We take your privacy and confidentiality very seriously. The confidentiality of data relating to individual clients and visitors to this website, including identity, is respected by this web site. The web site owner follows very strict rules, honoring or exceeding the legal requirements of the United States and New York State governments regarding medical/health information privacy.

In respect of your privacy, you do not need to disclose personal information to browse this web site. No such information is obtained about you unless you choose to submit it to us. A limited number of administrators and licensed mental health practitioners will have access to this information, only as it pertains to their specific job responsibility and do so only for the purposes of providing our services, payment or health care operations.

We have made reasonable efforts that the information you provide is confidential. You should understand, however, that we cannot guarantee that electronic transmissions via the internet are 100% secure from interception, and thus we cannot guarantee the security and confidentiality of the information.

The web server used by this web site collects and saves the default information customarily logged by World Wide Web server software. Our logs and reports contain information for each visit such as: date and time, originating IP address, domain name, pages viewed, total pages viewed, and other statistical information used to help improve our service by evaluating the "traffic" to our site. These logs and reports may be kept for an indefinite period of time and used for such purposes as preventing security breaches.

The use of the information that you provide, and the limits to this confidentiality agreement is determined by federal HIPAA regulations, which follow.

THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW THIS NOTICE CAREFULLY.

Your health record contains personal information about you and your health. This information about you that may identify you and that relates to your past, present or future physical or mental health or condition and related health care services is referred to as Protected Health Information ("PHI"). This Notice of Privacy Practices describes how we may use and disclose your PHI in accordance with applicable law and the <>. It also describes your rights regarding how you may gain access to and control your PHI.

We are required by law to maintain the privacy of PHI and to provide you with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to PHI. We are required to abide by the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices. We reserve the right to change the terms of our Notice of Privacy Practices at any time. Any new Notice of Privacy Practices will be effective for all PHI that we maintain at that time. We will provide you with a copy of the revised Notice of Privacy Practices by posting a copy on our website.

HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU
For Treatment. Your PHI may be used and disclosed by those who are involved in your care for the purpose of providing, coordinating, or managing your health care treatment and related services. This includes consultation with clinical supervisors or other treatment team members. We may disclose PHI to any other consultant only with your authorization.

For Payment. We may use and disclose PHI so that we can receive payment for the treatment services provided to you. This will only be done with your authorization. Examples of payment-related activities are: making a determination of eligibility or coverage for insurance benefits, processing claims with your insurance company, reviewing services provided to you to determine medical necessity, or undertaking utilization review activities. If it becomes necessary to use collection processes due to lack of payment for services, we will only disclose the minimum amount of PHI necessary for purposes of collection.

For Health Care Operations. We may use or disclose, as needed, your PHI in order to support our business activities including, but not limited to, quality assessment activities, employee review activities, licensing, and conducting or arranging for other business activities. For example, I may share your PHI with third parties that perform various business activities (e.g., billing or typing services) provided I have a written contract with the business that requires it to safeguard the privacy of your PHI. For training or teaching purposes PHI will be disclosed only with your authorization.

"Use" applies only to activities within this service such as sharing, employing, utilizing, examining and analyzing information that identifies you.

"Disclosure" applies to activities outside of this service such as releasing, transferring, or providing access to information about you to other parties.

Required by Law. Under the law, we must make disclosures of your PHI to you upon your request. In addition, we must make disclosures to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for the purpose of investigating or determining our compliance with the requirements of the Privacy Rule.

Verbal Permission We may use or disclose your information to family members that are directly involved in your treatment and/or receipt of services, with your verbal permission.

With Authorization. Uses and disclosures not specifically permitted by applicable law will be made only with your written authorization, which may be revoked.

We may use or disclose PHI for purposes outside of treatment, providing services, payment and health operations when your appropriate authorization is obtained. An "authorization" is written permission above and beyond the general consent that permits only specific disclosures. In those instances when we are asked for information for purposes outside of treatment, provision of services, payment and health care operations, I will obtain an authorization from you before releasing this information. I will also need to obtain an authorization before releasing your psychotherapy notes.

"Psychotherapy notes" are notes I have made about our conversation during a private, group, joint, or family counseling session, which I have kept separate from the rest of your medical record. These notes are given a greater degree of protection than PHI. You may revoke all such authorizations (of PHI or psychotherapy notes) at any time, provided each revocation is in writing. You may not revoke an authorization to the extent that
(1) we have relied on that authorization; or
(2) if the authorization was obtained as a condition of obtaining insurance coverage, and the law provides the insurer the right to contest the claim under the policy.

