Web Privacy Practices

Unconstipated Kids LLC
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 REVIEW THIS NOTICE CAREFULLY.

We are committed to truth and communication.

If you have any questions about this notice, please contact our privacy officer:

Caitlin M Keller, DPT
info@unconstipatedkids.com
(903) 600-6313

1. What Personal Data We Collect and Why We Collect It

Comments. When visitors leave comments on www.unconstipatedkids.com (hereon known as the "Site"), we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor's IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media. If you upload images to the Site, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the Site.

Contact forms. If you choose to fill out a form of any kind on the Site, you are willingly allowing us to contact you from that time on unless you report to us in writing to stop contacting you through the means originally provided. We collect and use this information only for the purpose of connecting to users of the Site. We will never share this information with another entity without your permission.

Cookies. If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

PHYSICAL THERAPY SERVICES

1. Summary of Rights and Obligations Concerning Protected Health Information (PHI)

Unconstipated Kids LLC is committed to preserving the privacy and confidentiality of your health information, which is required both by federal and state law. We are required by law to provide you with this notice of our legal duties, your rights, and our privacy practices, with respect to using and disclosing your health information that is created or retained by Unconstipated Kids LLC.

Each time you visit us (through an at-home visit, telehealth service, or other means of communication), we make a record of your visit. Typically, this record contains your symptoms, relevant social factors discussed, examination and test results, our assessment of your condition, a record of your treatment interventions, and a plan for future care or treatment. We have an ethical and legal obligation to protect the privacy of your health information, and we will only use or disclose this information in limited circumstances. In general, we may use and disclose your health information to:

  • plan your care and treatment;
  • provide treatment by us or others;
  • communicate with other providers such as referring physicians;
  • receive payment from you, your health plan, or your health insurer;
  • make quality assessments and work to improve the care we render and the outcomes we achieve, known as health care operations;
  • make you aware of services and treatments that may be of interest to you; and
  • comply with state and federal laws that require us to disclose your health information.

We may also use or disclose your health information where you have authorized us to do so.

Although your health record belongs to Unconstipated Kids LLC the information in your record belongs to you. You have the right to:

  • ensure the accuracy of your health record;
  • request confidential communications between you and your physician and request limits on the use and disclosure of your health information; and
  • request an accounting of certain uses and disclosures of health information we have made about you.

We are required to:

  • maintain the privacy of your health information;
  • provide you with notice, such as this Notice of Privacy Practices, as to our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to information we collect and maintain about you;
  • abide by the terms of our most current Notice of Privacy Practices;
  • notify you if we are unable to agree to a requested restriction;
  • and accommodate reasonable requests you may have to communicate health information by alternative means or at alternative locations.

We reserve the right to change our practices and to make the new provisions effective for all your health information that we maintain.

Should our information practices change, a revised Notice of Privacy Practices will be available upon request. If there is a material change, a revised Notice of Privacy Practices will be distributed to the extent required by law. We will not use or disclose your health information without your authorization, except as described in our most current Notice of Privacy Practices. In the following pages, we explain our privacy practices and your rights to your health information in more detail.

2. We may use or disclose your medical information in the following ways:

Treatment. We may use and disclose your protected health information to provide, coordinate and manage your care utilizing any of our services. That may include consulting with other health care providers about your health care or referring you to another health care provider for treatment including physicians, nurses, and other health care providers involved in your care. For example, we may we will release your protected health information to a specialist to whom you have been referred to ensure that the specialist has the necessary information he or she needs to diagnose and/or treat you.

Payment. We may use and disclose your health information so that we may bill and collect payment for the services that we provided to you. For example, we may contact your health insurer to verify your eligibility for benefits and may need to disclose to it some details of your medical condition or expected course of treatment. We may use or disclose your information so that a bill may be sent to you, your health insurer, or a family member. The information on or accompanying the bill may include information that identifies you and your diagnosis, as well as services rendered, any procedures performed, and supplies used. Also, we may provide health information to a collection agency, small claims court or another court of competent jurisdiction in the event your claims for our services are not paid within 90 days and you have not made alternative payment arrangements with us.

Health Care Operations. We may use and disclose your health information to assist in the operation of our practice. For example, members of our staff may use information in your health record to assess the care and outcomes in your case and others like it as part of a continuous effort to improve the quality and effectiveness of the healthcare and services we provide. We may use and disclose your health information to conduct cost-management and business planning activities for our practice. We may also provide such information to other health care entities for their health care operations. For example, we may provide information to your health insurer for its quality review purposes.

Business Associates. Unconstipated Kids LLC may contract with third-party business associates for services. Examples include answering services, transcriptionists, billing services, consultants, and legal counsel. We may disclose your health information to our business associates so that they can perform the job we have asked them to do. To protect your health information, however, we require our business associates to appropriately safeguard your information.

