Privacy Policy
&
Health Protected Information

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

Apex Oral Surgery is committed to maintaining the confidentially of your personal, financial, and health information. State and Federal Law requires us to inform you of our policy and practices as long as we provide you services.

How we protect your personal information:

We authorize individuals to access your personal information only to the extent necessary to conduct our business of serving you, such as making and confirming appointments, submitting insurance claims, securing insurance benefit information, and submitting applications for third party payment arrangements per your request. We take steps to secure our building, patient files, and electronic systems from unauthorized access. Our employees are trained regarding confidentiality and are held to strict office policy and procedures regarding your personal and health information both written & verbal. All employees are subject to discipline if they violate these procedures.

Information we share:

We may share your personal or health information with other third parties with or without authorization to complete normal business functions.

Examples of our normal business functions include:

  • Submission of Medical & Dental Claims

  • Letters or X-ray transmissions to your General Dentist, Referring Doctor, or your Insurance Carrier

  • Submission for laboratory analysis or biopsy specimens & reports

  • Referrals to another specialist or for a second opinion

  • Requests to or from pharmacies

  • Processing transactions that you request

  • Appointment notification via voice messages, text messages, e-mails, or other written or verbal means

  • Submitting a letter to the insurance commissioner in an effort to get prompt payment from your insurance carrier for services rendered in our office.

Information we do not share:

  • We do not send your protected health and treatment information that we have gathered to any law offices or workmen’s compensation claims. This is because these are not functions necessary for Apex Oral Surgery to perform our job as a healthcare entity. If your attorney or case worker needs any of this information, we will be more than happy to submit this information to you only, and whoever you wish to share this information with at that point is at your discretion.

Patient Rights:

We honor your right to request access to your personal information. To do so, you must submit a written request describing the information you are requesting. There will be a $10.00 charge for staff time to retrieve and copy the requested information on a computer memory stick plus postage. If we are unable to locate and retrieve the information within 30 days from your request, we will inform you of the nature and substance of the personal information either in writing or by telephone. If access is granted we will permit you to see and copy in person, the requested information only or to obtain a copy by mail, whichever you prefer.

You may refuse to consent to the use of disclosure of your personal information, but this must be in writing. Under the law, we have the right to refuse to treat you should you choose not to disclose your personal health information to us, or to use it to complete these above-mentioned business functions.