Notice of Privacy Practices

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

PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY.

The Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA") is a Federal program that requests that all medical records and other individually identifiable health information used or disclosed by us in any form, whether electronically, on paper, or orally are kept properly confidential. This Act gives you, the patient, the right to understand and control how your protected health information ("PHI") is used. HIPAA provides penalties for covered entities that misuse personal health information.

As required by HIPAA, we prepared this explanation of how we are to maintain the privacy of your health information and how we may disclose your personal information.

We may use and disclose your medical records only for each of the following purposes: treatment, payment and health care operation.

• Treatment means providing, coordinating, or managing health care and related services by one or more healthcare providers. An example of this is a primary care doctor referring you to a specialist doctor.

• Payment means such activities as obtaining reimbursement for services, confirming coverage, billing or collections activities, and utilization review. An example of this would include sending your insurance company a bill for your visit and/or verifying coverage prior to a surgery.

• Health Care Operations include business aspects of running our practice, such as conducting quality assessments and improving activities, auditing functions, cost management analysis, and customer service. An example of this would be new patient survey cards.

• The practice may also be required or permitted to disclose your PHI for law enforcement and other legitimate reasons. In all situations, we shall do our best to assure its continued confidentiality to the extent possible.

We may contact you, by phone or in writing, to provide appointment reminders or information about treatment alternatives or other health-­‐related benefits and services.

The following use and disclosures of PHI will only be made pursuant to us receiving a written authorization from you:

• Most uses and disclosure of psychotherapy notes;
• Uses and disclosure of your PHI for marketing purposes, including subsidized treatment and health care operations;
• Disclosures that constitute a sale of PHI under HIPAA; and
• Other uses and disclosures not described in this notice.

Dermatology & Dermatologic Surgery Group of Northern Virginia, PLLC

243 Church Street NW, Suite 200-C,
Vienna, VA 22180

Monday - Friday

9:00 am - 12:30 pm

1:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Saturday, Sunday

Closed