Treatment Options. We may use and disclose your health information in order to inform you of alternative treatments.

Release to Family/Friends. Our staff, using their professional judgment, may disclose to a family member, another relative, close personal friend or any other person you identify, your health information to the extent it is relevant to that person's involvement in your care or payment related to your care. We will provide you with an opportunity to object to such a disclosure whenever we practicably can do so. We may disclose the health information of minor children to their parents or guardians unless such disclosure is otherwise prohibited by law. Please let your provider know if you would not like us to release information to a family member or friend.

Newsletters and Other Communications. We may use your personal information in order to communicate to you via newsletters (including electronic newsletters), mailings, or other means regarding treatment options, health-related information, disease management programs, wellness programs, or other community-based initiatives or activities in which our practice is participating.

Disaster Relief. We may disclose your health information in disaster relief situations where disaster relief organizations seek your health information to coordinate your care or notify family and friends of your location and condition. We will provide you with an opportunity to agree or object to such a disclosure whenever we practicably can do so.

Marketing and Sale of Health Information. We are required by law to obtain your written authorization before we use or disclose your health information to send you marketing communications about products or services offered by third parties where we have received financial remuneration from the third party for such communications. However, we do not have to obtain your written authorization to discuss services or products offered by third parties in face-to-face communications or to offer promotional gifts of nominal value. For example, if a massage therapist wants to pay us for a list of names and addresses of our patients to send a solicitation for the massage therapist's services, we will obtain your written authorization before disclosing your information. We do not have to obtain your written authorization before discussing, face-to-face, the massage therapist's services with you. Under no circumstances will we sell your health information without your written authorization.

Public Health Activities. We may disclose medical information about you for public health activities. These activities generally include the following:

  • licensing and certification carried out by public health authorities;
  • prevention or control of disease, injury, or disability;
  • reports of births and deaths;
  • reports of child abuse or neglect;
  • notifications to people who may have been exposed to a disease or may be at risk for contracting or spreading a disease or condition;
  • organ or tissue donation; and
  • notifications to appropriate government authorities if we believe a patient has been the victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence. We will make this disclosure when required by law, or if you agree to the disclosure, or when authorized by law and in our professional judgment disclosure is required to prevent serious harm.

Health Oversight. We may disclose health information to regulatory agencies of the federal and state government relating to actions required by law, such as audits, investigations, inspections and licensure. These actions are needed for the government to monitor the healthcare system, programs, and compliance with civil rights laws.

Workers' Compensation. We may disclose your health information to the extent authorized by and to the extent necessary to comply with laws relating to workers' compensation or other similar programs established by law.

Law Enforcement. We may release your health information:

  • in response to a court order, subpoena, warrant, summons, or similar process of authorized under a state or federal law;
  • to identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or similar person;
  • about the victim of a crime if, under certain limited circumstances, we are unable to obtain the person's agreement;
  • about a death we believe may be the result of criminal conduct;
  • about criminal conduct at Unconstipated Kids LLC;
  • to coroners or medical examiners;
  • in emergency circumstances to report a crime, the location of the crime or victims, or the identity, description, or location of the person who committed the crime;
  • to authorized federal officials for intelligence, counterintelligence, and other national security authorized by law;
  • and to authorized federal officials so they may conduct special investigations or provide protection to the President, other authorized persons, or foreign heads of state.

De-identified Information. We may use your health information to create "de-identified" information or we may disclose your information to a business associate so that the business associate can create de-identified information on our behalf. When we "de-identify" health information, we remove information that identifies you as the source of the information. Health information is considered "de-identified" only if there is no reasonable basis to believe that the health information could be used to identify you.

Personal Representative. If you have a personal representative, such as a legal guardian, we will treat that person as if that person is you with respect to disclosures of your health information. If you become deceased, we may disclose health information to an executor or administrator of your estate to the extent that a person is acting as your personal representative.

Limited Data Set. We may use and disclose a limited data set that does not contain specific readily identifiable information about you for research, public health, and health care operations. We may not disseminate the limited data set unless we enter into a data use agreement with the recipient in which the recipient agrees to limit the use of that data set to the purposes for which it was provided, ensure the security of the data, and not identify the information or use it to contact any individual.

3. Authorization for Other Uses of Medical Information.

Uses of medical information not covered by our most current Notice of Privacy Practices or the laws that apply to us will be made only with your written authorization. You should be aware that we are not responsible for any further disclosures made by the party you authorize us to release information to. If you provide us with authorization to use or disclose medical information about you, you may revoke that authorization, in writing, at any time. If you revoke your authorization, we will no longer use or disclose medical information about you for the reasons covered by your written authorization, except to the extent that we have already taken action in reliance on your authorization or, if the authorization was obtained as a condition of obtaining insurance coverage and the insurer has the right to contest a claim or the insurance coverage itself. We are unable to take back any disclosures we have already made with your authorization, and we are required to retain our records of the care that we provided to you.

