Privacy Policy
Last updated May 05, 2023
Journey to HopeWell
Email: contact@journeytohopewell.com
Phone: 505-375-0341
THIS NOTICE WENT INTO EFFECT ON 01/20/2023
NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
In compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), this notice describes how health information about you is protected and also how it may be used and disclosed. During the process of providing services, Journey to HopeWell, also referred to as Hopewell Therapeutic Consulting, LLC, D/B/A Journey to HopeWell will obtain, record, and use mental health and medical information about you that is protected health information. Ordinarily, that information is confidential and will not be used or disclosed except as described below.
Journey to HopeWell, (“company”, “I”, “we” or “us”) is dedicated to respecting the privacy of your personal information, and this privacy policy describes what information is collected from you on www.journeytohopewell.com (hereinafter the “Website”) and how it is used. The term “you” refers to anyone who uses, visits, and/or views the website.
USES, DISCLOSURES, AND COMMUNICATION OF PROTECTED INFORMATION
A. General Uses and Disclosures Not Requiring the Patient’s Consent.
1. Treatment: Treatment refers to the provision, coordination, or management of healthcare (including mental healthcare) and related services. During treatment, the provider may consult with other providers without identifying you (the client) by name and also not disclosing any other identifying information about you in order to ensure the best care possible for your concerns.
2. Payment: Payment refers to the activities undertaken by the provider to obtain or provide reimbursement for the provision of healthcare. For example, the provider will use your information to develop accounts receivable information, to bill you, and with your consent, to bill third parties. If you elect to have a third party pay for your treatment, the information provided to the third party may include information that identifies you as well as your diagnosis, type of service, date of service, and other information about your condition and treatment.
3. Contacting the Patient/Client: The provider may contact you to remind you of appointments or to change or cancel appointments. The provider may leave messages on voicemail or with other parties, identifying the name and phone number of the provider. The provider will use the best judgment in the details left on a voicemail. If you do not want the provider leaving messages, or if you wish to restrict the messages in any way, please notify the provider in writing.
4. Required by Law: The provider will disclose protected health information when required by law or when necessary for healthcare oversight. This includes, but may not be limited to: (a) reporting child abuse or neglect; (b) when court-ordered to release information; (c) when there is a legal duty to warn or take action regarding imminent danger to others; (d) when the patient is a danger to self or others or gravely disabled; (e) when a coroner is investigating the patient’s death.
5. Family Members: Except for certain minors, protected health information cannot be provided to family members without the patient’s consent. In situations where family members are present during a discussion with the patient, and it can be reasonably inferred from the circumstances that the patient does not object, information may be disclosed in the course of that discussion. However, if the patient objects, protected health information will not be disclosed.
6. Emergencies: In life-threatening emergencies, the provider will disclose information necessary to avoid serious harm or death.
B. Patient/Client Authorization or Release of Information: The provider may not use or disclose protected information in any other way without a signed authorization or release of information. When you sign an authorization or a release of information, it may later be revoked, provided that the revocation is in writing. The revocation will apply, except to the extent the provider has already taken action in reliance thereon.
C. Alternative Means of Receiving Confidential Information: You have the right to request that you receive communications of protected health information from the provider by alternative means or at alternative locations. For example, if you do not want the provider to mail statements or other materials to your home, you can request that this information be sent to another address. There are limitations to the granting of such requests. You will also have to pay any additional costs that may be associated with such a request.
Protection of Confidential Information: The provider has taken steps to protect the confidentiality of your information, including the use of name codes, password protection of computer files, locked file cabinets, paper shredding, and other security measures. Your files will be destroyed (shredded or incinerated) when past the time required for the maintenance of such records. If you have further questions, please contact the Privacy Officer, Monique Pearson, LICSW at 505-375-0341.
