Notice of Privacy Practices

Welcome to Clear Skin For You Ellicott City’s Premier Adult Dermatology Clinic

CLEAR SKIN FOR YOU LLC

Notice of Privacy Practices

THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN OBTAIN ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.

CLEAR SKIN FOR YOU LLC (“The Practice”) is required by law to maintain the privacy of identifiable information that relates to your health, health care you have received, or payment for your care. As required by law, this Notice provides you with information about your rights and our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your health information. This Notice also describes how the Practice may use or disclose your health information.

How We May Use and Disclose Health Information About You

The Practice may use or disclose health information about you, without your written consent (known as an authorization), for purposes related to:

Treatment: We may use and disclose your health information to provide you treatment. Treatment means the coordination of your care between various health care providers and specialists for consultations. This includes disclosing your protected health information to other medical providers, trainees, therapists, medical staff, and office staff that are involved in your health care.
Payment: Payment refers to activities related to verifying your level of insurance benefits, requesting authorizations for treatment and referrals for special tests, and billing/administrative purposes. For example, the Practice may need to provide information to your insurance plan about your medical condition in order to determine whether the proposed course of treatment will be covered.
Health Care Operations: Health care operations refers to the administrative and operational activities the Practice must engage in, including quality assurance, audits, and provider reviews. For example, the Practice may use your health information to evaluate the performance of our staff in caring for you.
Health Information Exchanges: The Practice may share information that we obtain or create about you with other health care providers or health care entities, as permitted by law, through Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) in which we participate. An HIE is a technology framework that allows for secure electronic exchange of health information among participating organizations, such as hospitals, physician offices, labs, radiology centers, and other medical providers. By exchanging information through HIEs, it provides the Practice and other participating health care providers faster access to health information about you, which allows them to make more informed treatment decisions and coordinate your care.

The Practice participates in the Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients, Inc. (CRISP), a statewide HIE. As permitted by law, your health information will be shared with this HIE in order to provide faster access, better care coordination, and assist providers and public health officials in making more informed decisions. You may “opt-out” and prevent searching of your health information through CRISP by calling 1-877-952-7477 or completing and submitting an Opt-Out form to CRISP by mail, fax or through their website at www.crisphealth.org. If you opt-out of CRISP, certain health information about you may still be available through the HIE as permitted or required by law. For example, medical providers who are treating you will no longer be able to search for your health information through CRISP, but will still be able to receive lab results, radiology reports, and other data sent directly from CRISP that they may have previously received by fax or mail. In addition, public health reporting and controlled dangerous substance information, as part of the Maryland Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, will still be available to providers through CRISP.

Family Members and Other Individuals Involved in Your Care: : Unless you object, the Practice may disclose your health information to family members or other persons who are involved in your medical care or help you pay for your care, provided the information is relevant to that person’s involvement in your care. If you are unavailable, the Practice will use professional judgment to determine what is in your best interest.
Appointment Reminders and Treatment Alternatives:The Practice may contact you to remind you about your appointments and bring to your attention alternative treatment options and other health related benefits and services.
Organ or Tissue Donation: The Practice may disclose your health information to organizations that handle organ or tissue procurement and donations.
Military Authorities:If you are a member of the U.S. Armed Forces or foreign military, the Practice may release health information about you to appropriate military command authorities.
Workers' Compensation: The Practice may disclose health information to comply with workers' compensation laws.
Public Health Activities: The Practice may disclose your health information to public health officials for public health purposes, including: preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability; reporting child abuse or neglect; reporting adverse events or product defects to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; and to notify persons that may have been exposed to a disease or may be at risk of contracting or spreading a disease.
Health Oversight: The Practice may disclose your health information to federal or state agencies that oversee the health care system, government programs, and enforcement of civil rights laws for audits, investigations, or inspections.
Legal Proceedings: The Practice may disclose your health information to federal or state agencies that oversee the health care system, government programs, and enforcement of civil rights laws for audits, investigations, or inspections.
Law Enforcement:The Practice may disclose your health information to law enforcement officials as permitted or required by law to aid in the search for a criminal or fugitive or a criminal investigation.
Coroners, Medical Examiners, and Funeral Directors: The Practice may disclose your health information to identify a deceased person, determine cause of death, and to help funeral directors carry out their duties.
National Security: The Practice may disclose your health information to authorized federal authorities for intelligence or other national security activities as permitted by law.
Inmates and Persons in Custody: If you are an inmate of a correctional facility or under the custody of law enforcement, the Practice may release your health information to the correctional facility or law enforcement officer as permitted or required by law.
Research: The Practice may use or disclose your health information for research purposes under specific rules determined by the confidentiality provisions of applicable law. The Practice may use or disclose your health information to researchers if they have been approved through a special review process designed to protect patient safety, welfare, and confidentiality.
Threats to Health or Safety:As permitted by applicable law and ethical conduct, the Practice may use and disclose health information if it believes, in good faith, that such use or disclosure is necessary to prevent serious harm to you or others. We may also share your information for disaster relief efforts or in emergency situations.
Business Associates: The Practice may disclose your health information to outside businesses known as “business associates” that provide services on its behalf, such as billing or consulting services.

