Notice of Privacy Practices

This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully.

This Notice of Privacy Practices applies to Apotheosis Health and members of its workforce who provide or support care through the practice. It describes the practice’s duties and your rights regarding protected health information maintained by Apotheosis Health.

The separate Website Privacy Policy explains how information connected with ordinary use of the public website is handled.

You have rights regarding health information Apotheosis Health maintains about you. Contact the practice’s Privacy Officer using the information on this page for instructions or assistance exercising these rights.

• Inspect or receive a copy

  You may ask to inspect or receive an electronic or paper copy of your medical record and other health information we maintain about you. We generally provide a copy or summary within 30 days and may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee when permitted.

• Request a correction

  You may ask us to amend health information you believe is incorrect or incomplete. We may deny the request in some circumstances, but we will explain a denial in writing, generally within 60 days.

• Request confidential communication

  You may ask us to contact you in a particular way or at a different location. We will accommodate reasonable requests.

• Request limits on use or disclosure

  You may ask us not to use or disclose certain information for treatment, payment, or health care operations. We are not always required to agree. If you pay in full out of pocket for a service, you may ask us not to disclose information about that service to a health plan for payment or operations unless disclosure is required by law. If we agree to another restriction, we may still disclose the information if it is needed for emergency treatment.

• Request an accounting of disclosures

  You may request a list of certain disclosures made during the six years before your request. The accounting does not include every disclosure, including many disclosures for treatment, payment, operations, or disclosures you authorized. One accounting in a 12-month period is provided without charge; a reasonable fee may apply to additional requests.

• Receive a paper copy

  You may request a paper copy of this notice at any time, including if you previously agreed to receive it electronically.

• Use a personal representative

  A person legally authorized to act for you, such as a guardian or health care agent, may exercise your rights after we verify that authority.

• Make a complaint without retaliation

  You may complain to Apotheosis Health or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights were violated. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.

In certain situations, you may tell us how you want your health information shared. Tell us your preference, and we will follow your instructions when the law gives you that choice.

• You may tell us whether to share relevant information with family, close friends, or others involved in your care or payment for care.
• You may tell us whether to share information in a disaster-relief situation.
• If you cannot express a preference, we may disclose relevant information when we reasonably believe it is in your best interest or when needed to reduce a serious and imminent threat to health or safety.

We generally require your written authorization before using or disclosing protected health information for marketing, selling protected health information, or most uses and disclosures of psychotherapy notes. You may revoke an authorization in writing, except to the extent we have already relied on it.

Uses and disclosures not described in this notice will be made only with your written authorization unless the law otherwise permits or requires them.

If Apotheosis Health contacts you for fundraising, you may tell us not to contact you again. If fundraising ever involves records governed by 42 CFR part 2, you will receive a clear advance notice and a choice about receiving those communications.

HIPAA permits or requires certain uses and disclosures without a separate written authorization. We use or disclose only the information reasonably appropriate for the permitted purpose and follow any additional limits that apply.

• Treatment

  We may use your information to provide, coordinate, and manage your care and may share relevant information with other health professionals involved in your treatment.

  Example: A specialist who is treating you may ask us for relevant information about your health and care plan.

• Health care operations

  We may use or disclose information to run the practice, support quality and safety activities, coordinate care, train staff, conduct audits, manage records, and improve services.

  Example: We may review records to evaluate the quality and safety of the care we provide.

• Payment

  We may use or disclose information to manage payment for care, confirm benefits when applicable, prepare requested billing documentation, and collect amounts owed.

  Example: For a separately billable service, we may prepare itemized documentation you requested or, when applicable, give information to the entity responsible for payment.

• Communication about care

  We may contact you about appointments, treatment, follow-up, care-coordination needs, or health-related services that may be relevant to you.

• Business associates

  We may share information with vendors that perform services for Apotheosis Health when they need it for that work. When required, those organizations must protect the information under written agreements and applicable law.

• Public health and safety

  We may disclose information for permitted public-health and safety purposes, such as preventing disease, reporting adverse reactions or product problems, reporting suspected abuse or neglect, or reducing a serious threat to health or safety.

• Research

  We may use or disclose information for research only when the applicable legal requirements and approval conditions are met.

• Legal and regulatory requirements

  We may disclose information when state or federal law requires it, including to health-oversight agencies or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for lawful compliance activities.

• Other permitted purposes

  Subject to applicable conditions, we may disclose information for organ or tissue donation, to a coroner, medical examiner, or funeral director after a death, for workers’ compensation, certain law-enforcement or government functions, or in response to a valid court or administrative process.

Some federal or Maine laws may give certain records more protection than HIPAA. When another applicable law is more protective, we follow that law.

To the extent we receive or maintain substance-use-disorder patient records governed by 42 CFR part 2, we will not use or disclose those records, or testimony describing their contents, in a civil, criminal, administrative, or legislative investigation or proceeding against you unless the use or disclosure is based on your written consent or on a Part 2 court order entered after the required notice and opportunity to be heard. A court order must also be accompanied by a subpoena or other legal requirement compelling disclosure. These protections apply only to records actually governed by Part 2.

Maine law may require authorization before certain nonemergency disclosures outside a practice of information derived from mental health services, subject to exceptions including care coordination and payment. Psychotherapy notes have additional protections under federal law.

A minor who is legally allowed to consent to care is generally entitled to adult confidentiality and generally controls authorization to disclose information about that care, subject to exceptions in Maine law, including when parental notification may be necessary to prevent serious jeopardy to the minor’s health or a serious limit on treatment.

Maine law also places additional limits on disclosure of certain communications and examination information about reproductive health care or gender-affirming health care in civil or administrative proceedings and subpoenas. Those limits are subject to statutory exceptions and do not prevent disclosures otherwise lawfully made for treatment, payment, or health care operations.

• We are required by law to maintain the privacy and security of protected health information and to provide this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices.
• We will notify affected individuals as required if a breach may have compromised the privacy or security of their information.
• We must follow the duties and privacy practices described in the notice currently in effect and make a copy available upon request.
• We will not use or disclose protected health information in a way not described here unless you authorize it in writing or the law otherwise permits or requires it.

Apotheosis Health may change this notice and make the revised terms apply to health information already maintained as well as information received in the future. The current notice will be available on this website, upon request, and at the practice. A revised notice will show its new effective date.

Contact the Privacy Officer, Apotheosis Health with questions, requests, or complaints about your health-information privacy rights:

You may also file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights online at hhs.gov/hipaa/filing-a-complaint, by calling 1-877-696-6775, or by writing to 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201. Apotheosis Health will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.