Scales Counseling and Consultation
Notice of Privacy Practices
Abbreviated website version; Full notice provided at Intake or upon request.
Scales Counseling and Consultation (SCC) understand that health information about you and your mental health care is personal. We are committed to protecting health information about you. We create a record of the services and care you receive. This record is used to provide you with quality care and to comply with certain legal requirements. This notice applies to all of the records of your care generated by this mental health care practice. We are required by law to make sure that protected health information (PHI) that identifies you is kept private. An authorization signed by you is required to release your information with a few exceptions.
We may use and disclose health and treatment information for treatment, payment, or health care operations. Federal privacy rules (regulations) allow health care providers who have direct treatment relationship with the patient/client to use or disclose the patient/client’s personal health information to carry out the health care provider’s own treatment, payment or health care operations, and referrals of a patient for health care from one health care provider to another.
We do keep “psychotherapy notes” as that term is defined in 45 CFR § 164.501, and any use or disclosure of such notes requires your authorization unless the use or disclosure is: a) For use in treating you. b) For use in training or supervising mental health practitioners to help them improve their counseling or therapy skills. c) For use in defending ourselves in legal proceedings instituted by you. We will not disclose your PHI for marketing purposes or sell your PHI in the course of business.
We can use and disclose your PHI without your Authorization for the following reasons:
- When disclosure is required by state or federal law, and the use or disclosure complies with and is limited to the relevant requirements of such law.
- For public health activities, including reporting suspected child, elder, or dependent adult abuse, or preventing or reducing a serious threat to anyone’s health or safety.
- For health oversight activities, including audits and investigations.
- For judicial and administrative proceedings, including responding to a court or administrative order, although our preference is to obtain an Authorization from you before doing so.
- For law enforcement purposes, including reporting crimes occurring on SCC premises.
- Appointment reminders and health related benefits or services. We may use and disclose your PHI to contact you to remind you that you have an appointment. We may also use and disclose your PHI to tell you about treatment alternatives, or other health care services or benefits that SCC offers.
You have the following rights with respect to your PHI:
- The Right to Request Limits on Uses and Disclosures of Your PHI. You have the right to ask us not to use or disclose certain PHI for treatment, payment, or health care operations purposes. We are not required to agree to your request, and may say “no” if it would affect your mental health care.
- The Right to Request Restrictions for Out-of-Pocket Expenses Paid for In Full. You have the right to request restrictions on disclosures of your PHI to health plans for payment or health care operations purposes if the PHI pertains solely to a health care item or a health care service that you have paid for out-of-pocket in full.
- The Right to Choose How we Send PHI to You. You have the right to ask us to contact you in a specific way (for example, home or office phone) or to send mail to a different address, and we will agree to all reasonable requests.
- The Right to See and Get Copies of Your PHI. Other than “psychotherapy notes,” you have the right to get an electronic or paper copy of your medical record and other information that we have about you. We will provide you with a copy of your record, or a summary of it, if you agree to receive a summary, within 30 days of receiving your written request, and we may charge a reasonable, cost based fee for doing so.
This notice went into effect March 5, 2019 and was last reviewed on May 20th, 2023.