PRIVACY POLICY

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 IT CAREFULLY.

OUR LEGAL DUTY

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal program that requires that all medical and dental 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, significant new rights to understand and control how your health information is used.

HIPAA provides penalties for covered entities that misuse Protected Health Information (PHI).

This Notice of Privacy Practices describes how we may use and disclose your Protected Health Information (PHI) to carry out treatment,

payment or health care operations (TPO) and for other purposes that are permitted or required by law. It also describes your rights to access

and control your protected health information. "Protected health information" is information about you, including demographic information,

that may identify you and that relates to your past, present or future physical or mental health or condition and related health care services.

USES AND DISCLOSURE OF HEALTH INFORMATION

A. Use and Disclosure for Treatment, Payment, and Health Care Operations

We must disclose your health information to you, as described in the Patients Rights section of this Notice. We also use and disclose health

information about you for treatment, payment, and health care operations. For example:

• Treatment: We may disclose your health information to a physician or other care provider providing treatment to you.

• Payment: We may use and disclose your health information to obtain payment for services we provided to you.

• Health Care Operation: We may disclose your health information in connection with our health care operations, including quality and improvement activities, review of the competences or qualifications of health care professionals, evaluation of practitioner and provider performances, training programs, accreditation, certification, and licensing and credentialing activities.

Your Authorization: In addition to our use of your health information for treatment, payment, or health care operations, you may give us written authorization to use your health information or to disclose it to anyone for any purpose. If you give us an authorization, you may revoke it in writing at any time. Your revocation will not affect any use or disclosures permitted by your authorization while it was in effect, Unless you give us a written authorization, we cannot use or disclose your health information for any reason except those described in this Notice.

Disclosure to Your Family and Friends: We may disclose your health information to a family member, friend, or other person identified by you to the extent necessary to help with your health care or payment for your health care but only if you agree that we may do so.

Disclosure to Persons Involved in Your Care: We may also use or disclose health information to notify, or assist in the notification of (including identifying or locating) a family member, your personal representative, or another person responsible for you care, of your location, general condition, or death. If you are present, then prior use or disclosure of your health information, we will provide you with an opportunity to object to such use or disclosure. In the event of your incapacity or emergency circumstances, we will disclose health information based on a determination using our professional judgment, and we will disclose only health information that is directly relevant to the person’s involvement in your health care. We will also use our professional judgment and our experience with common practice to make reasonable inferences of your best interest in allowing a person to up filled prescriptions, medical supplies, x-rays, or other similar forms of health information.

Appointment Reminders: We may use or disclose your health information to provide you with appointment reminders (such as voicemails, postcards, letters, e-mails, text or other similar mobile device communications).

Patient-Related Communications: We may use or disclose your health information to provide patient-related communications such as telephoned-in prescriptions.

Marketing Health-Related Services: We will not use your health information for marketing communications without your written authorization.

B. Use and Disclosure for the Public Need

In particular situations involving the public need, we may disclose your health information without obtaining your authorization. Those situations include the following circumstances:

Required by Law: We may disclose your health information when we are required by law to do so.

Public Health Activities: We may disclose your health information to authorized public health officials so they may carry out their public health activities. For example, we may share your health information with government officials that are responsible for controlling disease, injury, disability.

Health Oversight Activities: We may release your health information to government agencies authorized to conduct audits, investigations, and inspections, as well as civil, administrative or criminal investigations proceeding, or actions.

Abuse or Neglect: We may disclose your health information to appropriate authorities’ if we reasonably believe that you are a possible victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence or the possible victim of other crimes.

Product Monitoring, Repair, and Recall: We may disclose your health information to a person or company that is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration for the purpose of: (1) reporting or tracking product defects or problems; (2) repairing, replacing, or recalling defective or dangerous products; or (3) monitoring the performance of a product after it has been approved for use by the general public.

Lawsuits and Disputes: We may disclose your health information if we are ordered to do so by court or administrative tribunal that is handling a lawsuit or other dispute. We may also disclose your health information in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful request by someone else involved in the dispute, but only if efforts have been made to tell you about the request or to obtain a court order protecting the information from further disclosure.

Law Enforcement: We may disclose your health information to law enforcement officials for certain reasons including comply with courts orders or laws that we are required to follow, and to assist law enforcement officers with identifying or locating a suspect, fugitive, and missing person.

To Avert a Serious and Imminent Threat to Health or Safety: We may disclose your health information to the extent necessary to avert a serious threat to your health or safety or the health or safety of others. In such cases, we will only share you information with someone able to help prevent the threat.

National Security: We may disclose to authorize federal officials health information required for lawful intelligence, counterintelligence, and other national security activities. We may also disclose to military authorities the health information to Armed Forces personnel certain circumstances. If you are an inmate or you are detained by a law enforcement officer, we may disclose your health information to the prison officers if necessary to provide you with health care, or to maintain safety, security and good order at the place where you are confined.

Coroners, Medical Examiners and Funeral Directors. In the unfortunate event of your death, we may disclose your health information to coroner or medical examiners. This may be necessary, for example, to determine the cause of death. We may also release this information to funeral directors as necessary to carry out their duties.

2570 FM 407, Ste. 160, Highland Village, TX 75077