Privacy policy
NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW HEALTH INFORMATION MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
UNMOORED COUNSELING COLLECTIVE’S PLEDGE REGARDING HEALTH INFORMATION: We understand that your health care information is personal and are committed to protecting your personal information. Unmoored Counseling Collective will create a record of the care and services you receive from your clinician. Unmoored Counseling Collective will need this record 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. This notice will tell you about the ways in which Unmoored Counseling Collective may use and disclose health information about you. Unmoored Counseling Collective will also describe your rights to the health information that is kept about you, and describe certain obligations this practice has regarding the use and disclosure of your health information. Unmoored Counseling Collective is required by law to:
• Make sure that protected health information (“PHI”) that identifies you is kept private.
• Give you this notice of your clinician's legal duties and privacy practices with respect to health information.
• Follow the terms of the notice that is currently in effect.
• Unmoored Counseling Collective can change the terms of this Notice, and such changes will apply to all information your clinician has about you. The new Notice will be available upon request, in the office, and on the website.
II. HOW UNMOORED COUNSELING COLLECTIVE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU: The following categories describe different ways that your clinician use and disclose health information. For each category of uses or disclosures your clinician will explain what is meant and try to give some examples. Not every use or disclosure in a category will be listed. However, all of the ways your clinician is permitted to use and disclose information will fall within one of the categories.
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 without the patient’s written authorization, to carry out the health care provider’s own treatment, payment or health care operations. I may also disclose your protected health information for the treatment activities of any health care provider. This too can be done without your written authorization. For example, if a clinician were to consult with another licensed health care provider about your condition, we would be permitted to use and disclose your personal health information, which is otherwise confidential, in order to assist the clinician in diagnosis and treatment of your mental health condition.
Disclosures for treatment purposes are not limited to the minimum necessary standard. Because therapists and other health care providers need access to the full record and/or full and complete information in order to provide quality care. The word “treatment” includes, among other things, the coordination and management of health care providers with a third party, consultations between health care providers and referrals of a patient for health care from one health care provider to another.
Lawsuits and Disputes: If you are involved in a lawsuit, Unmoored Counseling Collective may disclose health information in response to a court or administrative order. Woven Counseling may also disclose health information about you in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process by someone else involved in the dispute, but only if efforts have been made to tell you about the request or to obtain an order protecting the information requested.
III. CERTAIN USES AND DISCLOSURES REQUIRE YOUR AUTHORIZATION:
1. Psychotherapy Notes. Unmoored Counseling Collective does 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 your clinician’s use in treating you.
b. For your clinician’s use in training or supervising mental health practitioners to help them improve their skills in group, joint, family, or individual counseling or therapy.
c. For your clinician’s use in defending myself in legal proceedings instituted by you.
d. For use by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to investigate your clinician’s compliance with HIPAA.
e. Required by law and the use or disclosure is limited to the requirements of such law.
f. Required by law for certain health oversight activities pertaining to the originator of the psychotherapy notes.
g. Required by a coroner who is performing duties authorized by law.
h. Required to help avert a serious threat to the health and safety of others.
2. Marketing Purposes. As a psychotherapist, your clinician will not use or disclose your PHI for marketing purposes.
3. Sale of PHI. As a psychotherapist, your clinician will not sell your PHI in the regular course of my business.
IV. CERTAIN USES AND DISCLOSURES DO NOT REQUIRE YOUR AUTHORIZATION. Subject to certain limitations in the law, your clinician can use and disclose your PHI without your Authorization for the following reasons:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. For health oversight activities, including audits and investigations.
4. For judicial and administrative proceedings, including responding to a court or administrative order, although my preference is to obtain an Authorization from you before doing so.
5. For law enforcement purposes, including reporting crimes occurring on my premises.
6. To coroners or medical examiners, when such individuals are performing duties authorized by law.
7. For research purposes, including studying and comparing the mental health of patients who received one form of therapy versus those who received another form of therapy for the same condition.
8. Specialized government functions, including, ensuring the proper execution of military missions; protecting the President of the United States; conducting intelligence or counter-intelligence operations; or, helping to ensure the safety of those working within or housed in correctional institutions.
9. For workers' compensation purposes. Although Unmoored Counseling Collective’s preference is to obtain an Authorization from you, your clinician may provide your PHI in order to comply with workers' compensation laws.
10. Appointment reminders and health related benefits or services. Unmoored Counseling Collective may use and disclose your PHI to contact you to remind you that you have an appointment with me. Woven Counseling may also use and disclose your PHI to tell you about treatment alternatives, or other health care services or benefits that is offered.
V. CERTAIN USES AND DISCLOSURES REQUIRE YOU TO HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO OBJECT.
1. Disclosures to family, friends, or others. Your clinician may provide your PHI to a family member, friend, or other person that you indicate is involved in your care or the payment for your health care, unless you object in whole or in part. The opportunity to consent may be obtained retroactively in emergency situations.
VI. YOU HAVE THE FOLLOWING RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO YOUR PHI:
1. The Right to Request Limits on Uses and Disclosures of Your PHI. You have the right to ask not to use or disclose certain PHI for treatment, payment, or health care operations purposes. Your clinician is not required to agree to your request, and may say “no” if it is believed to affect your health care.
2. 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.
3. The Right to Choose How Unmoored Counseling Collective Send PHI to You. You have the right to ask 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.
4. 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.
5. The Right to Get a List of the Disclosures We Have Made. You have the right to request a list of instances in which we have disclosed your PHI for purposes other than treatment, payment, or health care operations, or for which you provided an Authorization. We will respond to your request for an accounting of disclosures within 60 days of receiving your request. The list we will give you will include disclosures made in the last six years unless you request a shorter time. We will provide the list to you at no charge, but if you make more than one request in the same year, we will charge you a reasonable cost based fee for each additional request.
