NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
Nicholas Stephanou, M.D.

This notice describes how health information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully. The privacy of your health information is important to us.

OUR LEGAL DUTY

We are required by applicable federal and state law to maintain the privacy of your health information. We are also required to give you this Notice about our privacy practices, our legal duties and your rights concerning your health information. We must follow the privacy practices that are described in this Notice while it is in effect. This notice takes effect April 14, 2003 and will remain in effect until we replace it.

We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and terms of this Notice any time, provided applicable law permits such changes. We reserve the right to make the changes in our privacy practices and the new terms of our Notice effective for all health information that we maintain, including health information we created or received before we made the changes. Before we make significant change in our privacy practices we will change this Notice and make the new Notice available upon request.

You may request a copy of our Notice any time. For more information about our privacy practices, or for additional copies of this Notice, please contact us using the information listed at the end of this notice.

USES AND DISCLOSURES OF HEALTH INFORMATION

We use and disclose health information about you for treatment, payment and healthcare operations. For example;

Treatment
We may use or disclose your health information to a physician or other healthcare provider providing treatment to you.

Payment
We may use and disclose your health information to obtain payment for services we provide to you.

Healthcare Operations
We may use and disclose your health information in connection with our healthcare operations. Healthcare operations include quality assessment and improvement activities, reviewing the competence or qualifications of healthcare professionals, evaluating practitioner and provider performance, conducting training programs, accreditation, certification, licensing, or credentialing activities.

Your Authorization
In addition to our use of your health information for treatment, payment or healthcare operations; you may give us written authorization to use your health information or to disclose it to anyone for any purpose. If you give us an authorization, you may revoke it in writing at any time. Your revocation will not affect any use or disclosures permitted by your authorization while it was in effect. Unless you give us a written authorization, we cannot use or disclose your health information for any reason except those described in this Notice.

To Your Family and Friends
We must disclose your health information to you, as described in the Patient Rights section of this Notice. We may disclose your health information to a family member, friend or other person to the extent necessary to help with your healthcare or with payment for your healthcare, but only if you agree that we may do so.

Persons Involved In Care
We may use or disclose health information to notify, or assist in the notification of (including identifying or locating) a family member, your personal representative or another person responsible for health information, we will provide you with an opportunity to object to such uses or disclosures. In the event of your incapacity or emergency circumstances we will disclose health information based on a determination using our professional judgment disclosing only health information that is directly relevant to the person's involvement in your healthcare. We will also use our professional judgment and our experience with common practice to make reasonable inferences of your best interest in allowing a person to pick up filled prescriptions, medical supplies, x-rays, or other similar forms of health information.

Marketing Health-Related Services
We will not use your health information for marketing communications without your written authorization.

Required by Law
We may use or disclose your health information when we are required to do so by law.

Abuse or Neglect
We may disclose your health information to appropriate authorities if we reasonably believe that you are a possible victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence or the possible victim of other crimes. We may disclose your health information to the extent necessary to avert a serious threat to your health or safety or the health or safety of others.