Notice of Privacy Practice
Centered Chicago Providers
161 East Erie Street
Suite 103
Chicago, IL 60611
(312)337-5777
HIPAA Office Officer: Nancy Sahagun
Effective Date: 2/19/2025
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.
We understand the importance of privacy and are committed to maintaining the confidentiality of your medical information. We make a record of the medical care we provide and may receive such records from others. We use these records to provide or enable other health care providers to provide quality medical care, to obtain payment for services provided to you as allowed by your health plan and to enable us to meet our professional and legal obligations to operate this medical practice properly. We are required by law to maintain the privacy of protected health information, to provide individuals with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to protected health information, and to notify affected individuals following a breach of unsecured protected health information. This notice describes how we may use and disclose your medical information. It also describes your rights and our legal obligations with respect to your medical information. If you have any questions about this Notice, please contact our Privacy Officer listed above.
This medical practice collects health information about you and stores it in an electronic health record. The medical record is the property of this medical practice, but the information in the medical record belongs to you. The law permits us to use or disclose your health information for the following purposes:
1. Treatment. We use medical information about you to provide your medical care. We disclose medical information to our employees and others who are involved in providing the care you need. For example, we may share your medical information with other physicians or other health care providers who will provide services that we do not provide. Or we may share this information with a pharmacist who needs it to dispense a prescription to you, or a laboratory that performs a test. We may also disclose medical information to members of your family or others who can help you when you are sick or injured, or after you die.
2. Payment. We use and disclose medical information about you to obtain payment for the services we provide. For example, we give your health plan the information it requires before it will pay us. We may also disclose information to other health care providers to assist them in obtaining payment for services they have provided to you.
3. Health Care Operations. We may use and disclose medical information about you to operate this medical practice. For example, we may use and disclose this information to get your health plan to authorize services or referrals. We may also use and disclose this information as necessary for medical reviews, legal services and audits, including fraud and abuse detection and compliance programs and business planning and management. We may also share your medical information with our "business associates," such as our billing service, that perform administrative services for us. We have a written contract with each of these business associates that contains terms requiring them and their subcontractors to protect the confidentiality and security of your protected health information. We may also share your information with other health care providers, health care clearinghouses or health plans that have a relationship with you, when they request this information to help them with their quality assessment and improvement activities, their patient-safety activities, their population-based efforts to improve health or reduce health care costs, their protocol development, case management or care-coordination activities, their review of competence, qualifications and performance of health care professionals, their training programs, their accreditation, certification or licensing activities, or their health care fraud and abuse detection and compliance efforts.
4. Appointment Reminders. We may use and disclose medical information to contact and remind you about appointments. If you are not home, we may leave this information on your answering machine.
5. Required by Law. As required by law, we will use and disclose your health information, but we will limit our use or disclosure to the relevant requirements of the law. When the law requires us to report abuse, neglect or domestic violence, or respond to judicial or administrative proceedings, or to law enforcement officials, we will further comply with the requirement set forth below concerning those activities.
6. Breach Notification. In the case of a breach of unsecured protected health information, we will notify you as required by law. If you have provided us with a current e-mail address, we may use e-mail to communicate information related to the breach. In some circumstances our business associate may provide the notification. We may also provide notification by other methods as appropriate.
The No Surprise Act and “Good Faith Estimate
To whom it applies: Uninsured, out-of-Network, and self-paying patients.
In compliance with the No Surprises Act that went into effect January 1, 2022, all healthcare providers are required to notify clients of their Federal rights and protections against “surprise billing.” This Act requires that we notify you of your federally protected rights to receive a notification when services are rendered by an out-of-network provider, if a client is uninsured, or if a client elects not to use their insurance.
Additionally, we are required to provide you with a Good Faith Estimate of the cost of services. It is difficult to determine the true length of treatment care, and each client has a right to decide how long they would like to participate in this care. It is a Federal requirement that we have each client sign this form to begin/resume treatment.
The purpose of this document is to let you know about your protections from unexpected medical bills. It also asks whether you would like to give up those protections and pay more for out-of-network care.
Important: You are not required to sign this form and should not sign it if you did not have a choice of health care provider when you received care. You can choose to get care from a provider or facility in your health plan’s network, which may cost you less. If you would like assistance with this document, please ask the front desk staff or provider.
Sincerely,
Centered Chicago
NON-DISCRIMINATION NOTICE
Our office does not exclude, deny benefits to, or otherwise discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, sex, or age in admission to, or receipt of the services and benefits.