What information we collect
We collect: your demographic and contact information; your insurance information; your past medical, surgical, family, and social history; your current medications, allergies, and clinical results; the records you authorize us to obtain from prior practices; the records of care we provide here; and any information you choose to share with us through the patient portal, email, or phone.
How we use and disclose your information
Per HIPAA, we may use or disclose your PHI without your additional written authorization for the following purposes:
- Treatment. To provide care to you, including coordinating with specialists, hospitals, labs, pharmacies, and other clinicians involved in your care.
- Payment. To bill and collect payment for your care from you, your insurance, or other third parties.
- Health-care operations. Internal quality audits, training, peer review, and the operational tasks of running a small practice.
For uses or disclosures outside the above three categories — for example, marketing, research that is not exempt under HIPAA, sale of your information (which we will never do) — we will obtain your written authorization, and you may revoke that authorization at any time in writing.
Your rights
You have the right to:
- Inspect and request a copy of your PHI in our records.
- Request an amendment to your record if you believe something is incorrect.
- Request a list of disclosures we have made of your PHI for purposes other than treatment, payment, or health-care operations.
- Request that we restrict certain uses or disclosures (we are not required to agree, but for self-pay patients we will accommodate restrictions on disclosures to the patient's insurance plan).
- Request that we communicate with you in a particular way or at a particular location.
- Receive a paper copy of this Notice on request.
- File a complaint with us or with the HHS Office for Civil Rights. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.
Special protections for behavioral health and SUD records
Records of behavioral health care, and especially records that identify you as a patient receiving treatment for a substance use disorder, are subject to additional protections under 42 CFR Part 2 and NY-state behavioral health confidentiality statutes. We will not release such records without your specific written authorization, with limited exceptions for medical emergencies and certain audits.
Adolescent confidentiality
Adolescent patients age 12 and older have specific confidentiality protections under NY Public Health Law § 17 for reproductive, sexual, and substance-use care. Records of such care are not released to a parent or guardian without the adolescent's consent (with limited safety exceptions discussed in the room).
Website privacy
This website does not set cookies. We do not run client-side analytics. We do not use third-party tracking pixels. The fonts are loaded from Google Fonts via standard CDN, which means Google receives an IP address when the font files are loaded; this is the only third-party request the site makes. The patient portal (a separate vendor service) has its own privacy notice that you will be asked to review when you create your portal account.
How to contact us
For privacy questions, contact our Privacy Officer, Maritza Polanco, at privacy@pharos-kingston.example or by phone at (845) 555-0142. For complaints filed with HHS: hhs.gov/hipaa/filing-a-complaint.
Updates to this notice
We may revise this Notice. The current version is dated and posted at the top of this page; superseded versions are preserved on the errata page.