This Notice Describes How Medical Information About You May Be Used And Disclosed And How You Can Get Access To This Information. Please Review It Carefully.

We respect our legal obligation to keep health information that identifies you private. We are obligated by law to give you notice of our privacy practices. This Notice describes how we protect your health information and what rights you have regarding it.

Treatment, Payment, and Health Care Operations

The most common reason why we use or disclose your health information is for treatment, payment or helathe care operations. Examples of how we use or disclose information for teatment purposes are: setting up an appointment for you; testing or examining your eyes' prescribing glasses, contact lenses, or eye medications and faxing them to be filled; showing you low vision aids; referring you to another doctor or clinic for eye care or low vision aids or services; or getting copies of your health information from another professional that you may have seen before us. Examples of how we use or disclose your health information for payment purposes are; asking you about your health or vision care plans, orother sources of payment; preparing and sending bills or claims ; and collection unpaid amounts (either ourselves or through a collection agency or attorney). "Health care operation" mean those administrative and managerial functions that we have to do in order to run our office. Examples of how we useor disclose your health information for health care operations are; financial or billing audits; internal quality assurance;personnel decisions; participation in managed care plans; defense of legal mattrs; business planning;and outside storage of our records.

We routinely use your health information inside our office for these purposes without any special permission. If we need to dixclose your health information outside of our office for thes reasons, we usuall will not ask you for special written permission.