NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

(Effective January 2013)

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. USES AND DISCLOSES OF YOUR MEDICAL INFORMATION

For Treatment:  We may use medical information about you to provide you with medical treatment or services. For Payment: We may use and disclose medical information about you so that the treatment and services you receive at our practice may be billed to and payment may be collected from you, an insurance company, or a third party. For Health Care Operations: We may use and disclose health information about you for operations of our healthcare practice. For Individuals Involved in Your Care or Payment for Your Care: We may release medical information about you to a friend or family member who is involved in your medical care. For Health-Related Services and Treatment Alternatives: We may use and disclose health information to tell you
about health-related services or recommend possible treatment options or alternatives that may be of interest to you. As Required By Law: We will disclose medical information about you when required to do so by federal, state, or local law. To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety: We may use and disclose medical information about you when necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or the health and safety of the public or another person. For Military and Veterans: If you are a member of the armed forces, we may release medical information about you as required by military command authorities. For Worker’s Compensation: We may release medical information about you for workers’ compensation or similar programs. For Public Health Risks: We may disclose medical information about you for public health activities. For Health Oversight Activities: We may disclose medical information to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law. For Lawsuits and Disputes: If you are involved in a lawsuit or a dispute, we may disclose medical information about you in response to a court or administrative order. For Law Enforcement: We may release medical information if asked to do so by law enforcement officials. For Coroners, Medical Examiners, and Funeral Directors: We may release medical information to a coroner or medical examiner. For National Security and Intelligence Activities: We may release medical information about you to authorized federal officials for intelligence,
counterintelligence, and other national security activities authorized by law. For Protective Services for the President and Others: We may disclose medical information about you to authorized federal officials so they may provide protection to the President, other authorized persons or foreign heads of state or conduct special investigations. For Inmates: If you are an inmate of a correctional institution or under the custody of a law enforcement official, we may release medical information about you to the correctional institution or law enforcement official.

YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING YOUR MEDICAL INFORMATION

YOUR RIGHT TO INSPECT AND COPY: To inspect and copy of your medical information, you must submit your request in writing. We may deny your request to inspect and copy, in limited circumstances. If you are denied access to medical information, you may request in writing, that the denial be reviewed. Your Right to Amend: If you feel that medical information we have about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may request an amendment in writing. Your request may be denied if you do not include a reason to support the request. Your Right to an Accounting of Disclosures: You have the right to request in writing, a list accounting for any disclosures of your medical information we have made, except for uses and disclosures for treatment, payment, and health care operations, as previously described. Your 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. We are not required to agree to your request. Your Right to Request Confidential Communications: You have the right to request in writing that we communicate with you about medical matters in a certain way or at a certain location. Your Right to a Paper Copy of This Notice: You have the right to a paper copy of this notice at any time.

CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE: We reserve the right to change this notice, and will post the current notice in our facility.

COMPLAINTS: If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with the practice or with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

OTHER USES OF MEDICAL INFORMATION: Other uses and disclosures of medical information not covered by this notice or the laws that apply to us will be made only with your written permission. If you provide us permission to use or disclose medical information about you, you may revoke that permission, in writing, at any time. If you revoke your permission, we will no longer use or disclose medical information about you for the reasons covered by your written authorization. You understand that we are unable to take back any disclosures we have already made with your permission, and that we are required to retain our records of the care that we provided to you.

Who we are

Our website address is: https://costamesapt.com.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Comments

When visitors leave comments on 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 website, 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 website.

Contact forms

Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to save 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.

If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Analytics

Who we share your data with

We will not share your data with a third party unless as stated in the above notice of how your medical information may be used.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. Only website administrators can see and edit all users personal information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.