Brooks Spinal Care Privacy Policy      The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 was designed to protect your rights to privacy of your protected health information. This act was passed with the intent to provide security of the electronic transmission of your individual health information.      At Brooks Spinal Care your personal health information (i.e. x-rays, initial medical history, progress record, etc.) and your public or nonpublic personal information (i.e. your Social Security Number, your name, address, and phone number, your date of birth, marital status, etc.) are never shared with any outside sources unless you personally request and authorize us to do so. We are not contracted with any insurance company or their affiliates and do not transfer data electronically. Is your Personal Information Shared with Others?      We have no affiliates or non-affiliates or third parties with whom we share or sell your private, public or nonpublic information. In other words, YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IS NEVER DISCLOSED OUTSIDE THIS OFFICE WITHOUT YOUR REQUEST AND AUTHORIZATION. How do we protect your personal information?      We currently do not file electronic claims; therefore, we do not subject your private information to those risks during the transmission of you claim. We will give you your paper claim to mail under the protection of the U.S. Postal Service, with the exception of Medicare claims, which we mail each week. Do we share your patient records with insurance companies when they request it?      We are not providers for any insurance network. We do not contract with any insurance company to provide care to you. However, if you are insured and your benefits include chiropractic care, we will be glad to provide a completed claim form for you to submit to your insurer for reimbursement of your expense.      When your insurance company requires additional information about your care, we forward copies of your records, if you have authorized us to do so. On your first visit to the office we ask you to authorize us to release information for insurance purposes. That form is available for your review or we will be glad to provide you a copy for your records. What other means do we use to protect your private health information?      We have created a written procedural plan to describe in detail how we internally protect your records and insure the privacy of your health information. Some of the following points offer the general means we use to protect your private health information and public and non-public information: We secure the premises when the office is closed. We have emergency disaster plans for restoring electronic patient records. Security measures are in place to protect electronic and hard copy data. We permanently dispose of your paper and electronic records when required. We randomly audit patient records to eliminate or detect errors and/or omissions of information. Our Privacy Policy is also posted on our website at www.brooksspinalcare.com. What rights do I have to protect the privacy of my health information? As a new patient, we will ask your permission to release information to insurance companies, to take photographs for personal identification, to include your name on our mailing list to receive our quarterly newsletter, Body Language or for any other administrative use of your health information we deem necessary. You have the right to refuse our requests. You have the right to revoke any authorization that you may have previously given us. Your records are available for your review or copies can be made for you at a small administrative fee. The first page is $1.00 and the subsequent pages are $.50 including any postage required. If you request a copy of a film, you will be charged the actual cost for reproduction not to exceed $5.00 per film.      Please be aware that the doctors may review and discuss your x-rays in a public area of this office (the kitchen) unless you make a special request to the contrary. If so, we will be glad to evaluate your films in a private area. If you have any comments, questions, requests or complaints regarding our Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact us at healing@brooksspinalcare.com or call 918 587-7111.