HIPPA

Effective Date April 14, 2003

In order to comply with HIPAA’s Privacy Rule, it is the policy of this office to:

 1. Distribute a Notice of Privacy Practices (“NPP”) to every patient at their first appointment, eyewear pickup, or similar encounter on or after April 14, 2003.

·The NPP to use is attached to this Policy.  Only Dr. Smith or Hanson has authority to change this NPP.

·Receptionists and Opticians are responsible for distributing the NPP.

·Receptionists and Opticians must give the patient a copy of the NPP when a patient checks in for an appointment or picks up product.

·Receptionists and Opticians must ask the patient to sign an acknowledgement of receipt of the NPP (“AOR”). The AOR to use is attached to this Policy. Put all signed AORs in the AOR tray in reception.

·It is not necessary to give a NPP to a patient every time they come in after April 14, 2003 unless we change the NPP.

· At every patient encounter, Receptionists and Opticians must look in the patient’s file or central AOR binder to determine if the patient has previously signed an AOR.

· If yes, it is not necessary to give that patient another NPP unless we have changed our NPP since the date of the AOR. Our most current NPP will always have an effective date on the front.

· If no, then it is necessary to distribute a NPP and ask for signature on an AOR.

·If our first encounter with a patient after April 14, 2003 is electronic, our office will send a NPP and ask for a signed AOR.

2. Post a copy of our NPP on the central reception desk.

3. Keep a stock of copies of the NPP in reception magazine rack so that patients and visitors can take one, if they wish.

4. Redistribute our NPP as above whenever we change it.

5. We will use and disclose protected health information in a manner that is consistent with HIPAA and with our NPP. If we change our NPP, the revised NPP will apply to all protected health information that we have, not just protected health information that we generate or obtain after we have changed the NPP. 

PRIVACY
We want to make your experience online satisfying and safe. We want to provide you with the means to control your privacy and give you a way to voice questions or concerns you may have.

Information is collected from you to make it easier and more rewarding for you to use our services. We use this information to design initiatives that are designed as a platform to deliver a broad range of personalized products and services to our customers across a variety of different consumer brands. By knowing customer preferences, services and special offerings can be tailored to eliminate hassles and provide superior levels of convenience on a one-to-one basis. Depending on the service you are accessing, you could be asked at various times to provide information such as your name, e-mail address or information about what you like and do not like. On other occasions when we provide items for purchase online, we may request your credit card number to conclude the transaction or your mailing address to insure proper delivery. We recognize that the value of our brand rests in customer relationships and we strongly support the rights of consumers to maintain privacy of personal data.
 
OUR COMMITMENT TO YOUR FAMILY
We want you and your family to be safe while visiting our Internet sites. That is why, consistent with the Federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection act of 1998 (COPPA, we will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from children. For more information about protecting the privacy and safety of minors online, we recommend you visit the TRUSTe website.

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
We collect information in several different ways. We collect the domain name of visitors to our Web pages, the e-mail addresses of those visitors who volunteer them, user-specific information on the pages visitors access, and information such as survey information, postal address, telephone numbers, birthday and site registrations that you provide voluntarily. Like many other commercial web sites, our web sites may employ a standard technology called a "cookie" to collect information about how our site is used.

HOW THE INFORMATION IS USED
We use the information that we collect to understand your preferences and history. With this information we can tailor our services and special offerings to provide superior levels of convenience and service on a one-to-one basis. We also use the collected information to improve the design of our Web pages.

We will not transfer information to competitors. Information about your preferences is only used to help us understand the products and services that might be attractive to you. If you provide us with your e-mail address, we may occasionally send you e-mail offers, informing you about products and services. If you provide us with your postal address, you may receive periodic mailings from us with information on new products and services or upcoming events. These offers may be based on information you provided us in your responses to our surveys and on your history with us as a customer.

SECURITY PROCEDURES
We operate secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our customers. Any particularly sensitive information, such as a customer’s credit card number, is encrypted prior to transmission.

YOUR ACCEPTANCE TO THESE TERMS/CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy. We may also change the policy from time to time, so please be sure to visit this site often to see if anything has changed. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will appear on this site. If we post changes and you continue to use the site, you will be deemed to have agreed to the changes.

EFFECTIVE DATE
This Privacy Policy is effective as of February 2007.