Cardea understands your privacy is important. We are required by law to maintain the privacy of protected health information and to provide you with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to protected health information. We are required to abide by the terms of this notice. We will handle this information only as allowed by federal/state law and agency policy, adhering to the most stringent law that protects your health information.

If at any time you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may verbally or in writing contact:

• Jill Rieck, Cardea LCSW PLLC, Chief Operating Officer, Privacy Officer
• Secretary of Health and Human Services of the Federal Government

Address and phone numbers to use are listed at the end of this notice. You will not suffer any change in services or retaliation for filing a complaint.

Each time you receive services from us, the provider makes a record of the visit. Typically, this contains your assessment, service plan, progress notes, diagnoses, treatment and plan for future care of treatment.

There are several rights concerning your protected health information that we want you to be aware of:

Your federally defined rights under 45 CFR Parts 160 and 164 (HIPAA Privacy Standards).

You have the right to inspect or request copies of your medical records. This process will be kept confidential. This right is not absolute. In certain situations, such as if access would cause harm, we can deny access. You must make this request in writing to your Primary clinician or Cardea’s Privacy Officer. If denied access, you will receive a timely written notice of the decision and reason, and a copy of this notice becomes a part of your records.

You have the right to request amendment of your medical records if you believe information in the records is inaccurate or incomplete. You must make this request in writing to your Primary clinician or Cardea’s Privacy Officer. We may deny your request for proper reasons but you will be provided with a written explanation of the denial.

You have the right to receive an accounting of the agency’s disclosures of your protected health information that were not for the purpose of treatment, payment health care operations, or that were not authorized by you. You also have the right to be given the names of anyone, other than employees of the agency, who received information about you from the agency.

You have the right to request from your Primary clinician a restriction with regards to the use of disclosure of your protected health information. This request will be given serious consideration by the Privacy Officer and you will be informed promptly whether we will be able to honor the requested restriction and still offer effective services, received payment and maintain health care

operations. Legally, we are not required to agree to any restrictions you request, but if we agree, we are bound to that agreement except under certain circumstances.

You have the right to request that we communicate with you about medical matters in a certain way or at a certain location. Such requests must be made in writing to your Primary clinician. We will agree to all reasonable requests.

You have the right to obtain a paper copy of this Privacy Notice at any time upon request.

Upon signing the agency’s Cardea Informed Consent form, you are allowing us to use and disclose necessary information about you within the agency and with business associates in order to provide treatment/service, receive payment of provided treatment/service, and conduct our day to day health care operations.

Use and Disclosure of Your Information

Examples:

In order to effectively provide treatment/service, your clinical team may consult with various service providers within the agency. During those consultations heath information about you may be shared.

In order to receive payment of services provided, your health information may be sent to those companies or groups responsible for payment coverage, or a bill may be sent to a Responsible Party identified by you.

In day to day health care operations, trained staff may handle your physical record in order to the have record assembled, available for review by the clinical team, or for filing of documentation. Certain data elements are entered into our computer system that processes most reporting. As part of our continuous quality improvement efforts to provide the most effective services, your record may be reviewed by professional staff to assure accuracy, completeness and organization.

Enhancing Your HealthCare

Cardea may provide the following support to enhance your overall health and care and may contact you to provide:

• Appointment reminders by call, email, and/or text message
• Information about treatment alternatives
• Information about health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you

Individuals Involved in your Care or Payment for That Care

With proper authorization, we may release information about you to a friend or a family member who is involved in your care. We may also give information to someone who helps pay for your care.

Specific Circumstances are:

• As required by law (ex: reports required for public health purposes, such as reporting certain contagious diseases)
• Judicial and Administrative proceedings (ex: Order from a Court)
• Law Enforcement purposes (ex reporting of gunshot wounds: limited information requested about suspects, fugitives, material witnesses, missing persons; criminal conduct on premises)
• To avoid a serious threat made by Health and Safety of another person (ex: in response to a specific threat made by a person served to harm another)
• Children or incapacitated adults who are victims of abuse, neglect, or exploitation
• Workers compensation to facilitate processing and payment.
• Coroners and Medical Examiners for identification of a deceased person or to determine cause of death
• To the Department of Health and Human Services in connection with an investigation for compliance with federal regulations.

Other Uses and Disclosures of Your Information by Authorization Only

We are required to obtain your authorization to use or disclose your protected health information for any reason other than for treatment/services, payment or health care operations and those specific circumstances outlined previously. We use an Authorization to Use/Disclose form that specifically states what information will be given to whom, for what purpose, and is signed by you or your legal representative. You have the ability to revoke the signed authorization at any time by a written statement except to the extent that we have acted on authorization.

Changes to Privacy Practices

Cardea reserves the right to change any of its privacy policies and related practices at any time, as allowed by the federal and state law and to make the change effective for all protected health information we maintain.

Revised Privacy Notices will be posted at all service sites, and available upon request by mailing or discussion with an agency representative or a combination of the three.

Addresses:
Cardea LCSW PLLC
511 Canal St, Suite 500
646-842-1261

US Department of Health & Human Services
26 Federal Plaza, New York, NY 10278
(212) 264-4600

Website Privacy Policy

The purpose of this Website Privacy Policy is to outline how we manage any personal data you provided while visiting this website.

By visiting this website you are accepting the terms of this Website Privacy Policy. Any external links to other websites are clearly identifiable as such, and we are not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of these other websites.

We at Cardea respect your rights to privacy and will comply with obligations under the Data Protection Acts.

Types of information collected

“NON-PERSONAL DATA”

Like most websites, we gather statistical and other analytical information collected on an aggregate basis of all visitors to our website. Non-Personal Data comprises information that cannot be used to identify or contact you directly.

We hold Non-Personal Data for the following reasons:

We use the Non-Personal Data gathered from visitors to our website in an aggregate form to get a better understanding of where our visitors come from and to help us better design and organize our website.

“PERSONAL DATA”

Personal information is only collected if you voluntarily submit to us. This is the data that identifies you or can be used to identify or contact you and may include your name, address, email address, telephone number.

Disclosure of Information to Third Parties

We will not disclose your Personal Data to third parties unless you have consented to this disclosure or disclosure is required by the third party to fulfill your request (in such circumstances, the third party is bound by similar data protection requirements). Or when required in order to comply with any applicable law, a summons, a search warrant, a court or regulatory order, or other statutory requirement.

Security

Your Personal Data is held on secure servers hosted by third parties who are in full compliance with the relevant local data protection policies. While we will take all necessary and reasonable steps to protect your personal data, the nature of information transmission on the internet is such that we cannot fully guaranteed or warrant the security of any information transmitted.

Updating, Verifying and Deleting Personal Data

You may inform us of any changes in your Personal Data, and in accordance with our obligations under the Data Protection Acts we will update or delete your Personal Data accordingly.