HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices
NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
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.
Effective date: June 6, 2025
This Notice applies to The Healing Effect, LLC, an Arizona limited liability company ("The Healing Effect," "we," "us," or "our"), and to all of our clinicians and staff at our Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Mesa offices and through telehealth across Arizona.
We are required by law to protect the privacy of your protected health information ("PHI"), to give you this Notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, and to follow the terms of the Notice currently in effect. We understand that your mental health information is deeply personal, and we are committed to keeping it confidential.
How we may use and disclose your health information without your authorization
- Treatment. To provide and coordinate your care, for example, documenting sessions or consulting with another clinician in our practice about your care.
- Payment. To bill and obtain payment, for example, confirming coverage or submitting a claim to your insurer (such as Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, or UnitedHealthcare/Optum).
- Health care operations. To run and improve our practice, for example, quality review, training, and administrative functions.
- Appointment reminders and involved persons. To remind you of appointments, and to share relevant information with a family member or other person you involve in your care when you agree or don't object (or, in an emergency, using our professional judgment).
- Business associates. With outside vendors who perform services for us (such as billing or technology), each bound by a written agreement to protect your PHI.
- As required or permitted by law, including the Arizona reporting and safety duties below.
Arizona reporting and safety duties
Arizona and federal law require or permit us to disclose PHI in certain situations, even without your authorization:
- Child abuse or neglect. We are mandated to report suspected abuse or neglect of a minor (A.R.S. § 13-3620).
- Vulnerable or incapacitated adults. We are mandated to report suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a vulnerable adult (A.R.S. § 46-454).
- Duty to protect. If you communicate a serious threat of physical violence against a reasonably identifiable victim, Arizona law permits or requires us to take protective action, which may include warning the potential victim and notifying law enforcement (A.R.S. § 36-517.02).
- Serious threat to health or safety, public health activities, health oversight, court orders and lawful legal process, and other government functions, to the extent the law allows.
Information with special protection
Psychotherapy notes (the notes your therapist keeps separate from the rest of your record about what was discussed in a session) receive special protection. With limited exceptions permitted by law, we will not use or disclose them without your written authorization.
Where any Arizona or federal law provides stronger protection for certain information than HIPAA does, we follow the stricter law.
Uses that require your written authorization
The following require your written authorization: most uses of psychotherapy notes, uses for marketing, any sale of PHI, and any other use not described in this Notice. You may revoke an authorization in writing at any time, effective going forward.
Your rights
- Access and copies of the PHI we use to make decisions about your care (a reasonable, cost-based fee may apply).
- Amendment of PHI you believe is incorrect or incomplete (we may deny in certain cases and will explain why).
- Accounting of certain disclosures we've made.
- Request restrictions on uses or disclosures. We generally aren't required to agree, but we must honor a request to restrict disclosure to a health plan for a service you paid for in full, out of pocket, when not otherwise required by law.
- Confidential communications: ask us to contact you a certain way or at a certain place; we accommodate reasonable requests.
- Paper copy of this Notice on request, even if you agreed to receive it electronically.
- Breach notification if your unsecured PHI is breached.
To exercise a right, contact our Privacy Officer below (some requests must be in writing).
Minors
For clients who are minors, a parent or legal guardian is generally the minor's personal representative under HIPAA and may access the minor's PHI and exercise these rights on the minor's behalf. Before treatment begins, we obtain written consent from the parent or guardian and, as appropriate for the child's age, the minor's assent. Arizona and federal law limit this in certain situations. For example, where a minor may lawfully consent to their own care, where a court directs otherwise, or where we reasonably believe that treating a parent or guardian as the personal representative could endanger the minor. In those situations we follow the law and our clinical judgment to protect the minor.
Our legal duties
We are required to maintain the privacy of your PHI, provide this Notice, follow its current terms, and notify you following a breach of your unsecured PHI. We reserve the right to change this Notice and make the new terms effective for all PHI we maintain; the current version will be posted at our offices and on our Website with its effective date.
How to file a complaint
If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may complain to us, to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and to the Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiners. You will not be retaliated against for filing a complaint.
With us, Privacy Officer:
Privacy Officer
The Healing Effect, LLC
Email: information@thehealingeffect.co · Phone: 602-698-5777
Mailing address: 10211 N 32nd St, Suite E1, Phoenix, AZ 85028
With the federal government:
Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20201 · 1-877-696-6775 · www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/
With the Arizona licensing board:
Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiners
1740 W. Adams Street, Phoenix, AZ 85007 · (602) 542-1882 · bbhe.az.gov
Record retention
We retain client records as required by Arizona law, generally at least six years after the last date of service for adults, and for minors until the later of six years after the last service or the client's 21st birthday (A.R.S. § 12-2297; A.A.C. R4-6-1103).
Questions
Contact our Privacy Officer at information@thehealingeffect.co or 602-698-5777.
