SUMMARY OF NOTICE OF PRIVACY POLICY

This notice is effective September 20, 2013.

THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY. THE PRIVACY OF YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION IS IMPORTANT TO US.

OUR LEGAL DUTY

Please be advised that the practices described in this Privacy Policy apply only to information gathered through this Web site and do not necessarily reflect our practices with respect to information gathered through other means, including digital means such as other Web sites and email communications.

Margolis & Associates (“Agency”, “we”, “our” or “us”) is committed to protecting the privacy of your health information. In conducting our business, we will create records regarding you and the services we provide to you. A federal law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), requires Agency to take reasonable steps to ensure the privacy of your “Protected Health Information” (as defined below) and to provide you with this notice of Privacy Practices. We will abide by the terms of our Notice of Privacy Practices and our Terms Of Use currently in effect.

This notice describes your rights concerning “Protected Health Information” (“PHI”) about you. PHI is information that may identify you and that relates to (a) your past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition or (b) the past, present or future payment for your health care.

It may be necessary to change the terms of this notice in the future. We reserve the right to make changes and to make the new notice effective for all PHI that we maintain about you, including PHI we created or maintained in the past. If we make material changes to our privacy practices, we will provide you with the revised notice, which we may provide to you in hard copy or electronically, as permitted by applicable law.

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact Margolis & Associates at: 212-684-0711

WHAT INFORMATION IS COLLECTED AND HOW IS IT USED?

This section of the notice explains how Agency uses and discloses your PHI as required or permitted by law. As explained below, in some instances we may request your written authorization to use or disclose PHI.

For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “Personal Information” is information that you provide to us that may be used to identify you, such as your full name, physical address, email address, or phone number. Except as otherwise provided in this Privacy Policy, we do not collect Personal Information through this Web site unless you voluntarily submit it. Personal Information will be collected when you fill out a “contact us” form and/or when you otherwise voluntarily submit or provide Personal Information to us. We use Personal Information to provide the services and information you have requested and for administrative and analytical purposes.

WEBSITES

Certain information about your visit can be collected when you browse websites. When you browse margolisandassociates.com we, and in some cases our third-party service providers, can collect the following types of information about your visit, including:
Domain (for example, comcast.com, if you are using a Comcast account) from which you accessed the Internet
IP address (an IP or internet protocol address is a number that is automatically assigned to a device connected to the web)
Approximate geographic location based on the IP address of the user’s local system
Operating system (which is software that directs a computer’s basic functions such as executing programs and managing storage) for the device that you are using and information about the browser you used when visiting the site
Date and time of your visit
Pages you visit
Address of the website that connected you to margolisandassociates.com (such as google.com or bing.com)
Device type (desktop computer, tablet, or type of mobile device)
Screen resolution
Browser language
Geographic location
Time spent on page
Scroll depth – The measure of how much of a web page was viewed
User events (e.g. clicking a button)

We use this information to measure the number of visitors to our site and its various sections, to help make our site more useful to visitors, and to improve our public education and outreach through digital advertising. Also, this information is sometimes used to personalize the content we show to you on third-party sites.

REQUIRED DISCLOSURES

Use and disclosure of your PHI may be required by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate and/or determine Agency’s compliance with HIPAA’s privacy regulations.

USES AND DISCLOSURES RELATED TO MARGOLIS & ASSOCIATES SERVICES, PAYMENT & BUSINESS OPERATIONS

Margolis & Associates Agency and its business associates may use or disclose PHI for activities related to treatment, payment and health care operations. As described in the next section entitled “Your Privacy Rights”, you have the right to request a restriction on the use and disclosure of your PHI for treatment, payment or health care operations purposes.

Since we are not a health care provider, we do not engage in treatment of individuals and, accordingly, we will not share your information for such purposes. Examples of activities related to payment include payment of health care claims or collection of premiums. Examples of activities related to health care operations include quality assessment and improvement, underwriting, audit services, legal services, data aggregation, business planning and development, administrative activities related to compliance, customer services, fraud and abuse prevention and detection, and complaint resolution.

