaints
If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may complain to the practice and to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, at hhs.gov/ocr/complaints. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.
6. Contact
Privacy questions and requests: Joy Children's Clinic — +1-469-573-0020 · info@joychildrens.com · 201 Wyngate Blvd, Suite 830, Plano, TX 75074. If you have no other way to reach us, use our contact page.