HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices

VeriSpine Joint Centers is committed to protecting the privacy of your health information. We are required by law to maintain the privacy of Protected Health Information (PHI), to provide you with this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, and to follow the terms of the notice currently in effect.

Treatment: We may use and disclose your PHI to provide, coordinate, or manage your healthcare. For example, we may share your information with other physicians involved in your care or with a specialist to whom we refer you.

Payment: We may use and disclose your PHI to obtain payment for services. For example, we may submit claims to your insurance company or verify coverage eligibility.

Healthcare operations: We may use your PHI for internal operations such as quality assurance, staff training, scheduling, and billing audits.

Appointment reminders: We may contact you with reminders about upcoming appointments or follow-up care.

Required by law: We will disclose PHI when required by federal, state, or local law, including reporting obligations and responses to court orders.

Public health activities: We may disclose PHI to public health authorities for activities such as disease prevention and control.

Other than the purposes described above, we will use or disclose your PHI only with your written authorization. You may revoke that authorization in writing at any time, except to the extent that we have already acted upon it.

We will not sell your PHI without your explicit authorization. We will not use your PHI for marketing purposes without your authorization.

You have the following rights with respect to your PHI:

Right to access: You have the right to inspect and receive a copy of your medical records. We may charge a reasonable fee for copies. We will respond to your request within 30 days.

Right to amend: If you believe information in your record is incorrect or incomplete, you may request an amendment. We may deny the request under certain circumstances and will explain any denial in writing.

Right to an accounting of disclosures: You may request a list of disclosures of your PHI made by us for purposes other than treatment, payment, operations, and certain other permitted purposes.

Right to request restrictions: You may request that we limit how we use or disclose your PHI. We are not required to agree to all restrictions, but will comply with any restriction you request with respect to disclosures to your health plan for payment or operations purposes if you pay out of pocket in full.

Right to confidential communications: You may request that we communicate with you about your health matters in a specific way or at a specific location (e.g., home phone only).

Right to a paper copy of this notice: You may request a paper copy of this Notice at any time.

To exercise any of the rights described above, please contact our Privacy Officer in writing:

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with us or with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. You will not be penalized or retaliated against for filing a complaint.

To file a complaint with HHS: www.hhs.gov/hipaa/filing-a-complaint

We reserve the right to change this Notice and to make the revised Notice effective for PHI we already hold as well as information we receive in the future. The current effective date will always appear on this page. You may obtain a copy of the current Notice at any of our locations or on this website.