Tracy L. Davidian, DDS, PA Privacy Policy  Last Updated: February 7, 2023.

OUR LEGAL DUTY
We are required by applicable federal and state law to maintain the privacy of your health information. We are required to give this Notice about your privacy practices, our legal duties and your rights concerning your health information. We must follow the privacy practices that are described in the Notice while it is in effect. This Notice takes effect March 17, 2003 and will remain in effect until we replace it.

We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and the terms of this Notice at any time, provided such changes are permitted by applicable law. We reserve the right to make the changes in our privacy practices and the new terms of our Notice effective for all health information that we maintain, including health information we created or received before we made the changes. Before we make a significant change in our privacy practices, we will make the new Notice available upon request.

You may request a copy of our Notice at any time. For more information about our privacy practices, or for additional copies of this Notice, please contact us using the information listed at the end of the Notice.

USES AND DISCLOSURES OF HEALTH INFORMATION
We use and disclose health information about you for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations. For example:

Treatment: We may use or disclose your health information to a physician or other healthcare provider providing treatment to you.

Payment: We may use and disclose your health information to obtain payment for services we provide to you.

Healthcare Operations:  We may use and disclose your health information for treatment, payment or healthcare operations. Healthcare operations include quality assessment and improvement activities, reviewing the competence or qualifications of healthcare professionals, evaluating practitioner performance, conducting training programs, accreditation, certification, licensing or credentialing activities.

Your Authorization: In addition to our use of your healthcare information for treatment, payment or healthcare operations, you may give us written authorization; you may revoke it in writing at any time. Your revocation will not affect any use or disclosures permitted by your authorization while it is in effect. Unless you give us a written authorization, we cannot use or disclose your health information for any reason except those described in the Notice.

To Your Family and Friends: We must disclose your health information to you, as described in the Patient Rights section of this Notice. We may disclose your health information to a family member, friend, or other person to the extent necessary to help with your healthcare or with payment for your healthcare, but only if you agree that we may do so.

Persons Involved in Care:  We may use or disclose health information to notify, or assist in the notification of (including identifying or locating) a family member, your personal representative or another person responsible for your care, of your location, your general condition or death. If you are present then prior to use or disclosure of your health information, we will provide you with the opportunity to object to such uses or disclosures. In the event of your incapacity or emergency circumstances, we will disclose health information based on a determination using our personal judgment disclosing only health information that is directly relevant to the person’s involvement in our healthcare. We will also use our professional judgment and our experience with common practice to make responsible inferences of your best interest in allowing a person to pick up filled prescriptions, medical supplies, x-rays, or other similar forms of health information.

Marketing Health-Related Services: We will not use your health information for marketing communications without your written authorization.

We may utilize one or more third-party service providers to send email or other communications to you on our behalf, including Patient satisfaction surveys. These service providers are prohibited from using your email address or other contact information for any purpose other than to send communications on our behalf.

It is our intention to only send email communications that would be useful to you and that you want to receive. When you provide us with your email address as part of the registration or appointment setting process, we will place you on our list of patients to receive informational and promotional emails. In addition, patients and visitors to our website are given the opportunity to “opt-in” to receive electronic promotional communications by selecting the option to receive promotional emails from us on our website.

Each time you receive a promotional email, you will be provided the choice to “opt-out” of future emails by following the instructions provided in the email, or you can “opt-out” at any time by following the instructions provided.

COOKIES
Our website utilizes “cookie” technology. “Cookies” are encrypted strings of text that a website stores on a user’s computer. Our website uses cookies throughout the online process to keep together information entered on multiple pages. For example, cookies enable our website to “remember” information provided to us. In addition, cookies are used to:

  1. Measure usage of various pages on our website to help us make our information more pertinent to your needs and easy for you to access; and
  2. Provide functionality such, as online appointing, bill paying and other functionalities that we believe would be of interest and value to you.

