Your health information and your rights

Our duties to you

• The law requires us to keep your health information private and to give you this notice of our duties and practices.
• We will tell you promptly if a breach happens that may have put your unsecured health information at risk.
• We must follow the terms of the notice in effect now.
• We will not use or share your information other than as this notice describes, unless you tell us in writing that we may.

How we use and share your information

To treat you

We use your information to plan and give your care, and share it with others who treat you. For example, your physical therapist may send a progress report to the doctor who referred you.

To get paid for your care

We share what your health plan needs to pay for your visits. For example, we send your visit dates and diagnosis codes to your insurer or to MassHealth.

To run the clinic

We use your information to run the practice, improve your care and train staff. For example, we may review your treatment to check that our care meets our standards.

To contact you

We may call, text or email you about appointments, forms to fill in before a visit, and your care. Tell us if you would rather we reach you a different way.

With companies that help us

Some companies do work for us that involves your information, such as hosting our systems, sending email and texts, and billing. They must protect it under a written agreement with us.

Sharing the law allows without your permission

In these cases, and only as far as the law allows or requires, we may use or share your information without asking you first.

• When the law requires it, including when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services checks that we follow federal privacy law.
• Public health and safety, such as preventing disease, reporting product problems, and reporting suspected abuse, neglect or domestic violence to the agencies that handle it.
• A serious threat to your health or safety, or someone else's, shared only with people able to help.
• Health oversight, such as audits, investigations and licensing by agencies that oversee health care and programs like MassHealth.
• Lawsuits and legal actions, in response to a court or administrative order, or to a subpoena when the law's protections are met.
• Law enforcement, in the limited cases the law allows, such as a court-ordered warrant.
• Workers' compensation claims, as the law requires.
• Research that has been approved and meets the law's privacy protections.
• Organ and tissue donation organizations.
• Coroners, medical examiners and funeral directors, when someone dies.
• Special government functions, such as military, national security and presidential protective services.

Where you have a say

Unless you tell us not to, we may share information with a family member, friend or other person involved in your care or in paying for it, and with disaster relief groups so your family can be told where you are. If you cannot tell us your choice, for example because you are unconscious, we may share it if we believe it is in your best interest.

Information with extra protection

• Massachusetts law gives some information more protection than federal law, and where it does, we follow it. For example, we will not share HIV test results or genetic test results without your specific written consent, except as the law allows.
• Substance use disorder treatment records that we receive from a federally assisted treatment program are protected by federal law (42 CFR Part 2). We will not use or share them without your written consent, except as that law allows. They will not be used or shared in any civil, criminal, administrative or legislative proceeding against you unless you consent in writing or a court orders it after giving you notice and a chance to be heard.

When we need your written permission

• We never sell your information.
• We will not use or share your information for marketing without your written permission.
• We do not contact patients to raise funds.
• Any other use or sharing not described in this notice needs your written permission. You can take that permission back at any time, in writing, except for anything we already did relying on it.

Once information is shared with someone outside the health care system, for example an employer or a lawyer you allow us to send it to, it may be shared again and may no longer be protected by federal privacy law.

Your rights

• See and get a copy of your records, on paper or electronically. Ask us in writing; we answer within 30 days. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee, within the limits Massachusetts law sets.
• Ask us to correct your records if you think they are wrong or incomplete. We may say no, but we will tell you why in writing within 60 days.
• Ask us to contact you privately, for example at a different phone number or address. We will agree to reasonable requests.
• Ask us to limit what we use or share. We do not have to agree, and may say no if it would affect your care. But if you pay for a service in full yourself, you can ask us not to share it with your health plan, and we will agree unless the law requires us to share it.
• Get a list of who we shared your information with, for the six years before you ask, apart from treatment, payment, clinic operations and a few other cases. The first list each year is free; we may charge a reasonable fee for more.
• Get a paper copy of this notice at any time, even if you agreed to get it electronically.
• Choose someone to act for you. If you have given someone medical power of attorney, or someone is your legal guardian, that person can use these rights for you.
• Complain if you feel your rights were violated. See below.

Changes to this notice

We can change the terms of this notice, and the changes will apply to all the information we hold about you. The current notice is always on this page and at the clinic, and we will give you a copy on request.

Questions and complaints

For questions about this notice or your rights, or to use any of them, contact our Privacy Officer, Arth Patel:

If you believe your privacy rights were violated, you can complain to us at the address above, or to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, 200 Independence Avenue S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201, at 1-877-696-6775, or at hhs.gov/ocr/complaints.

We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.