PRIVACY POLICY
Last Modified: September 8, 2023
Children Under the Age of 18
Dr. Tim Maggs’ ( “we,” “us,” “our”) website www.drtimmaggs.com (“Site”) is not intended for children under 18 years of age. No one under age 18 may provide any information to the Site. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you are under 18, do not use or provide any information on this Site, register on the Site, make any purchases on the Site, use any of the interactive or public comment features of the Site, if any, or provide any information about yourself to use, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or username you may use. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 18 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 18, please contact us at info@drtimmaggs.com.
Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It
We collect several types of information from and about users of our Site, including information:
We collect this information:
Information You Provide to Us
The information we collect on or through our Site may include:
You may also, now or in the future, have the ability to provide information to be published or displayed (“posted”) on public areas of the Site, or transmitted to other users of the Site or third parties (collectively, “User Contributions”). Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. Although we limit access to certain pages, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. Additionally, we cannot control the actions of other users of the Site with whom you may choose to share your User Contributions. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your User Contributions will not be viewed by unauthorized persons.
Many of the features offered on the Site are only made available if we have certain information about you. To access these features, you may be asked to submit personal information about yourself. For example, when signing up to receive an electronic newsletter as a subscriber to the Site, you may be required to provide your email. When purchasing products or services available through the Site you may be required to submit your name, email, billing address, phone number, and payment card or PayPal information.
Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies
As you navigate through and interact with our Site, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including:
We may also use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time. We do not respond to Do Not Track signals from Web browsers. The information we collect automatically may include personal information or we may maintain it or associate it with personal information we collect in other ways. It helps us to improve our Site and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:
The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:
Opt Out
As described above, you may refuse to accept browser cookies by adjusting the settings in your web browser. The following links explain how to access cookie settings in various browsers:
You may also opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics by visiting this link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Third-Party User of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies
Some content or applications, including advertisement, on the Site are served by third-parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers, and application providers. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our Site. The information they collect may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information, including personal information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioral) advertising or other targeted content.
We do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they may be used. If you have any questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly. For information about how you can opt out of receiving targeted advertising from any provider, see “Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information.”
How We Use Your Information
We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:
Other Uses and Disclosures Not Requiring Your Written Authorization
We may use your personal health information (“PHI”), and share it with others, in order to treat you in an emergency or to meet important public needs. We are not required to obtain your written authorization, consent or any other type of permission before using or disclosing your PHI for these reasons.
Emergencies. We may use or disclose your PHI if you need emergency treatment or if we are required by law to treat you but are unable to obtain your consent. If this happens, we will try to obtain your consent as soon as we reasonably can after we treat you.
Communication Barriers. We may use and disclose your PHI if we are unable to obtain your consent because of substantial communication barriers, and we believe you would want us to treat you if we could communicate with you.
As Required By Law. We may use or disclose your PHI if we are required by law to do so.
Public Health Activities. We may disclose your PHI to authorized public health officials (or a foreign government agency collaborating with such officials) so they may carry out their public health activities. For example, we may share your PHI with government officials that are responsible for controlling disease, injury or disability. We may also disclose your PHI to a person who may have been exposed to a communicable disease or be at risk for contracting or spreading the disease if a law permits us to do so. And finally, we may release some health information about you to your employer if your employer hires us to provide you with a physical exam and we discover that you have a work-related injury or disease that your employer must know about in order to comply with employment laws.
Victims Of Abuse, Neglect Or Domestic Violence. We may release your PHI to a public health authority that is authorized to receive reports of abuse, neglect or domestic violence. For example, we may report your PHI to government officials if we reasonably believe that you have been a victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence. We will make every effort to obtain your permission before releasing this information, but in some cases we may be required or authorized to act without your permission.
Health Oversight Activities. We may release your PHI to government agencies authorized to conduct audits, investigations, and inspections of our facility. These government agencies monitor the operation of the health care system, government benefit programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, and compliance with government regulatory programs and civil rights laws.
Product Monitoring, Repair And Recall. We may disclose your PHI to a person or company that is required by the Food and Drug Administration to: (1) report or track product defects or problems; (2) repair, replace, or recall defective or dangerous products; or (3) monitor the performance of a product after it has been approved for use by the general public.
Lawsuits And Disputes. We may disclose your PHI if we are ordered to do so by a court adjudicating a lawsuit or other dispute.
Law Enforcement. We may disclose your PHI to law enforcement officials for the following reasons:
To comply with court orders or laws that we are required to follow;
National Security And Intelligence Activities Or Protective Services. We may disclose your PHI to authorized federal officials who are conducting national security and intelligence activities or providing protective services to the President or other important officials.
Military And Veterans. If you are in the Armed Forces, we may disclose your PHI to appropriate military command authorities for activities they deem necessary to carry out their military mission. We may also release health information about foreign military personnel to the appropriate foreign military authority.
