Confidentiality & Privacy Policy
Effective June 1, 2016
Duffy Counseling Center provides professional counseling services, and therefore our counselors learn a great deal about our clients, including personal identifying information and protected health information.
We recognize that your privacy is important, so we have developed this Confidentiality and Privacy Policy to guide us, and to inform you, about how we handle your sensitive personal information.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us.
- What personal identifying information we collect and how we use it.
We collect your name and contact information, including your address and phone number. We may also collect your credit card information. We use your contact information to contact you about routine matters, such as the times of your office visits, and to bill you for services we perform for you. - What protected health information we collect.
Our counselors collect your personal health information, including historical data, about your mental and physical health. We use your personal health information to analyze your health and prescribe treatments or treatment options. Within Duffy Counseling Center, only clinicians have access to your personal health information. - The reasonable safeguards we use to secure your information.
We collect your contact information, your credit card information, and your personal health information either in person in our office, or from you using standard electronic channels. The electronic channels we use to collect your information may include email and telephone channels.
The information we collect is stored in both paper and electronic records within our office.
We do not remove your information from our office. The paper files are kept under lock and key. The electronic information is stored only on local computers. Internally to Duffy Counseling, we use a secure network and whenever possible we transmit data only over a secure network to reduce risk of disruption or interception of information.
Teletherapy
If you agree to the use of “teletherapy” then the transfer of your personal health information, consultation, treatment, and education, occur via emails, telephone conversations, and interactive audio, video, or data, all of which use commercial data and telephone channels.
We do not have control over the commercial data and telephone channels we use to collect information from you or deliver information to you.
For example, SKYPE is the platform used for teletherapy and while it is considered a “secure” connection, the Duffy Counseling Center cannot guarantee safe transmission of data compliant with HIPAA standards.
- Who outside our company has access to your information and why?
We do not share your personal identifying information with persons outside Duffy Counseling Center, except (i) when we are required to do so by reason of a government requirement or court order, or (ii) if you do not pay your bill and we must pursue legal means in order obtain legal remedies for your default, or (iii) for routine internal operations such as accounting, in which case our accounting firm may have access to a portion of your personal identifying information. We do not share your protected health information with persons outside Duffy Counseling Center unless we are required to do so by reason of a government requirement or court order. However, if you are a minor, we may discuss your personal health information with your parents or legal guardians. We have no control over our data and telephone service providers. So, while we do not intentionally share your personal identifying information or protected health information with these service providers, we cannot know if those providers are able to intercept our communications of that information. For that reason, we keep all such electronic communications to a minimum. - Your rights to your information.
You own your personal identifying information and protected health information. You may have access to your information by notifying us in writing of your desire. We may charge a small administrative fee to prepare copies of your information. You also may complain to us about our services or suspected releases of your personal identifying information or protected health information that are contrary to this Privacy Policy. The contact for access and complaints is cryan@duffycounseling.com, or 703-255-1091 (ask for the General Manager). - Our legal duties with respect to your information.
We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your protected health information. We also are committed to maintaining the privacy of your personal identifying information. We will inform you immediately if we become aware of any situation in which your personal identifying information or your protected health information have been disclosed in any way that contradicts this Privacy Policy. - Changes to this Policy.
We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by sending a notice to the primary email address specified in your account, by placing a prominent notice on our site, and by updating any privacy information on this page. Your continued use of the Site and or Services available through this Site after such modifications will constitute your: (a) acknowledgment of the modified Policy; and (b) your agreement to abide and be bound by that Policy.