Notice of Privacy Practices.

01Our Commitment to Your Privacy

This notice applies to all SHT services: in-home and community-based therapy, telehealth, evaluations, consultations, caregiver education, and related administrative services. Protected health information (PHI) is any health information that could identify the client, including:

• Contact and identifying information.
• Medical and developmental history.
• Information from doctors, teachers, caregivers, therapists, and other providers.
• Evaluation results, standardized test scores, treatment plans, goals, and therapy notes.
• Billing, payment, and insurance information.
• Photos, audio and video recordings, and electronic messages.

We keep client records in SimplePractice, a secure, HIPAA-compliant electronic health record. Where Arizona law or another federal law protects information more strictly than HIPAA, we follow the law that gives more protection.

02How We May Use and Share Health Information Without Your Written Authorization

• Treatment. To provide, coordinate, or manage the client’s care, for example with the client’s physician or another therapist. SHT asks for your written permission before sending records, such as reports or notes, to a school or another provider, except in an emergency, when the law requires it, or when DDD requires it for DDD-funded services (for example, the Plan of Care goes to the member’s primary care provider for certification).
• Payment. To bill for services and get paid. This may include sharing information with health insurance companies; with AHCCCS and the Arizona Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD), including the member’s Support Coordinator, when they fund the client’s services; with Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Account programs; with health savings or flexible spending account administrators; and with anyone else responsible for payment. Examples include confirming benefits, requesting authorizations, submitting claims, providing superbills, and answering questions about charges. Card payments are processed by Stripe, which receives only the information needed to process them.
• Health care operations. To run and improve the practice, for example reviewing quality, scheduling, training and supervising staff and students, licensing, credentialing, audits, compliance, and business, legal, accounting, and technology services.
• Business associates. Companies that help us run the practice, such as our health record system (SimplePractice), may receive information when needed, under written agreements that require them to protect it.
• Appointment reminders and practice communications, by phone, voicemail, text, email, client portal, or mail, about appointments, scheduling, forms, records, billing, and follow-up.
• People involved in care or payment. With your permission, or when the law otherwise allows, we may share relevant information with family members, other caregivers, or others involved in the client’s care or payment, such as staff at a site where sessions take place. You may object, in whole or in part. In an emergency, or if you cannot agree or object, we will use professional judgment and share only what is needed. We may also share information with a disaster-relief organization so it can help notify family members, unless you object.
• Public health and safety. SHT staff are mandated reporters. We share information as the law requires or allows to report suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a child or vulnerable adult, or domestic violence; to prevent or control disease; to report certain injuries or conditions; to prevent a serious and immediate threat to someone’s health or safety; and to respond to product recalls or adverse events.
• Health oversight. With government agencies that oversee health care and the programs that pay for it, such as AHCCCS, DDD, and licensing agencies, for audits, inspections, investigations, licensing, credentialing, and compliance reviews.
• Legal proceedings and law enforcement. In response to a valid court or administrative order, subpoena, or other lawful request when federal and state requirements are met, and limited information to law enforcement in situations the law allows. We will not release an entire record just because someone asks for it.
• Required by law, including to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services when it reviews our compliance with federal privacy law.
• Other situations the law allows: workers’ compensation claims; coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors; organ and tissue donation organizations; and special government functions, such as military, national security, presidential protective services, and correctional institutions.
• Research. SHT does not routinely use client information for research. If we ever do, we will get your written authorization or follow another process the law specifically allows.

When we share information as this notice allows, the person or organization that receives it may not have to follow federal privacy law and could share it again.

03Uses That Require Your Written Authorization

We will get your written authorization before using or sharing health information for any purpose not described in this notice. Written authorization is required for most marketing that involves health information, for any sale of health information, and for sharing photos, videos, testimonials, or client stories for advertising, social media, or public educational materials. SHT does not sell health information and does not use it to raise funds. Arizona law gives some information extra protection, such as HIV and other communicable-disease information and some behavioral-health records, and we will get any specific authorization the law requires. You may revoke an authorization at any time by telling SHT in writing (email to info@socialhousetherapy.com is fine). Revoking it does not undo information already shared while it was in effect.

