The HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is a Federal Regulation that creates national standards to protect individuals' medical records and other personal health information.

• It gives patients more control over their health information.
• It sets boundaries on the use and release of health records.
• It establishes appropriate safeguards that health care providers and others must achieve to protect the privacy of health information.
• It holds violators accountable, with civil and criminal penalties that can be imposed if they violate patients' privacy rights.
• It strikes a balance when public responsibility supports disclosure of some forms of data - for example, to protect public health.

For patients it means being able to make informed choices when seeking care and reimbursement for care based on how personal health information may be used.

• It enables patients to find out how their information may be used and about certain disclosures of their information if they were made and the reason for the disclosure(s).
• It generally limits release of information to what is absolutely necessary.
• It gives patients the right to examine and obtain a copy of their own health records and request corrections.
• It allows individuals to control certain uses and disclosures of their health information.

Under HIPAA, patients will have the right to:

• Inspect and copy protected health information
• Amend (or append) their medical records
• Receive an accounting of disclosures
• Have reasonable requests for confidential communications accommodated
• File a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights or with the Hospital

At Synergetic Marriage & Family Therapy PLLC (SMFT), we collect your personal information when you:

1.       Register on our SMFT website

a.       When you register, or use any of the forms on our website, we may also ask for information such your birth date, gender, occupation, industry, personal interests, professional affiliations, etc.

b.       Once you register and log in, you are not anonymous to us.

c.        You can edit your Account Information at any time.

2.       Subscribe to the publications and programs on our SMFT website

3.       When you have transactions with us through our SMFT website

a.       Send emails with questions or request information, or by using any of the forms on our website.

b.       When you buy any of our products, register for any of our services, or acquire any resources by using any of the forms on our website.

c.        We do not collect payment information, we use an outside provider for this purpose - refer to their Privacy Policy

4.       Visit our SMFT website

a.       SMFT automatically receives and records information on our server logs from your browser, including your IP address and SMFT cookie information, and the page you request.

We will share your information in the following instances:

1.       to conform to legal requirements

2.       to protect and defend the rights or property of SMFT

3.       in the event of a merger, acquisition or sale of all or substantially all SMFT's assets relating to the business in connection with which the information was collected