Rheumatology Practice of Scott Zashin, MD
(formerly the Arthritis Treatment Center)

Privacy Policy

HIPAA Policy Statement
The Department of Health and Human Services has established a "Privacy Rule" to help insure that personal information is protected for privacy. The Privacy Rule was also created in order to provide a standard for certain health care providers to obtain their patients' consent for uses and disclosures of health information about the patient to carry out treatment, payment, or health care operations. 

We want our patients to know that we respect the privacy of their personal medical records and will do all we can to secure and protect that privacy. We strive to always take reasonable precautions to protect their privacy. When it is appropriate and necessary, we provide the minimum necessary information to only those we feel are in need of their health care information and information about treatment, payment or health care operations, in order to provide health care that is in their best interest. 

We also support full access to each patient's medical records. We may have indirect treatment relationships with our patients (such as laboratories that only interact with physicians and not patients), and may have to disclose personal health information for purposes of treatment, payment, or health care operations. These entities are most often not required to obtain patient consent.

Our patients may refuse to consent to the use or disclosure of their personal health information, but this must be in writing. Under this law, we have the right to refuse to treat them should they choose to refuse to disclose their Personal Health Information (PHI). If they choose to give consent in this document, at some future time they may request to refuse all or part of their (PHI). They may not revoke actions that have already been taken which relied on this or a previously signed consent. 

If a patient has any objections to this form, he or she may ask to speak with our HIPAA Compliance Officer. Patients have the right to review our privacy notice, to request restrictions and revoke consent in writing after they have reviewed our privacy notice.

Compliance Assurance Notification for Our Patients
The misuse of Personal health Information (PHI) has been identified as a national problem causing patients inconvenience, aggravation, and money. We want you to know that all of our employees, managers, and doctors continually undergo training so that they may understand and comply with government rules and regulations regarding the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) with particular emphasis on the “Privacy Rule.” We strive to achieve the very highest standard of ethics and integrity in performing services for our patients.

It is our policy to properly determine appropriate uses of PHI in accordance with the government rules, laws, and regulations. We want to ensure that our practice never contributes in any way to the growing problem of improper disclosure of PHI. As part of this plan, we have implemented a Compliance Program that we believe will help us prevent any inappropriate use of PHI.

We know that we are not perfect! Because of this fact, our policy is to listen to our employees and our patients without any thought of penalization if they feel that an event in any way compromises our policy of integrity. More so, we welcome your input regarding any service problem so that we may remedy the situation promptly.
Thank you for being one of our valued patients.