HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices

Effective Date: February 1, 2026

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.

We understand that health information about you and your healthcare is personal. We are committed to protecting health information about you. We create a record of the care and services you receive from us. We need this record to provide you with quality care and to comply with certain legal requirements. This notice applies to all the records of your care generated by this practice. This notice will tell you about the ways in which we may use and disclose health information about you. We also describe your rights to the health information we keep about you and describe certain obligations we have regarding the use and disclosure of your health information.

OUR LEGAL RESPONSIBILITIES

We are required by law to give you this notice. It provides you information on how we may use and disclose protected health information (PHI) about you and describes your rights and our obligations regarding the use and disclosure of that information. We shall maintain the privacy of PHI and provide you with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your PHI.

We have the right to change these policies at any time. If we change our privacy policies, we will notify you of these changes immediately. This current policy is in effect unless stated otherwise. If the policy is changed, it will apply to all your current and past health information. 

You may request a copy of our notice any time. You may contact Emily Harris Wellness LLC at any time
to request a copy of this privacy policy.

HOW WE MAY USE OR DISCLOSE YOUR PHI

The following examples describe ways that we may use your PHI for your treatment, payments, healthcare operations etc. but please be advised that not every use or disclosure in a particular category will be listed.

Treatment: We may use and disclose your PHI to provide you treatment. This includes disclosing your PHI to other medical providers, trainees, therapists, medical staff, and office staff that are involved in your health care. For example, your medical provider might need to consult with another provider to coordinate your care. The office staff may need to use and disclose your PHI to other individuals outside of our office such as the pharmacy when a prescription is called in. We may disclose information that would facilitate treatment of a medical emergency.

Payment: If you ask us to utilize your health insurance, we will have to release information regarding your diagnosis or treatment in order to complete your claim. We may share your PHI with a third party billing service. Most insurance companies also retain the right to conduct periodic audit reviews of records. Similarly, we may pursue collection of overdue fees without further authorization.
Your PHI may also be used to obtain payment from an insurance company or another third party. This may include providing an insurance company your PHI for a pre-authorization for a medication we prescribed.

Health Care Operations: We may use or disclose your PHI in order to operate this medical practice. These activities include training students, reviewing cases with employees, utilizing your information to improve the quality of care, and contacting you by telephone, email, or text to remind you of your appointments.
We may also use and disclose your PHI for marketing activities. For example, we might send you a thank you card in the mail/email with a coupon for specialized services or products. We may also send you information about products or services that might be of interest to you. You can contact us at any point to stop receiving this information.
We will not use or disclose your PHI for any purpose other than those identified in this policy without your specific, written Authorization. You may give us written authorization to use your PHI or to disclose it to anyone for any purpose. You can revoke this authorization at any time but will not affect the PHI that was shared while the authorization was in effect.

Appointment reminders: We may contact you as a reminder that you have an appointment for your initial visit, follow up visit, or lab work via text, phone or email.

Others Involved in Your Health Care: We may disclose PHI about you to your family members or friends if we obtain your verbal agreement to do so, or if we give you an opportunity to object to such a disclosure and you do not raise an objection. If you are unable to agree or object to such a disclosure, we may disclose such information as necessary if we determine that it is in your best interest based on our professional judgment if there is an urgent or emergent need.

Research: We will not use or disclose your health information for research purposes unless you give us authorization to do so.

Public Health Risks: We may disclose your PHI, if necessary, in order to prevent or control disease, report adverse events from medications or products, prevent injury, disability or death. This information may be disclosed to healthcare systems, government agencies, or public health authorities. We may have to disclose your PHI to the Food and Drug Administration to report adverse events, defects, problems, enable recalls etc. if required by FDA regulation.

Health Oversight Activities: We may disclose PHI to health oversight agencies for audits, investigations, inspections or licensing purposes. These disclosures might be necessary for state and federal agencies to monitor healthcare systems and compliance with civil law.
Required by Law: We will disclose PHI about you when required to do so by federal, state and/or local law.

Workers’ compensation: We may disclose your PHI to workman’s comp or similar programs.

Lawsuits: We may disclose your PHI in response to a court action, administrative action or a subpoena.

Law Enforcement: We may release PHI to a law enforcement official in response to a court order, subpoena, warrant, subject to all applicable legal requirements.

Serious Threat to Health or Safety: If we learn that you intend to kill or seriously harm either yourself or another person(s), and we judge that there is a clear and substantial risk of imminent danger of that happening, we may breach confidentiality to the extent necessary to protect you or others and take actions that could include seeking hospitalization for you or contacting family members or others who can help to provide protection. This could also include notifying the potential victim(s) or contacting the police.

Child or Elder Abuse: If we have a reasonable cause to believe that a child or elder person with whom we have had contact has been abused, we are required to report the abuse. If we have reasonable cause to believe that an adult with whom we have had contact has abused a child or elder person, we are required to report that abuse. In any child or elder abuse investigation we may be compelled to turn over Protected Health Information (PHI).

Written Release of Information: We do communicate with those you have authorized in writing by signing a Release of Information (ROI); this communication may be verbal or by FAX and in the case of the latter will always include a face sheet indicating that PHI is to follow.

YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING YOUR PHI

Access to medical records: You have the right to access and receive copies of your PHI that we use to make decisions about your care. You must submit a written request to obtain your PHI to the individual listed at the end of this privacy policy. We reserve the right to charge you a fee for the time it takes to obtain and copy the PHI and provide it to you.

Amendment: If you believe the PHI we have about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask us to amend the information. You will need to submit a written request on why you feel the health information should be amended. We may deny your request to amend if you did not send a written request or give a reason on why it should be amended. If we deny your request, we will provide you a written explanation. We may deny your request if we believe the PHI is accurate and complete.

Accounting of Disclosures: You have the right to receive a list of instances in which we disclosed your PHI unless the disclosure was used for treatment, payment, healthcare operations, was pursuant to a valid authorization and as otherwise provided in applicable federal and state laws and regulations. You must submit a written request to obtain this “accounting of disclosures” to the individual listed at the bottom of this policy. After your request has been approved, we will provide you the dates of the disclosure, the name of the individual or entity we disclosed the information to, a description of the information that was disclosed, the reason why it was disclosed, and any additional pertinent information. We reserve the right to charge a reasonable fee for this process.

Restriction Requests: You have the right to request a restriction or limitation on the PHI we use or disclose about you for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations. We shall accommodate your request except where the disclosure is required by law. We require this be a written request submitted to the individual at the end of this policy.

Confidential Communication: You have the right to request that we communicate with you about healthcare matters in a certain way.  We must accommodate your request if it is reasonable and allows us to continue to collect payments and bill you.

Paper copy of this notice: You may request a hard copy of this practice policy if you reviewed and signed it via electronic means. To obtain this copy, contact the individual at the end of this privacy policy.

Complaints: If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with our office. You also file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Name of Contact Person:

Emily Harris-Deutch FNP
Emily Harris Wellness LLC, DBA Garnet Wellness
Phone: 541-320-7930 I Fax: 541-604-7479