6. The Right to Correct or Update Your PHI. If you believe that there is a mistake in your PHI, or that a piece of important information is missing from your PHI, you have the right to request that we correct the existing information or add the missing information. We may say “no” to your request, but we will tell you why in writing within 60 days of receiving your request.
7. The Right to Get a Paper or Electronic Copy of this Notice. You have the right get a paper copy of this Notice, and you have the right to get a copy of this notice by e-mail. And, even if you have agreed to receive this Notice via e-mail, you also have the right to request a paper copy of it.
EFFECTIVE DATE OF THIS NOTICE
This notice went into effect on SEPTEMBER 1, 2020
practice policy
APPOINTMENTS AND CANCELLATIONS
Please remember to cancel or reschedule 24 hours in advance. You will be responsible for the entire fee if cancellation is less than 24 hours.
The standard meeting time for psychotherapy is 60 minutes. It is up to you, however, to determine the length of time of your sessions. Requests to change the 60-minute session needs to be discussed with the clinician in order for time to be scheduled in advance.
A $10.00 service charge will be charged for any checks returned for any reason for special handling.
Cancellations and re-scheduled session will be subject to a full charge if NOT RECEIVED AT LEAST 24 HOURS IN ADVANCE. This is necessary because a time commitment is made to you and is held exclusively for you. If you are late for a session, you may lose some of that session time.
All clients are responsible for payment of services on same date of services rendered unless other arrangements have been made in writing between the client and clinician. If insurance is being used, the client is responsible for remaining balance.
TELEPHONE ACCESSIBILITY
If you need to contact your clinician between sessions, please leave a message on their voice mail. They are often not immediately available; however, they will attempt to return your call within 24 hours. Please note that Face- to-face sessions are highly preferable to phone sessions/telehealth sessions. However, in the event that you are out of town, sick or need additional support, phone/telehealth sessions are available. If a true emergency situation arises, please call 911 or any local emergency room.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND TELECOMMUNICATION
Due to the importance of your confidentiality and the importance of minimizing dual relationships, your clinician does not accept friend or contact requests from current or former clients on any social networking site.
(Facebook, LinkedIn, etc). We believe that adding clients as friends or contacts on these sites can compromise your confidentiality and our respective privacy. It may also blur the boundaries of the therapeutic relationship. If you have questions about this, please bring them up when we meet and we can talk more about it.
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION
Unmoored Counseling Collective cannot ensure the confidentiality of any form of communication through electronic media, including text messages. If you prefer to communicate via email or text messaging for issues regarding scheduling or cancellations, your clinician may do so if they choose. While they may try to return messages in a timely manner, they cannot guarantee immediate response and request that you do not use these methods of communication to discuss therapeutic content and/or request assistance for emergencies.
Services by electronic means, including but not limited to telephone communication, the Internet, facsimile machines, and e-mail is considered telemedicine by the State of California. Under the California Telemedicine Act of 1996, telemedicine is broadly defined as the use of information technology to deliver medical services and information from one location to another. If you and your therapist chose to use information technology for some or all of your treatment, you need to understand that: (1) You retain the option to withhold or withdraw consent at any time without affecting the right to future care or treatment or risking the loss or withdrawal of any program benefits to which you would otherwise be entitled. (2) All existing confidentiality protections are equally applicable. (3) Your access to all medical information transmitted during a telemedicine consultation is guaranteed, and copies of this information are available for a reasonable fee. (4) Dissemination of any of your identifiable images or information from the telemedicine interaction to researchers or other entities shall not occur without your consent. (5) There are potential risks, consequences, and benefits of telemedicine. Potential benefits include, but are not limited to improved communication capabilities, providing convenient access to up-to-date information, consultations, support, reduced costs, improved quality, change in the conditions of practice, improved access to therapy, better continuity of care, and reduction of lost work time and travel costs. Effective therapy is often facilitated when the clinician gathers within a session or a series of sessions, a multitude of observations, information, and experiences about the client. Clinicians may make clinical assessments, diagnosis, and interventions based not only on direct verbal or auditory communications, written reports, and third person consultations, but also from direct visual and olfactory observations, information, and experiences. When using information technology in therapy services, potential risks include, but are not limited to the clinician’s inability to make visual and olfactory observations of clinically or therapeutically potentially relevant issues such as: your physical condition including deformities, apparent height and weight, body type, attractiveness relative to social and cultural norms or standards, gait and motor coordination, posture, work speed, any noteworthy mannerism or gestures, physical or medical conditions including bruises or injuries, basic grooming and hygiene including appropriateness of dress, eye contact (including any changes in the previously listed issues), sex, chronological and apparent age, ethnicity, facial and body language, and congruence of language and facial or bodily expression. Potential consequences thus include the therapist not being aware of what he or she would consider important information, that you may not recognize as significant to present verbally the therapist.
MINORS
If you are a minor, your parents may be legally entitled to some information about your therapy. Your clinician will discuss with you and your parents what information is appropriate for them to receive and which issues are more appropriately kept confidential.
TERMINATION
Ending relationships can be difficult. Therefore, it is important to have a termination process in order to achieve some closure. The appropriate length of the termination depends on the length and intensity of the treatment. Your clinician may terminate treatment after appropriate discussion with you and a termination process if they determine that the psychotherapy is not being effectively used or if you are in default on payment. Your clinician will not terminate the therapeutic relationship without first discussing and exploring the reasons and purpose of terminating. If therapy is terminated for any reason or you request another therapist, they will provide you with a list of qualified psychotherapists to treat you. You may also choose someone on your own or from another referral source.
Should you fail to schedule an appointment for three consecutive weeks, unless other arrangements have been made in advance, for legal and ethical reasons, Woven Counseling must consider the professional relationship discontinued.