4. Your Health Information Rights.

You have the following rights regarding medical information we gather about you:

Right to Obtain a Paper Copy of This Notice. You have the right to a paper copy of this Notice of Privacy Practices at any time. Even if you have agreed to receive this notice electronically, you are still entitled to a paper copy.

Right to Inspect and Copy. You have the right to inspect and copy medical information that may be used to make decisions about your care. This includes medical and billing records. To inspect and copy medical information, you must submit a written request to your provider or our privacy officer. If you request a copy of your medical information, we may, subject to state law restrictions or limitations, charge a reasonable fee for the costs of labor, postage, and supplies associated with your request. We may not charge you a fee if you require your medical information for a claim for benefits under the Social Security Act (such as claims for Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, and any other state or federal needs-based benefit program.
If your medical information is maintained in an electronic health record, you also have the right to request that an electronic copy of your record be sent to you or to another individual or entity. We may charge you a reasonable cost-based fee limited to the labor costs associated with transmitting the electronic health record.

Right to Amend. If you feel that medical information we have about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask us to amend the information. You have the right to request an amendment for as long as we retain the information. To request an amendment, your request must be made in writing and submitted to your provider or our privacy officer. In addition, you must provide a reason that supports your request. We may deny your request for an amendment if it is not in writing or does not include a reason to support the request. In addition, we may deny your request if you ask us to amend information that:

  • was not created by us, unless the person or entity that created the information is no longer available to make the amendment;
  • is not part of the medical information kept by or for Unconstipated Kids LLC;
  • is not part of the information which you would be permitted to inspect and copy; or
  • is accurate and complete.

If we deny your request for amendment, you may submit a statement of disagreement. We may reasonably limit the length of this statement. Your letter of disagreement will be included in your medical record, but we may also include a rebuttal statement.

5. Right to an Accounting of Disclosures. You have the right to request an accounting of disclosures of your health information made by us. In your accounting, we are not required to list certain disclosures, including:

  • disclosures made for treatment, payment, and health care operations purposes or disclosures made incidental to treatment, payment, and health care operations, however, if the disclosures were made through an electronic health record, you have the right to request an accounting for such disclosures that were made during the previous 3 years;
  • disclosures made pursuant to your authorization;
  • disclosures made to create a limited data set;
  • disclosures made directly to you.

To request an accounting of disclosures, you must submit your request in writing to our privacy officer. Your request must state a time period which may not be longer than six years and may not include dates before July 29, 2020. Your request should indicate in what form you would like the accounting of disclosures (for example, on paper or electronically by e-mail). The first accounting of disclosures you request within any 12-month period will be free. For additional requests within the same period, we may charge you for the reasonable costs of providing the accounting of disclosures. We will notify you of the costs involved and you may choose to withdraw or modify your request at that time before any costs are incurred. Under limited circumstances mandated by federal and state law, we may temporarily deny your request for an accounting of disclosures.

Right to Request Restrictions. You have the right to request a restriction or limitation on the medical information we use or disclose about you for treatment, payment, or health care operations. If you paid out-of-pocket for a specific item or service, you have the right to request that medical information with respect to that item or service not be disclosed to a health plan for purposes of payment or health care operations, and we are required to honor that request unless we are required by law to disclose the information. You also have the right to request a limit on the medical information we communicate about you to someone who is involved in your care or the payment for your care. Except as noted above, we are not required to agree to your request. If we do agree, we will comply with your request unless the restricted information is needed to provide you with emergency treatment. To request restrictions, you must make your request in writing to your provider or our privacy officer. In your request, you must tell us:

  • what information you want to limit;
  • whether you want to limit our use, disclosure, or both; and
  • to whom you want the limits to apply.

Right to Request Confidential Communications. You have the right to request that we communicate with you about medical matters in a certain way or at a certain location. For example, you can ask that we only contact you at work or by e-mail. To request confidential communications, you must make your request in writing to your provider or our privacy officer. We will not ask you the reason for your request. We will accommodate all reasonable requests. Your request must specify how or where you wish to be contacted.

Right to Receive Notice of a Breach. We are required to notify you by first class mail or by e-mail (if you have indicated a preference to receive information by e-mail), of any breaches of Unsecured Protected Health Information as soon as possible, but in any event, no later than 60 days following the discovery of the breach. "Unsecured Protected Health Information" is information that is not secured through the use of a technology or methodology identified by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to render the Protected Health Information unusable, unreadable, and undecipherable to unauthorized users.

6. Complaints

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with us or with the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Ave, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201. To file a complaint with us, contact our privacy officer at the address listed above. All complaints must be submitted in writing and should be submitted within 180 days of when you knew or should have known that the alleged violation occurred. See the Office for Civil Rights website, www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/ for more information. You will not be penalized for filing a complaint.

Thank you.

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