Notice of Privacy Practices

Nina Ross Hair Therapy, LTD, doing business as Nina Ross Functional Medicine, is required by law to protect the privacy of your 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.

Protected health information means information that identifies you and relates to your physical or mental health, the care we provide you, or payment for that care. It includes what you tell us, what we observe, your laboratory results, your care plan, and your billing records.

This notice applies to every record we create or receive about your care. Our staff, contractors, and anyone else working under our direction are required to follow it.

We use and disclose your health information to provide, coordinate, and manage your care. We do not need your written authorization for these uses, because they are how care works.

Some uses of your information require your signed authorization before we may proceed. You may revoke that authorization in writing at any time, and the revocation applies going forward rather than to anything already done in reliance on it.

The law permits or requires us to disclose your health information without your authorization in certain situations. We disclose only what is necessary and we document what we disclosed.

You have the right to inspect and receive a copy of your health information, including your results, your care plan, and your billing records. Ask us in writing and we will respond within 30 days.

You may ask for the copy in an electronic format and we will provide it in the format you request if we can readily produce it. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee for copying and postage.

In limited circumstances we may deny a request. If we do, we will tell you why in writing and explain how you may have that decision reviewed.

If you believe something in your record is wrong or incomplete, you may ask us in writing to amend it, and you should tell us why you believe the correction is needed.

We will respond within 60 days. If we agree, we will make the amendment and notify others who need to know. If we deny the request, we will explain why in writing, and you have the right to submit a statement of disagreement that becomes part of your record.

You may request a list of the disclosures we have made of your health information, going back up to six years. The list will not include disclosures for treatment, payment, or health care operations, disclosures you authorized, or certain other categories the law excludes.

The first list in any twelve-month period is free. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee for additional requests, and we will tell you the cost before we proceed so you can withdraw or modify the request.

You may ask us to limit how we use or disclose your health information for treatment, payment, or health care operations, or to limit what we share with someone involved in your care. We are not required to agree to every request, and if we do agree we will honour it unless you need emergency care.

There is one restriction we must honour. If you pay for a service in full yourself, you may instruct us not to disclose information about that service to a health plan for payment or operations purposes, and we will comply. Because we are a private-pay practice, this applies to essentially everything we do for you.

You may ask us to contact you in a specific way or at a specific place. Tell us to call one number rather than another, to leave no voicemail, to write to an address other than your home, or to avoid a particular channel entirely.

We will accommodate reasonable requests and we will not ask you to explain why.

If your unsecured health information is breached, we will notify you as the law requires. The notice will describe what happened, what information was involved, what we are doing about it, and what you can do to protect yourself.

You may ask for a paper copy of this notice at any time, including when you have already received it electronically or read it on this website. We will give you one at no cost.

If you have given someone medical power of attorney, or if a guardian has been appointed for you, that person may exercise your rights and make choices about your health information. We will verify the authority before acting on their instructions.

For a minor patient, a parent or legal guardian generally exercises these rights, subject to state law provisions that give some minors control over certain care.

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, tell us. Write to our Privacy Officer using the details below and we will look into it. We would rather hear it directly and put it right.

You may also file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue Southwest, Washington DC 20201, by calling 1-877-696-6775, or at hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints.

We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint, and doing so will not affect your care with us in any way.

We reserve the right to change this notice and to make the new terms apply to all health information we already hold as well as information we receive in the future.

When we change it, we will post the revised notice on this website, make copies available at our office, and update the effective date at the top. Earlier versions are available on request.