Inmates And Correctional Institutions. If you are an inmate or you are detained by a law enforcement officer, we may disclose your PHI to the prison officers or law enforcement officers if necessary to provide you with healthcare, or to maintain safety, security and good order at the place where you are confined. This includes sharing information that is necessary to protect the health and safety of other inmates or persons involved in supervising or transporting inmates.
Workers' Compensation. We may disclose your PHI for workers' compensation or similar programs that provide benefits for work-related injuries.
Coroners, Medical Examiners, and Funeral Directors. In the unfortunate event of your death, we may disclose your PHI to a coroner or medical examiner. This may be necessary, for example, to determine the cause of death. We may also release this information to funeral directors as necessary to carry out their duties.
Organ And Tissue Donation. In the unfortunate event of your death, we may disclose your PHI to organizations that procure or store organs, eyes or other tissues so that these organizations may investigate whether donation or transplantation is possible under applicable laws.
Research. In most cases, we will ask for your written authorization before using your PHI or sharing it with others in order to conduct research. However, under some circumstances, we may use and disclose your PHI without your authorization if we obtain approval through a special process to ensure that research without your authorization poses minimal risk to your privacy. Under no circumstances, however, would we allow researchers to use your name or identity publicly. We may also release your PHI without your authorization to people who are preparing a future research project, so long as any information identifying you does not leave our facility. In the unfortunate event of your death, we may share your PHI with people who are conducting research using the information of deceased persons, as long as they agree not to remove from our facility any information that identifies you.
Serious Threat to Health or Safety. We may disclose your PHI if necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and/or imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public.
Uses And Disclosures of Your PHI Which Require Your Written Authorization
Marketing. Your written authorization is required for us to use or disclose your PHI for marketing purposes, except if we communicate personally with you face-to-face or if we provide you with prescription refill reminders or otherwise communicate with you about a drug or biologic that you are currently prescribed and we do not in exchange receive any financial remuneration that is unreasonably related to our cost of making such communication to you. It is not considered marketing, and therefore your written authorization is not required, if we communicate with you related to your individual treatment, case management, or care coordination, or if we direct or recommend alternative treatment, therapies, healthcare providers or settings of care, unless we receive financial remuneration from a third- party in exchange for making such communication to you. If marketing activities are to result in financial remuneration to us from a third party we will state this on the authorization.
Sale of PHI. Your written authorization is required for any use or disclosure which is considered a sale of PHI. Any authorization for the sale of PHI will state that the disclosure will result in remuneration to us.
Psychotherapy Notes. Your written authorization is required for any use or disclosure of psychotherapy notes, except: for use by the originator of the psychotherapy notes for treatment or health oversight activities; for use or disclosure for our own training programs in which students, trainees, or practitioners in mental health learn under supervision to practice or improve their skills in group, joint, family, or individual counseling; for use or disclosure to defend us in a legal action or other proceeding brought by you; to the extent required to investigate or determine our compliance with the applicable law; to the extent that such use or disclosure is required by law and the use or disclosure complies with and is limited to the relevant requirements of such law; for health oversight activities with respect to the oversight of the originator of the psychotherapy notes; for disclosure to a coroner or medical examiner for the purpose of identifying a deceased person, determining a cause of death, or other duties as authorize d by law; or if disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public and is made to a person or persons reasonably able to prevent or lessen the threat, including the target of the threat.
All Other Uses and Disclosures. Your written authorization is required for any other use or disclosure not specifically described in this notice. You may also initiate the transfer of your records to another person by completing an authorization form. If you provide us with written authorization, you may revoke that authorization at any time, except to the extent that we have already relied upon it. To revoke an authorization, please email us at us at info@drtimmaggs.com.
Information Breach Notification
We will notify you in writing if we discover a breach of your unsecured PHI, unless we determine, based on a risk assessment, that notification is not required by applicable law. You will be notified without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days after discovery of the breach. Such notification will include information about what happened and what has been done or can be done to mitigate any harm to you as a result of such breach.
Your Rights to Access And Control Your Health Information
We want you to know that you have the following rights to access and control your PHI. These rights are important because they will help you make sure that the health information we have about you is accurate. They may also help you control the way we use your PHI and share it with others, or the way we communicate with you and others about your medical matters.
Right To Inspect And Copy Records. You have the right to inspect and obtain a copy of any of your PHI that may be used to make decisions about you and your treatment for as long as we maintain this information in our records. This includes medical and billing records. To inspect or obtain a copy of your PHI, please submit your request in writing to info@drtimmaggs.com. If you request a copy of your PHI, we may charge a fee for the costs of copying, mailing or other supplies we use to fulfill your request. The standard fee is $0.75 per page and must generally be paid before or at the time we give the copies to you.