The two types of cookies that we use are referred to as “session” cookies and “persistent” cookies. Session cookies are temporary and are automatically deleted once you leave our website. Persistent cookies remain on your computer hard drive until you delete them. We do not use cookies to gather any personally identifiable information about you apart from what you voluntarily provide us in your dealings with us. Our cookies do not corrupt or damage your computer, programs or computer files. You may set your browser to block cookies.

Fundraising: We will not use your health information for fundraising activities without your written consent.

Required by Law: We may use or disclose your health information when we are required to do so by law.

Abuse or Neglect: We may disclose your health information to appropriate authorities if we reasonably believe that you are a possible victim of other crimes. We may disclose your health information to the extent necessary to avert a serious threat to your health or safety or the health or safety of others.

National Security:  We may disclose to military authorities the health information of Armed Forces personnel under certain circumstances. We may disclose to authorize federal officials health information required for lawful intelligence, counterintelligence, and other national security activities. We may disclose to correctional institution or law enforcement officials having custody protected health information of inmate or patient under circumstances.

Appointment Reminders: We may use or disclose your health information to provide you with appointment reminders (such as voicemail messages, postcards or letters).

PATIENT RIGHTS
Access:  You have the right to look at or get copies of your health information, with limited exceptions. You may request that we provide copies in a format other than photocopies. We will use the format you request unless we cannot practically do so. You must make a request in writing to obtain access to your health information. You may obtain a form to request access by using the contact information listed at the end of this Notice. We will charge you a reasonable cost-based fee for expenses such as copies and staff time. If you request copies, we will charge $50 for staff time to locate and copy your health information and postage if you want the copies mailed to you. If you request an alternative format, we will charge a cost-based fee for providing your health information in that format. If you prefer, we will prepare a summary or an explanation of your health information for a fee. Contact us using the information listed at the end of this Notice for a full explanation of our fee structure.

Disclosure Accounting: You have the right to receive a list of instances in which we or our business associates disclosed your health information for purposes other than treatment, payment, healthcare operations and certain other activities, for the last six years, but not before April 14, 2003. If you request this accounting more than once in a twelve month period, we may charge you a reasonable, cost-based fee for responding to these additional requests

Restriction: You have the right to request that we place additional restrictions on our use or disclosure of your health information. We are not required to agree to these additional restrictions, but if we do, we will abide by our agreement (except in an emergency).

Alternative Communication:  You have the right to request that we communicate with you about your health information by alternative means or locations. (You must make your request in writing).

Your request must specify the alternative means or location and provide satisfactory explanation of how payments will abide by our agreement (except in emergency).

Amendment:  You have the right to request that we amend your health information. (Your request must be in writing and it must explain why the information should be amended). We may deny your request under certain circumstances.

Electronic Notice:  If you receive this Notice on our website or by electronic mail (email), you are entitled to receive this Notice in written form.

Security Breaches:  We may use or disclose your PHI when determining whether a security breach has occurred for purposes of the HIPAA Breach Notification Rules as set forth in 45 C.F.R. & 164, subpart D. We may also use or disclose your PHI in responding to a breach, as required under the HIPAA Breach Notification Rules. For example, if an individual hacks into our computer network, we would investigate the incident to determine the extent of the breach and if PHI had been accessed, used or disclosed in violation of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. If a beach for purposes of HIPAA has occurred, we would notify you of the breach. We may also be required to notify the media and North Carolina Department of Health & Human Services of the breach but your PHI will not be disclosed when such entities are notified of the breach.

QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS

If you want more information about our privacy practices or have questions or concerns, please contact Dr. Tracy Davidian.

If you are concerned that we may have violated your privacy rights, or you disagree with a decision we made about access to your health information or in response to a request you made to amend or restrict the use of disclosure of your health information or to have us communicate with you by alternative means or at alternative locations, you may complain to us using the contact information listed at the end of this Notice. You may also submit a written complaint to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. We will provide you with the address to file your complaint with the

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services upon request.

We support your right to the privacy of your health information. We will not retaliate in any way if you choose to file a complaint with us or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Carolina TMJ and Facial Pain Center
Telephone: (919) 782-9955
Address: 5904 Six Forks Rd., Ste 205, Raleigh, NC 27609