Notice of Privacy Practices

Kid Speech Language Pathology P.C. (d/b/a KidSLP)

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.

About this notice

KidSLP is required by law to protect the privacy of your child’s health information, to give you this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, and to follow the terms of the notice currently in effect.

In this notice, “health information” means information we create or receive that identifies your child and relates to their speech, language, feeding, or related health care, or to payment for that care. It includes evaluation reports, session notes, treatment plans, correspondence with other providers, and billing records.

Because your child is a minor, you as their parent or legal guardian generally exercise these rights on their behalf, and we generally treat you as their personal representative. There are limited situations in which the law directs us to treat a minor differently, or in which a court order about custody changes who may act for a child. We will follow the law and any court order we are given.

How we may use and disclose your child’s health information

Without your written authorization, for:

Treatment. To provide and coordinate your child’s care. For example, we may share an evaluation report with your child’s pediatrician, share progress information with another therapist on their team, or discuss your child’s goals with the clinician covering a session.

Payment. To bill and collect for services. For example, to prepare an invoice, to prepare a superbill you may submit to your health plan yourself, to submit a claim to your health plan where we do that, to check your benefits or eligibility, or to arrange payment through our payment processor.

Health care operations. To run the practice well and keep quality high. For example, clinical supervision, quality review, training, evaluating clinician performance, and consulting with our attorneys, accountants, and insurers.

Appointment reminders and care communications. To remind you of an appointment or tell you about treatment alternatives and services that may benefit your child.

Without your written authorization, where the law requires or permits, including:

• When required by law — federal, state, or local.
• Public health activities, such as reporting to a public health authority.
• Suspected abuse, neglect, or domestic violence, where we are required or permitted by law to report it.
• Health oversight activities, such as audits, investigations, licensure actions, and inspections by agencies that oversee our practice.
• Judicial and administrative proceedings, in response to a court order, subpoena, or other lawful process.
• Law enforcement purposes, as the law permits.
• To avert a serious threat to the health or safety of your child or another person.
• Workers’ compensation, as required by law.
• Specialized government functions, such as military and national security purposes.
• Coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors, as the law permits.
• Research, only when a review board has approved it and privacy protections are in place, or where the information is de-identified.

Only with your written authorization:

• Psychotherapy notes, in the rare circumstances they exist.
• Marketing that involves payment to us by a third party.
• Any sale of health information.
• Using your child’s image, voice, words, or story in our marketing — including on our website or social media. This always requires a separate, specific, written authorization, and you may refuse without any effect on your child’s care.
• Any other use or disclosure not described in this notice.

You may revoke an authorization in writing at any time. A revocation does not undo anything we did while it was in effect.

Your rights

To inspect and get a copy. You may inspect and get a copy of your child’s record, including an electronic copy if we keep it electronically. Ask us in writing. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee. We may deny access in limited situations, and some denials are reviewable.

To ask us to correct the record. If you believe something in the record is wrong or incomplete, you may ask us in writing to amend it. We may deny the request, and if we do, we will explain why and you may submit a statement of disagreement, which we will keep with the record.

To get a list of certain disclosures. You may ask for an accounting of disclosures we made of your child’s health information, other than those for treatment, payment, health care operations, and certain other excluded categories.

To ask us to restrict what we use or share. You may ask us to limit how we use or disclose your child’s information. We are not required to agree — with one exception: if you pay for a service in full, out of pocket, you may require us not to disclose information about that service to a health plan, and we must honor that. Because KidSLP is a private-pay practice, this will often apply.

To ask us to communicate with you confidentially. You may ask us to contact you at a particular address, phone number, or by a particular method. We will accommodate reasonable requests.

To get a paper copy of this notice, even if you agreed to receive it electronically.

To be told if there is a breach. We will notify you if a breach occurs that compromises the privacy or security of your child’s information.

To choose someone to act for you. If you have given someone medical power of attorney or they are your child’s legal guardian, that person can exercise these rights.

To file a complaint — see below.

To exercise any right, write to us at the address at the end of this notice.

Our duties

• We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your child’s health information.
• We are required to give you this notice and to follow the terms of the notice currently in effect.
• We are required to notify you if a breach affects the privacy or security of your child’s information.
• We may change this notice. A changed notice will apply to information we already hold as well as information we receive afterward. When we change it, we will post the current version on our website at kidslp.com and make copies available on request.
• We will not use or disclose your child’s health information without your authorization except as this notice describes or as the law requires.

How long we keep your child’s record

New York requires a licensed speech-language pathologist to keep patient records for six years, and for a child, until the child turns 22 — whichever is longer. We follow that. Records are kept securely for that period and then destroyed in a way that protects your child’s privacy.

New York law

Some New York laws protect certain categories of health information more strictly than federal law does — including information about HIV, mental health treatment, genetic testing, and reproductive health care. Where state law is more protective, we follow state law.

Complaints

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, tell us. Write to our Privacy Officer at the address below. We will look into it.

You may also file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights:

• Online: www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/
• By mail: 200 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, D.C. 20201
• By phone: 1-877-696-6775

We will never retaliate against you for filing a complaint.