OTHER USES AND DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PHI

In addition to the uses and disclosures described above, Margolis & Associates Agency may use or disclose PHI for the following purposes: for public health activities (for example, to alert public health authorities of public health risks to prevent or control disease, injury or disability or handle situations where a child is abused or neglected or for example, to notify the FDA of problems with a product regulated by the FDA, to notify a person who has been exposed to a communicable disease or may be at risk of spreading or contracting a disease or condition, or providing information to an employer when the employer is allowed to have the information for work related reasons); for health oversight activities (for example, to assist in investigations relating to insurance fraud); for judicial and administrative proceedings (for example, in response to a subpoena or discovery request); for certain law enforcement purposes (for example, required reporting to certain courts or victims, to report a crime, or identify a suspect); for protection against serious harm (for example, to protect victims of abuse, neglect or domestic violence); for specialized government functions (for example, to assist in national security, military and intelligence activities); for certain government-approved research purposes (if certain conditions are met); for workers’ compensation purposes (for example, when required by workers’ compensation laws); to a coroner, medical examiner, or funeral director (to permit them to carry out their legal duties); in order to facilitate organ donations and transplants; when necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to health or safety; or when required to do so by federal, state, or local law.

USE AND DISCLOSURE TO FAMILY MEMBERS OR OTHER PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVES

We may disclose PHI to a family member, guardian, executor, administrator or other person identified by you and authorized by law to act on your behalf with respect to health care. When disclosing information to such a person, we will take appropriate steps to verify the identity of such person.

USE AND DISCLOSURE TO PLAN SPONSOR (EMPLOYER)

We may disclose PHI to an employer-sponsor of a group health plan, if applicable, provided that any such plan sponsor certifies: (a) that the information provided will be maintained in a confidential manner and shall not be used for employment related decisions or for other employee benefit determinations or in any other manner not permitted by law; and (b) that the plan documents contain provisions concerning restrictions on how the plan sponsor may use or further disclose PHI.

USE AND DISCLOSURE TO CONTACT YOU REGARDING HEALTH-RELATED BENEFITS AND SERVICES

Margolis & Associates Agency or its business associates may contact you regarding health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.

USE AND DISCLOSURE TO BUSINESS ASSOCIATES

We may disclose PHI to our business associates, such as information systems consultants, production vendors and actuarial consultants, who perform services on our behalf. When we disclose information to a business associate, we will require the business associate to protect the privacy of your PHI through a written agreement with Agency.

USE AND DISCLOSURE THAT REQUIRE YOUR WRITTEN INFORMATION

Your prior written authorization would be required before we may disclose PHI for marketing purposes, disclose PHI if Agency receives remuneration for distribution of the communication, or disclose psychotherapy notes. Other uses and disclosure of your PHI not described in this Notice of Privacy Practices will be made only with your written authorization, unless otherwise permitted or required by law as described in this notice. You may revoke such authorization at any time, except to the extent Agency or its business associates or other entities have relied on such disclosure. Revocation will not affect any uses or disclosures made with your permission before it was revoked. Also, if you gave us permission to disclose your information in order to obtain insurance coverage, you may not revoke it if other law allows the insurer to contest a claim under the policy or the policy itself.

GENETIC INFORMATION

To the extent applicable, we will not disclose any genetic information in our possession for underwriting purposes.

ABUSE OR NEGLECT

We may disclose your health information to appropriate authorities if we reasonably believe that you are a possible victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence or the possible victim of other crimes. We may disclose your health information to the extent necessary to avert a serious threat to your health or safety or the health or safety of others.

OTHER APPLICABLE LAW

In the event applicable law, other than HIPAA, prohibits or materially limits our uses and disclosures of PHI, as described above, we will restrict our uses or disclosures of PHI in accordance with the more stringent standard.

NATIONAL SECURITY

We may disclose to military authorities the health information of Armed Forces personnel under certain circumstances. We may disclose to authorized federal officials health information required for lawful intelligence, counterintelligence, and other national security activities. We may disclose to correctional institution or law enforcement officials having lawful custody of PHI of inmate or patient under certain circumstances.