Uses and Disclosures Requiring Your Authorization

Uses and disclosures of health information not described in this Notice will be made only with your written authorization. For example, with limited exceptions, the Practice must obtain your authorization before: using and disclosing psychotherapy notes; using or disclosing your health information for marketing purposes (except for communications made face-to-face or promotional gifts of minimal value provided to you by the Practice); or selling or receiving anything of value in exchange for your health information. If you authorize the Practice to use or disclose your health information, you have the right to revoke the authorization at any time by providing written notice to the Practice’s Privacy Officer whose contact information is below. Your revocation will be effective once received, but will not impact uses or disclosures the Practice made while your authorization was still in effect.

Your Rights Regarding Health Information About You

You have the following rights with respect to health information that the Practice maintains about you:

Right to Inspect and Copy: You have the right to inspect and/or receive a copy of your medical and billing records used by the Practice to make health care decisions about you. You also have the right to request that the Practice send a copy of your medical records to a third party. If you want to review or receive a copy of your records, you must make the request in writing to the Practice.
Right to Request an Amendment: If you believe that health information the Practice maintains about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you may request that the Practice amend the information. You must request the amendment in writing to the Practice’s Privacy Officer, whose contact information is below. If the Practice accepts your request, it will notify you and add the supplemental information to your record by addendum. The Practice cannot delete what is in the record. If the Practice denies your request, it will provide an explanation of the denial and your rights.
Right to an Accounting of Disclosures: You have the right to receive a list of the disclosures the Practice has made of your health information in the six years prior to your request. The accounting will not include every disclosure made, including those disclosures made for treatment, payment, health care operations, disclosures authorized by you, and disclosures made to you. To request an accounting, submit a written request to the Practice’s Privacy Officer.
Right to Request Restrictions: You have the right to request that the Practice restrict how it uses and discloses your health information for treatment, payment, or health care operations, or with family members or others involved in your care. The Practice is not required to accept your requested restriction, unless it relates to disclosures made to your health insurer related to a specific service for which you have prepaid in full. If the Practice agrees to a restriction, you will be notified in writing, and the Practice will comply with your request unless the health information is needed to provide you emergency treatment or we are required by law to disclose it. To request a restriction, submit a written request detailing the requested restriction to the Practice’s Privacy Officer.
Right to Request Confidential Communications: You have the right to request that the Practice communicate with you about your health information or services using a certain method (i.e., patient portal, phone, mail) or at a certain location. The Practice will honor reasonable requests when feasible. To request an alternative means of communication, submit a written request to the Practice’s Privacy Officer.
Right to Receive a Paper Copy of this Notice: You have the right to obtain a paper copy of this Notice at any time. To obtain a copy, contact the Practice’s Privacy Officer.
Right to be Notified of a Breach: The Practice is required to notify you of a breach of your unsecured health information.

Changes to this Notice

This Notice is effective as of November 27, 2023. The Practice must abide by the terms of the Notice currently in effect. We reserve the right to make changes at any time to our privacy practices and this Notice, and may make the new terms effective for all health information that the Practice already maintains about you as well as information it receives in the future. If changes are made to the Notice, the updated Notice will be posted on the Practice’s website at https://www.clearskinforyou.com/, posted in clear and prominent locations on the Practice’s site, and distributed as required.

Questions or Complaints

If you have a question about this Notice or feel that your privacy rights have been violated, please contact the Practice’s Privacy Officer using the contact information below. You may also file a complaint with the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. You will not be penalized or retaliated against for filing a complaint.