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW HEALTH INFORMATION MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
I. MY PLEDGE REGARDING HEALTH INFORMATION:
I understand that health information about you and your health care is personal. I am committed to protecting health information about you. I create a record of the care and services you receive from me. I need this record to provide you with quality care and to comply with certain legal requirements. This notice applies to all of the records of your care generated by this mental health care practice. This notice will tell you about the ways in which I may use and disclose health information about you. I also describe your rights to the health information I keep about you and describe certain obligations I have regarding the use and disclosure of your health information. I am required by law to:
Make sure that protected health information (“PHI”) that identifies you is kept private.
Give you this notice of my legal duties and privacy practices with respect to health information.
Follow the terms of the notice that is currently in effect.
I can change the terms of this Notice, and such changes will apply to all information I have about you. The new Notice will be available upon request in the office and on the website.
II. HOW I MAY USE AND DISCLOSE HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU:
The following categories describe different ways that I use and disclose health information. For each category of uses or disclosures, I will explain what I mean and try to give some examples. Not every use or disclosure in a category will be listed. However, all of the ways I am permitted to use and disclose information will fall within one of the categories.
For Treatment Payment or Health Care Operations: Federal privacy rules (regulations) allow healthcare providers who have a direct treatment relationship with the patient/client to use or disclose the patient/client’s personal health information without the patient’s written authorization, to carry out the health care provider’s own treatment, payment or health care operations. I may also disclose your protected health information for the treatment activities of any healthcare provider. This too, can be done without your written authorization. For example, if a clinician were to consult with another licensed health care provider about your condition, we would be permitted to use and disclose your personal health information, which is otherwise confidential, in order to assist the clinician in the diagnosis and treatment of your mental health condition.
Disclosures for treatment purposes are not limited to the minimum necessary standard. Because therapists and other health care providers need access to the full record and/or full and complete information in order to provide quality care. The word “treatment” includes, among other things, the coordination and management of health care providers with a third party, consultations between health care providers, and referrals of a patient for health care from one health care provider to another.
Lawsuits and Disputes: If you are involved in a lawsuit, I may disclose health information in response to a court or administrative order. I may also disclose health information about your child in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process by someone else involved in the dispute, but only if efforts have been made to tell you about the request or to obtain an order protecting the information requested.
III. CERTAIN USES AND DISCLOSURES REQUIRE YOUR AUTHORIZATION:
Psychotherapy Notes. I do keep “psychotherapy notes” as that term is defined in 45 CFR § 164.501, and any use or disclosure of such notes requires your Authorization unless the use or disclosure is:
a. For my use in treating you.
b. For my use in training or supervising mental health practitioners to help them improve their skills in group, joint, family, or individual counseling or therapy.
c. For my use in defending myself in legal proceedings instituted by you.
d. For use by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to investigate my compliance with HIPAA.
e. Required by law and the use or disclosure is limited to the requirements of such law.
f. Required by law for certain health oversight activities pertaining to the originator of the psychotherapy notes.
g. Required by a coroner who is performing duties authorized by law.
h. Required to help avert a serious threat to the health and safety of others.
IV. CERTAIN USES AND DISCLOSURES DO NOT REQUIRE YOUR AUTHORIZATION.
Subject to certain limitations in the law, I can use and disclose your PHI without your Authorization for the following reasons:
When disclosure is required by state or federal law, and the use or disclosure complies with and is limited to the relevant requirements of such law.
For public health activities, including reporting suspected child, elder, or dependent adult abuse, or preventing or reducing a serious threat to anyone’s health or safety.
For health oversight activities, including audits and investigations.
For judicial and administrative proceedings, including responding to a court or administrative order, although my preference is to obtain an Authorization from you before doing so.
For law enforcement purposes, including reporting crimes occurring on my premises.
To coroners or medical examiners, when such individuals perform duties authorized by law.
For research purposes, including studying and comparing the mental health of patients who received one form of therapy versus those who received another form of therapy for the same condition.
Specialized government functions, including ensuring the proper execution of military missions; protecting the President of the United States; conducting intelligence or counter-intelligence operations; or, helping to ensure the safety of those working within or housed in correctional institutions.
For workers’ compensation purposes. Although I prefer obtaining Authorization from you, I may provide your PHI to comply with workers’ compensation laws.