MARKETING HEALTH RELATED SERVICES

We will not use your health information for marketing communications without your written authorization.

YOUR AUTHORIZATION

In addition to our use of you PHI for treatment, payment or healthcare operations, you may give us written authorization to use your PHI or to disclose it to anyone for any purpose. If you give us an authorization, you may revoke it in writing at any time. Your revocation will not affect any use or disclosures permitted by your authorization while it was in effect. Unless you give us a written authorization, we cannot use or disclose your PHI for any reason except those described in this notice.

YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS

This section of the notice describes your rights as an individual with respect to your PHI and summarizes how you may exercise these rights.

RIGHT TO RESTRICT USES AND DISCLOSURES FOR TREATMENT, PAYMENT & OPERATIONS

You have the right to request that we restrict uses and disclosures of your PHI for activities related to treatment, payment and Margolis & Associates Agency operations as described above. Any such request must be made in writing to the address provided below and must state: (a) what PHI you want restricted; (b) whether the restriction shall apply to the “use” or “disclosure” of PHI, or both; and (c) to whom the restriction applies. Though we will evaluate all requests for restrictions, we are not required to agree to the restriction. If we agree to the restriction, we will abide by it, except in the case of emergency treatment or as required by law. We may terminate our agreement to a restriction if you agree to or request the termination of the restriction. In addition, we may notify you that we are terminating our agreement to a restriction as of a specified date, and that the restriction will no longer apply to PHI created or received by us after such date.

RIGHT TO REQUEST CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS

You may request that we communicate with you about your health and related issues in a particular manner or at a certain location. For instance, you may wish to receive communications from us at your work location rather than your home. Any such request must be made in writing to the address provided below and must include a reason in support of your request. We will evaluate all such requests. We will try to follow your request, if it is reasonable and as required under law.

RIGHT TO ACCESS, INSPECT & COPY YOUR PHI

You have a right to request access to your PHI in order to inspect or copy PHI that we use to make decisions about you (including medical records and billing records), other than psychotherapy notes or information compiled in reasonable anticipation of, or for use in, a criminal, civil or administrative action or proceeding. Any such request must be made in writing to the address provided below. If we approve your request, we may charge a reasonable fee for such copying of your PHI. Under certain circumstances, we may deny your request for access to your PHI. If your request is denied, we will notify you of our reason for the denial and you may have the right to have such denial reviewed.

RIGHT TO AMEND YOUR PHI

You have the right to request that we amend PHI that we use to make decisions about you if you believe the information is incorrect or inaccurate. Any such request must be made in writing to the address provided below and must include a reason in support of your request. Under certain circumstances, we may deny your request for amendment of your PHI. If your request is denied, we will notify you of our reason for the denial, your right to submit a written statement of disagreement or to have the request for amendment included with future disclosures, and your right to file a complaint with Margolis & Associates and/or the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. If your request for amendment is granted, we will notify you that the amendment was approved. We will also ask you to identify relevant persons who should be informed of the amendment and ask that you agree to our communication with such persons.

RIGHT TO AN ACCOUNTING OF DISCLOSURES

You have the right to receive a listing of how the Agency disclosed your PHI to other people or organizations. There are certain disclosures that are not included in the listing, for example, disclosures made to you about your own health information or disclosures that you give us permission to make.

RIGHT TO A COPY OF NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

RIGHT TO NOTICE OF BREACH

We implement appropriate administrative, physical and technical safeguards and security systems to protect your PHI. If, despite these efforts, there is a breach of your unsecured PHI, you will be notified.

COMPLAINTS

You may file a complaint in writing with Margolis & Associatesor the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights have been violated. Direct your complaints to be filed with Agency to the address provided below. You may also file a complaint with the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services within 180 days of a violation of your rights. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy or Terms Of Use or need further assistance regarding this notice or to request assistance with any of the items listed above, please call our Customer Care Department at 212-684-0711. The address to send any requests or to file complaints relating to your privacy rights (as described above) is Margolis & Associates, 118 East 28th Street, Suite 805. New York, NY 10016.