We will respond to your request for inspection of records within 10 days. We ordinarily will respond to requests for copies within 10 working days if the information is located in our facility, and within 30 days if it is located off-site at another facility. If we need additional time to respond to a request for copies, we will notify you in writing within the time frame above to explain the reason for the delay and when you can expect to have a final answer to your request.
Under certain very limited circumstances, we may deny your request to inspect or obtain a copy of your PHI. If we do, we will provide you with a summary of the PHI instead. We will also provide a written notice that explains our reasons for providing only a summary, and a complete description of your rights to have that decision reviewed and how you can exercise those rights. The notice will also include information on how to file a complaint about these issues with us or with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. If we have reason to deny only part of your request, we will provide complete access to the remaining parts after excluding the information we cannot let you inspect or copy.
Right To Amend Records. If you believe that the PHI we have about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask us to amend the information. You have the right to request an amendment for as long as the information is kept in our records. To request an amendment, please submit your request in writing to info@drtimmaggs.com. Your request should include the reasons why you think we should make the amendment. Ordinarily, we will respond to your request within 10 working days. If we need additional time to respond, we will notify you in writing within 30 days to explain the reason for the delay and when you can expect to have a final answer to your request.
If we deny part or all of your request, we will provide a written notice that explains our reasons for doing so. You will have the right to have certain information related to your requested amendment included in your records. For example, if you disagree with our decision, you will have an opportunity to submit a statement explaining your disagreement which we will include in your records. We will also include information on how to file a complaint with us or with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. These procedures will be explained in more detail in any written denial notice we send you.
Right To An Accounting Of Disclosures. You have a right to request an "accounting of disclosures" which is a list with information about how we have shared your PHI with others. An accounting list, however, will not include:
To request an accounting of disclosures, please submit your request in writing to info@drtimmaggs.com. Your request must state a time period for the disclosures you want us to include. For example, you may request a list of the disclosures that we made between January 1, 2022 and January 1, 2023. You have a right to one list within every 12 month period for free. However, we may charge you for the cost of providing any additional lists in that same 12 month period. We will always notify you of any cost involved so that you may choose to withdraw or modify your request before any costs are incurred.
Ordinarily we will respond to your request for an accounting list within 10 working days. If we need additional time to prepare the accounting list you have requested, we will notify you in writing about the reason for the delay and the date when you can expect to receive the accounting list. In rare cases, we may have to delay providing you with the accounting list without notifying you because a law enforcement official or government agency has asked us to do so.
Right To Request Additional Privacy Protections. You have the right to request that we further restrict the way we use and disclose your PHI to treat your condition, collect payment for that treatment, or run our normal business operations. You may also request that we limit how we disclose information about you to family or friends involved in your care. For example, you could request that we not disclose information about a surgery you had. To request restrictions please submit your request in writing to info@drtimmaggs.com. Your request should include (1) what information you want to limit; (2) whether you want to limit how we use the information, how we share it with others, or both; and (3) to whom you want the limits to apply.
We are required to comply with a request that we not disclose your PHI to a health plan for payment or health care operations purposes, if the PHI pertains to a health care item or service for which we have been involved and you have paid for the item or service in full out-of-pocket. For all other requests, we will consider your requested restriction but we are not required to agree to your request (and in some cases the restriction you request may not be permitted under law). However, if we do agree to a restriction we will be bound by our agreement unless the PHI is needed to provide you with emergency treatment or comply with the law. Once we have agreed to a restriction, you have the right to revoke the restriction at any time. Under some circumstances, we will also have the right to revoke the restriction as long as we notify you before doing so; in other cases, we will need your permission before we can revoke the restriction.
Right To Request Confidential Communications. You have the right to request that we communicate with you about your medical matters in a more confidential way. For example, you may ask that we contact you at work instead of at home. To request more confidential communications, please submit your request in writing to info@drtimmaggs.com. We will not ask you the reason for your request, and we will try to accommodate all reasonable requests. Please specify in your request how or where you wish to be contacted, and how payment for your health care will be handled if we communicate with you through this alternative method or location.
Right to Have Someone Act On Your Behalf. You have the right to name a personal representative who may act on your behalf to control the privacy of your health information. Parents and guardians will generally have the right to control the privacy of health information about minors unless the minors are permitted by law to act on their own behalf.
Data Security
We have implemented measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers behind firewalls. Any payment transactions will be encrypted using SSL technology.
The safety and security of your information depends on you. You must keep your password confidential. We urge you to be careful about giving out information in public areas of the Site. The information you share in public areas may be viewed by any user of the Site.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Site. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Site.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
It is our policy to post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page. If we make material changes to how we treat our users’ personal information, we will notify you through a pop-up notification on the Site homepage and through email. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you. The date the privacy policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for periodically visiting our Site and this privacy policy to check for any changes.
Contact Information
To ask questions about this privacy policy and our privacy practices, to report any problems accessing the Site, or if you have a disability and would like to access this policy in an alternative format, contact us at info@drtimmaggs.com.