Appointment reminders and health-related benefits or services. I may use and disclose your PHI to contact you to remind you that you have an appointment with me. I may also use and disclose your PHI to tell you about treatment alternatives or other healthcare services or benefits that I offer.
V. CERTAIN USES AND DISCLOSURES REQUIRE YOU TO HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO OBJECT.
Disclosures to family, friends, or others. I may provide your PHI to a family member, friend, or other person you indicate is involved in your care or the payment for your health care unless you object in whole or in part. The opportunity to consent may be obtained retroactively in emergencies.
VI. YOU HAVE THE FOLLOWING RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO YOUR PHI:
The Right to Request Limits on Uses and Disclosures of Your PHI. You have the right to ask me not to use or disclose certain PHI for treatment, payment, or health care operations purposes. I am not required to agree to your request, and I may say “no” if I believe it would affect your health care.
The Right to Request Restrictions for Out-of-Pocket Expenses Paid In Full. You have the right to request restrictions on disclosures of your PHI to health plans for payment or health care operations purposes if the PHI pertains solely to a health care item or a health care service you have paid for out-of-pocket in full.
The Right to Choose How I Send PHI to You. You have the right to ask me to contact you in a specific way (for example, by home or office phone) or to send mail to a different address, and I will agree to all reasonable requests.
The Right to See and Get Copies of Your PHI. Other than “psychotherapy notes,” you have the right to get an electronic or paper copy of your medical record and other information I have about you. I will provide you with a copy of your record or a summary of it if you agree to receive a summary within 30 days of receiving your written request, and I may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee for doing so.
The Right to Get a List of the Disclosures I Have Made. You have the right to request a list of instances in which I have disclosed your PHI for purposes other than treatment, payment, healthcare operations or for which you provided me with an Authorization. I will respond to your request for an accounting of disclosures within 60 days of receiving your request. The list I will give you will include disclosures made in the last six years unless you request a shorter time. I will provide the list to you at no charge, but if you make more than one request in the same year, I will charge you a reasonable cost-based fee for each additional request.
The Right to Correct or Update Your PHI. If you believe that there is a mistake in your PHI or that a piece of important information is missing from your PHI, you have the right to request that I correct the existing information or add the missing information. I may say “no” to your request, but I will tell you why in writing within 60 days of receiving your request.
The Right to Get a Paper or Electronic Copy of this Notice. You have the right to get a paper copy of this Notice, and you have the right to get a copy of this notice by e-mail. And, even if you have agreed to receive this Notice via e-mail, you also have the right to request a paper copy of it.
COMMENTS AND SOCIAL MEDIA
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata may be retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue. When you leave a comment, your name, email address, and website/organization name is not shared with an unauthorized third party and may be used to communicate with you.
Social media accounts and sharing options are available on this website. Social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and others) can track your personal information. Should you choose to interact with us on social media, please note that you will be voluntarily disclosing that personal information. This information is no longer private. It becomes public information and can be collected and used by others. We have no control over and take no responsibility for the use, storage or dissemination of such publicly-disclosed personal information by you.
Any such interactions via comments and social media with us do not subject us to any kind of liability related to misuse of your information by others.
USE OF COOKIES
To enhance your experience on our website, we may utilize cookies. These files contain a small amount of data, including an anonymous unique identifier, which the website sends to your computer's hard drive while you browse. As with most sites, we automatically gather certain non-personally identifiable information such as your IP address, geographic location, language preference, and visit date and time.
If you have an account and you log in to this website, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
We may use cookies for various reasons such as optimizing and personalizing your browsing experience, checking our website analytics, saving your preferences and settings for future use, serving ads based on your liking and interests, affiliate marketing, and posting comments on our website.
This information is only collected to better serve and understand your user experience on the website. You have the option of turning off cookies on your computer should you wish to do so. If you choose to do that, you may not be able to view all the features and content of this website.
