The privacy of your medical information is important to us. We understand that your medical information is personal and we are committed to protecting it. We provide you with a notice describing our legal duties, privacy practices, and your rights regarding your medical information.

Generally, we can only use your health information in our office or disclose it outside of our office, without your written permission, for purposes of treatment, payment or healthcare operations. In most other situations, we will not use or disclose your health information unless you sign a written authorization form. In some limited situations, the law allows or requires us to disclose your health information without written authorization.

Uses or Disclosures of Health Information Examples of how we use information for treatment purposes: ? When we set up an appointment for you. ? When our technician or doctor tests your eyes. ? When the doctor prescribes glasses or contact lenses. ? When the doctor prescribes medication. ? When our staff helps you select and order glasses or contact lenses. ? When we show you low vision aids.

We may use your health information within our office or disclose your health information outside of our office for payment purposes. Some examples are: ? When our staff asks you about health or vision care plans that you may belong to, or about other sources of payment for our services. ? When we prepare bills to send to you or your health or vision care plan. ? When we process payment by credit card and when we try to collect unpaid amounts due. ? When bills or claims for payment are mailed, faxed, or sent by computer to you or your health or vision plan. ? When we occasionally have to ask a collection agency or attorney to help us with unpaid amounts due.

We use and disclose your health information for healthcare operations in a number of ways. Health care operations means those administrative and managerial functions that we have to do in order to run our office. We may use or disclose your health information, for example, for financial or billing audits, for internal quality assurance, for personnel decisions, to enable our doctors to participate in managed care plans, for the defense of legal matters, to develop business plans, and for outside storage of our records.

We will not make any other uses or disclosures of your health information unless you sign a written authorization form. You do not have to sign such a form. If you do sign one, you may revoke it at any time unless we have already acted in reliance upon it.

If you want more information about our privacy practices, call or visit us at the address or phone number shown at the beginning of this notice.