Privacy

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: November 2026

Jessica Lake Speech Therapy is required by law to keep your health information safe. This information may include the following:

notes from your doctor, teacher, or other health care provider
medical history
test results
treatment notes
insurance information

Our duties. By law, we must:

keep your health information private and secure,
give you this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices,
follow the terms of the notice that is currently in effect, and
tell you if a breach happens that may have put your unsecured health information at risk.

A government rule requires that you get a copy of this privacy notice. This rule is called the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA for short. We will ask you to confirm that you have received this notice.

Read this notice at any time to see how your health information can be used and who can see it.

Because most of our clients are children, a parent or legal guardian usually acts on the child's behalf and can use the rights in this notice for the child.

How Your Health Information May Be Used or Shared

We may use or share your health information both with and without your permission, depending on the circumstances.

When Your Permission Is Not Needed

We may use or share your health information without your permission for the following reasons:

Treatment. We may share information with doctors and other health care providers who care for you. For example, if your doctor orders speech therapy, we will share the results of our treatment with that doctor.
Payment. We may use and share information about the treatment you receive with your insurance company or other payer to receive payment for services. This may include sharing important medical information. We may share information to
- get the insurance company's permission to start treatment,
- get permission for more treatment, and/or
- get paid for the treatment you receive.
Health Care Operations. We may use and share your health information to run the clinic and make sure all patients receive good care. For example, we may use your health information to
- see how well our services are working,
- see how well our staff is doing,
- see how we compare to other clinics,
- improve our services, and
- help others study health care services.
Abuse and Neglect. We may share your health information with government agencies when there is evidence of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence.
Appointment Reminders. We will use your information to remind you of upcoming appointments. Reminders may be sent in the mail, by email, or by phone call or voicemail message. If you do not wish to get reminders, please tell your speech-language pathologist.
As Required by Law. We will share your information when federal, state, or local law requires it. We may also share information with law enforcement or in response to a court order, subpoena, or other legal process, but only in the ways HIPAA allows.
Government Functions. Your information may be shared for national security or military purposes. If you are a veteran, your information may be shared with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Information About a Person Who Has Died. We may share information with the coroner, the medical examiner, or a funeral director, as needed.
Organ and Tissue Donation. We may share information with organ procurement organizations.
Public Health Risks. We may report information to public health agencies as required by law. This may be done to help prevent disease, injury, or disability. It may also be done to report medical device safety issues to the Food and Drug Administration and to report diseases and infections.
Regulatory Oversight. We may use or share your information to report to agencies overseeing health care. This may include sharing information for audits, licensure, and inspections.
Research. We may share your health information with researchers to be included in their research project. Information will be shared only for projects that have been through a special approval process. These projects have rules to protect your privacy, too.
Threats to Health and Safety. Your health information may be shared if it is believed that this information will prevent a threat to your or others' health and safety.
Workers' Compensation. We may share information for workers' compensation claims, as allowed by law.

When Your Permission Is Needed

You must give us permission to use or share your health information for any situation that is not listed in this notice. You will be asked to sign a form, called an authorization, to allow us to use or share your information. You are allowed to take back this authorization, called revoking authorization, at any time. We will not be able to get back the information that we shared with your permission.

We will always ask for your written permission before we:

use or share your information for marketing, or
sell your health information.

Your Privacy Rights

You have the right to do all of the following:

Ask us not to share your information. You can ask us not to use or share your information for treatment, payment, or health care operations. You can also ask us not to share information with people involved in your care, like family members or friends. You must ask for limits in writing. We must share information when required by law. We do not have to agree to what you ask, with one exception: if you pay for a service in full, out of pocket, and ask us not to share information about it with your health plan, we must agree, unless the law requires us to share it.
Ask us to contact you privately. You can ask us to only contact you in a certain way or at a certain place. For example, you may want us to call you but not email. Or you may want us to call you at work and not at home. You must ask us in writing. We will make every effort to comply with your request.
Look at and copy your health information. You have the right to see your health information and get a paper or electronic copy of it. You have a right to see treatment, medical, and billing information. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee for copies. You may not be able to see or copy information put together for a court case.
Ask for changes to your health information. You can ask us to change information that you think is wrong. You can also ask that we add information that is missing. You must ask us in writing and give us a reason for the change. We do not have to make the change, but if we say no, we will tell you why in writing within 60 days.
Get a report of how and when your information was used or shared. You can ask us to tell you when your information was shared and who we shared it with. There are some rules about this:
- You must ask us in writing.
- You must tell us the dates you are asking about and if you want a paper or electronic copy.
- You may get information going back 6 years.
Get notice of a breach. We will tell you if a breach happens that may have put your unsecured health information at risk.
Get a paper copy of this privacy notice. You can get a paper copy of this notice at any time. You can get a copy even if you have already confirmed that you have seen this notice.
File complaints. You can file a complaint with us or with the U.S. government if you think that
- your information was used or shared in a way that is not allowed,
- you were not allowed to look at or copy your information, and/or
- any of your rights were denied.

Who Is Covered by This Notice

The people who must follow the rules in this notice are as follows:

all speech-language pathologists working at Jessica Lake Speech Therapy
anyone who is allowed to add health information to your file, including students and other staff
any volunteers who may help you while you are in this clinic

Massachusetts Law

Some Massachusetts laws protect certain health information more strictly than HIPAA. When a Massachusetts law gives you more privacy protection, we will follow that law.

Changes to the Information in This Notice

We may change this notice at any time. Changes may apply to information that we already have in your file and to any new information. Copies of the new notice will be available from our staff and on our website. The notice will have a date on the front page to tell you when it went into effect.

Complaints

You may file a complaint if you think we did something wrong with your information. You can complain to us using the contact information below, or to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. To find out more about filing complaints, go to www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/index.html. All complaints must be in writing. You will not get penalized for filing a complaint.

Contacts

If you have any questions about this notice or your privacy rights, please contact Jessica Lake (info@jessicalaketherapy.com, 669-250-7260).