USE OF WEB BEACONS AND PIXELS
In conjunction with the use of cookies, third parties may also use web beacons, which are also known as clear GIFs, web bugs, or pixel tags to collect general information about your use of our website. They monitor user activity and are used to track customer behavior data. This information may be relevant to third parties such as the ad networks used on our website to tailor the advertising based on your behavior and interests.
Our website utilizes social media pixels to gather general information about your activity on different social media platforms this may include, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and others platforms. This is in compliance with the respective policies of these sites and is done to promote products, track conversions, run targeted advertisements, and more.
It is possible for third-party platforms such as Facebook to utilize their own cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies to gather information from our website. This information is then used to display targeted advertisements. If you have previously visited our website, you may come across our ads on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or other platforms.
THIRD-PARTY LINKS AND USE
We may include, offer or advertise third-party links, products, or services on the website. Once you click on a third-party link and leave this website, you are no longer bound by our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.
Articles on this website may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, advertisements, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves exactly as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
We may use Google Analytics and AdSense along with any other third-party advertising on the website. Google is a third party that also uses cookies to serve ads on the website for the purpose of providing a positive user experience. Third-party vendors such as Google use cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits to the website. You can opt out of Google by visiting their privacy policy and ad settings.
We have no control over these third parties and they have their own privacy policies. Neither are we responsible for the activities and practices of these third parties. You should contact them directly and read their privacy policies for any questions. You also agree that your use of these third-party websites is solely at your risk.
WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT AND HOW IT IS USED
Upon visiting the website, it is possible that you may provide some personally identifiable information such as your name, email address, phone number, physical address, avatar image, and credit card details if you choose to make a purchase on the website.
This information is collected when you register on the site, contact us, provide comments or any other feedback, fill out a form, or enter any other information on the website to communicate with us. From time to time, we may also collect information that you submit when you participate in any online surveys that we may post on our website.
Your personal information is used to personalize your experience, improve the website to better serve you, provide customer service support, efficiently process your requests or transactions, tailor advertisements to you, elicit reviews of services or products, provide you offers, promotions and to follow up with you through correspondence (email, live chat, or phone). We may also use this information to provide you with offers and promotions from our partners and/or our affiliates in exchange for a commission without additional cost to you when this option is available.
Additionally, like other websites, this website automatically collects certain information about you through Log Data and Google Analytics. Log Data is information about your computer’s Internet Protocol Address, which is your “IP” address, browser information, Internet Service Provider’s information, your operating system, and your browser type. Similarly, Google Analytics collects certain information about your location, browsing history, the pages you visit, the equipment you used to access the website, traffic patterns, and other general patterns related to your use of the website.
This information is used to analyze website statistics related to user behavior and interests, improve our performance and your use of the website, and to further enhance our products and services offered to you.
SECURITY
Your personal information's security is of utmost importance to us. We follow industry standards to protect your information, which is submitted to us voluntarily or automatically. However, we cannot guarantee 100% security as no method of transmission over the internet is foolproof. If you make a credit card purchase or any other purchase on our website, you will be directed to a third-party vendor to complete the transaction. The information you provide during the checkout process is not stored on our website but instead provided to the vendor. By using our website, you agree to hold us harmless for any security breach or unauthorized use of your personal information by third parties. You also acknowledge that we are not responsible for any disclosure of your information through our website without our knowledge and consent.
POLICY UPDATES
This privacy policy is effective as of 01/20/2023 and will be updated and modified as needed. Clients are responsible for visiting this page periodically to check for future updates to this policy. Any modifications to this privacy policy will be effective upon our publishing of the new terms, and your continued use of our website after the posting of any updates constitutes your acceptance of our modified privacy policy. Acknowledgment of Receipt of Privacy Notice.
For any questions or comments regarding the privacy policy, please contact us at contact@journeytohopewell.com. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), you have certain rights regarding the use and disclosure of your protected health information. By checking the box below, you are acknowledging that you have received a copy of the HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices.
BY SIGNING BELOW, YOU (THE CLIENT), ARE AGREEING THAT I HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREE TO THE ITEMS CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENT.