Notice of Privacy Practices

Treatment: We may use and disclose your health information to provide dental related treatment or services, to coordinate or manage your health care, or for medical consultations or referrals. We may use and disclose your health information among dentists who are involved in taking care of you at our facilities or with such persons outside our facilities. We may use or share information about you to coordinate the different services you need, such as lab work and x-rays. We may disclose  information about you to people outside our facility who may be involved in your care after you leave, such as family members, your health plan or another provider to arrange a referral or consultation.

Payment: We may use and disclose your health information so that we can receive payment for the treatment and services that were provided. We may share this information with your insurance company or a third party used to process billing information. (As described below, if you pay for your health care in full and out-of-pocket, you may request that we not share your information with your insurance company.) We may contact your insurance company to verify what benefits you are eligible for, to obtain prior authorization, and to tell them about your treatment to make sure that they will pay for your care. We may disclose information to third parties who may be responsible for payment, such as family members, or to bill you. We may disclose information to third parties that help us process payments, such as billing companies, claims processing companies, and collection companies.

Healthcare Operations: We may use and disclose your health information as necessary to operate our practice and make sure that all of our patients receive quality care. We may use health information to evaluate the quality of services that you received, or the performance of our staff in caring for you. We may use health information to improve our performance or to find better ways to provide care. We may use your health information to decide what additional services we should offer and whether new treatments are effective. We may use health information for business planning, or disclose it to attorneys, accountants, consultants and others in order to make sure we are complying with the law.

Certain Marketing Activities: We may use your medical information to forward promotional gifts of nominal value, to communicate with you about products, services and educational programs offered by Breath of Life Dental, to communicate with you about your dental case management and for care coordination purposes. We do not sell your health information to any third party for their marketing activities unless you sign an authorization allowing us to do this.

Online Reviews: Breath of Life Dental may repost reviews I leave online to other websites they own in their original and un-edited form.

Appointment Reminders and Service Information: We may use or disclose your health information to contact you to provide appointment reminders, or to let you know about other dental services or benefits that may interest to you.

Individuals Involved In Your Care or Payment for Your Care: We may give your health information to people involved in your care, such as family members or friends, unless you ask us not to. We may give your information to someone who helps pay for your care. We may share your information with other health care professionals or disaster-relief organizations, such as the Red Cross, in emergency or disaster-relief situations so they can contact your family or friends or coordinate disaster-relief efforts.

Public Health Activities: We may disclose your health information to public health or legal authorities whose official activities include preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability. We may use or disclose health information to report reactions to medications, problems with products, or to notify people of recalls of products they may be using. We may use or disclose health information to notify a person who may have been exposed to a disease or may be at risk for contracting or spreading a disease.

Required by Law, Legal Proceedings, Health Oversight Activities, and Law Enforcement: We will disclose your health information when we are required to do so by federal, state and other law. For example, we may be required to report victims of abuse, neglect or domestic violence. We will disclose your health information when ordered in a legal or administrative proceeding, such as a subpoena, discovery request, warrant, summons, or other lawful process. We may disclose health information to a law enforcement official to identify or locate suspects, fugitives, witnesses, victims of crime, or missing persons. We may disclose health information to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law, such as audits, investigations, inspections and licensure.

Your Written Authorization: Other uses and disclosures of your health information not covered by this Notice, or the laws that govern us, will be made only with your written authorization. These include the sale of your health information and use of your health information for marketing purposes including testimonials. You may revoke your authorization in writing at any time, and we will discontinue future uses and disclosures of your health information for the reasons covered by your authorization. We are unable to take back any disclosures that were already made with your authorization, and we are required to retain the records of the care that we provided to you.