Privacy

Draft — requires review by a Virginia healthcare attorney before launch

What follows is a structurally complete starting point, not legal advice and not a finished document. A HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices has specific required elements and must reflect how this organization actually handles information. Do not publish it as-is.

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.

Effective date: To be set

Our commitment

Prolific Counseling Group is required by law to maintain the privacy of your protected health information, to give you notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, and to follow the terms of the notice currently in effect.

How we may use and disclose your health information

For treatment. We may share information with clinicians, nurses, and other staff involved in your care, and with outside providers to whom we refer you.
For payment. We may use and disclose information to bill and collect from Medicaid, managed care plans, or other payers.
For health care operations. We may use information for quality assessment, staff training, licensing, and business management.
As required by law. Including mandatory reporting of suspected abuse or neglect, responses to court orders, and public health reporting.
To prevent a serious threat. We may disclose information when necessary to prevent a serious and imminent threat to your health or safety or that of another person.

Special protections

Substance use disorder treatment records receive additional protection under federal law (42 CFR Part 2) beyond what HIPAA requires. In most circumstances we cannot disclose that you are receiving substance use treatment without your written consent. This section in particular needs attorney review given the intensive outpatient programs offered.

Your rights

Inspect and obtain a copy of your records
Request a correction to your records
Request an accounting of certain disclosures
Request confidential communications by alternative means or at an alternative location
Request a restriction on certain uses and disclosures
Obtain a paper copy of this notice
Be notified in the event of a breach of unsecured protected health information

Complaints

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with us or with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. You will not be penalised or retaliated against for filing a complaint.

To file a complaint with us, contact our Privacy Officer: Privacy Officer name and contact to be supplied.

Website privacy policy

This section covers information collected through this website, which is separate from the health information covered by the notice above.

What this website collects

When you submit the contact, referral, or employment application forms, we receive the information you enter and the files you attach. Our forms are deliberately designed not to collect protected health information, and each one asks you to confirm you have not included any.

Our hosting provider records standard technical information such as IP address, browser type, and pages visited, for security and reliability purposes.

What we do not do

We do not sell your information.
We do not use advertising trackers or sell data to advertisers.
We do not share form submissions with anyone outside our organization except as needed to deliver and store them.

Email is not secure

Messages sent to us by email or through this website’s forms travel over the ordinary internet and are not encrypted end to end. Please do not send health information that way. Call us instead and we will take it on a secure line.