04Substance Use Disorder Records

SHT does not provide substance use disorder treatment. If we receive substance use disorder treatment records protected by federal law (42 CFR Part 2), we protect them as HIPAA and Part 2 require. In all cases, we will not use or share those records, or testimony about what they contain, in a civil, criminal, administrative, or legislative investigation or proceeding against the person the records are about, unless that person gives written consent, or a court orders it after the person or the record holder has had notice and a chance to be heard, as Part 2 requires. A court order allowing use or sharing must come with a subpoena or other legal requirement that compels disclosure before the records are used or shared.

05Technology and Artificial-Intelligence (AI) Tools

SHT uses some general AI tools to work more efficiently: drafting general handouts and activity ideas, finding resources, running the business, and improving the wording of a note or report after every identifying detail has been removed. SHT never enters names, dates, addresses, contact details, insurance or ID numbers, photos, recordings, school names, or anything else that could identify the client into an AI tool, so nothing entered into these tools can identify the client. AI tools do not listen to or record sessions, do not connect to the client’s record, and do not make clinical decisions. A clinician reviews and approves everything in the record.

If you would prefer that SHT not use AI tools on any document about the client, even with identifying details removed, tell us and we will note it in the chart. It will not affect services. If SHT ever adopts an AI tool that works with identifiable client information, such as an AI note-taker, we will update this notice and ask for your separate written consent before using it for the client.

06Your Privacy Rights

To use any of these rights, contact our Privacy Officer (section 10).

• See or get a copy of the record. You may look at or get an electronic or paper copy of the health and billing records we keep about the client, including evaluation reports and therapy notes. Ask in writing; email is fine. We will provide it within the time the law requires, usually within 30 days, and may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee as the law allows. Copies include the client’s test answers and scores, but not test publishers’ booklets or manuals. In a few situations the law allows us to deny access, for example to information prepared for a legal proceeding, or when a licensed professional decides that access is reasonably likely to endanger someone. We will explain any denial in writing and tell you whether you can ask for a review.
• Ask us to correct the record. Ask in writing and tell us why; email is fine. We may deny the request in some situations, but we will explain why in writing, generally within 60 days, and you may submit a written statement of disagreement.
• Request confidential communications. You may ask us to contact you in a particular way or place, for example only at one phone number or email address, or without detailed voicemails. We will not ask why, and we will agree to reasonable requests. Regular email and text messages are not fully secure; tell us if you prefer that we not use them.
• Ask us to limit what we use or share for treatment, payment, or health care operations. We are not required to agree, and we may say no if it could affect the client’s care. If we agree, we will follow the limit except in an emergency or when the law requires sharing. 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 will agree unless the law requires us to share it.
• Get a list of certain disclosures (an accounting) we made in the six years before your request, who received them, and why. It will not include disclosures for treatment, payment, or health care operations, disclosures you authorized, and certain others. One list in any 12 months is free; we may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee for more.
• Get a paper copy of this notice at any time, even if you agreed to receive it electronically.
• Choose someone to act for you. A legally authorized personal representative, such as the parent of a minor child, a legal guardian, or a person with a health care power of attorney, may use these rights for the client, with some exceptions, for example when a minor may legally consent to their own care or a court order limits a parent’s rights. Unless a court order says otherwise, Arizona law gives each parent equal access to the child’s records (A.R.S. § 25-403.06), so please give SHT a copy of any court order that limits a parent’s rights. We may ask for documents showing a person’s authority.
• File a complaint if you believe your privacy rights were violated (see section 10).

07Our Responsibilities

The law requires SHT to:

• Maintain the privacy and security of protected health information.
• Give you this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, and follow the terms of the notice currently in effect.
• Notify you after a breach of unsecured health information that affects the client.
• Limit what we use, share, or request to the minimum necessary, when the law requires it.

08Who Must Follow This Notice

Social House Therapy LLC and everyone who works for or with it and may access health information: speech-language pathologists, clinical fellows, speech-language pathology assistants, administrative staff, students, interns, supervised trainees, employees, contractors, and volunteers.

09Changes to This Notice

We reserve the right to change the terms of this notice and to make the new terms apply to all health information we keep, including information we created or received before the change. If we make an important change, the new notice will be posted on the SHT website and available on request. The effective date at the top shows when each version took effect.

10Questions, Requests, or Complaints

Contact SHT’s Privacy Officer with questions about this notice, to use any of your rights, or to file a privacy complaint:

You may also file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights:

SHT will not retaliate against you or deny services because you filed a complaint.

A paper copy of this notice is available on request.

Thank you for trusting us with your family’s information.