Uses and Disclosures with Neither Consent nor Authorization.
Applicable law and ethical standards permit us to disclose information about you without your authorization only in a limited number of other situations. The types of uses and disclosures that may be made without your authorization are those that are:

• Child Abuse:
If, in our professional capacity, a child comes before me which we have reasonable cause to suspect is an abused or maltreated child, or we have reasonable cause to suspect a child is abused or maltreated where the parent, guardian, custodian or other person legally responsible for such child comes before us in our professional or official capacity and states from personal knowledge facts, conditions or circumstances which, if correct, would render the child an abused or maltreated child, we must report such abuse or maltreatment to the statewide central register of child abuse and maltreatment or the local child protective services agency.
• Health Oversight:
If there is an inquiry or complaint about our professional conduct to the New York State Board, we must furnish to the New York Commissioner of Education, your confidential mental health records relevant to this inquiry.
• Judicial or Administrative Proceedings:
If you are involved in a court proceeding and a request is made for information about the professional services that we have provided you and/or the records thereof, such information is privileged under state law, and we must not release this information without your written authorization, or a court order. This privilege does not apply when you are being evaluated for a third party or where the evaluation is court ordered. We must inform you in advance if this is the case.
• Serious Threat to Health or Safety:
We may disclose your confidential information to protect you or others from a serious threat of harm by you.
• Worker's Compensation:

If you file a worker's compensation claim, and we are treating you for the issues involved with that complaint, then we must furnish to the chairman of the Worker's Compensation Board records which contain information regarding your psychological condition and treatment.

YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING YOUR PHI
You have the following rights regarding PHI we maintain about you. To exercise any of these rights, please submit your request in writing to Glenn Berger, GlennBerger@GlennBerger.com.

• Right of Access to Inspect and Copy.
You have the right, which may be restricted only in exceptional circumstances, to inspect and copy (or both) PHI that may be used to make decisions about your care for as long as the PHI is maintained in the record. Your right to inspect and copy PHI will be restricted only in those situations where there is compelling evidence that access would cause serious harm to you. On your request, we will discuss the details of the request and denial process. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee for copies.
• Right to Amend.
You have the right to request an amendment of PHI for as long as the PHI is maintained in the record. We may deny your request. On your request, we will discuss the details of the request and denial process.
• Right to an Accounting of Disclosures.
You generally have the right to request an accounting of certain of the disclosures that we make of your PHI. We may charge you a reasonable fee if you request more than one accounting in any 12-month period.
• Right to Request Restrictions.
You have the right to request a restriction or limitation on certain uses or disclosure of your PHI for treatment, payment, or health care operations. We are not required to agree to your request.
• Right to Request Confidential Communication.
You have the right to request that we communicate with you about medical matters in a certain way or at a certain location.
• Right to a Copy of this Notice.

You have the right to a copy of this notice.

MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL'S DUTIES

• We are required by law to maintain the privacy of PHI and to provide you with a notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to PHI.
• We reserve the right to change the privacy policies and practices described in this notice. Unless we notify you of such changes, however, we are required to abide by the terms currently in effect.
• If we revise our policies and procedures, we will provide you with written notification by email if we have your permission to contact you.

COMPLAINTS
If you believe we have violated your privacy rights, you can contact us at the following for further information:
Glenn Berger, C.S.W.
GlennBerger@GlennBerger.com
917 596 0650
212 686 5332

You may also send a written complaint to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The effective date of this Notice is April 14, 2003.

This site is individually and personally funded by the owner, Glenn Berger, LCSW. There are no commercial or non-commercial organizations that contribute funding, services or materials to this site. This web site does not carry any advertisements.

The information and services provided on GlennBerger.com is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a client/site visitor and his/her physician or current mental health professional. This site does not offer online psychotherapy or counseling.

With your consent, your email address will be used to send you relevant opportunities to receive information about mental health and related concerns and related products created by me. Your email will never be given to any other parties for any use whatsoever. You can unsubscribe to this service easily, and at any time.

With your consent and purchase, we may collect information from you for the purposes of evaluation and assessment. This information will be protected by the above HIPAA regulations.

Privacy Policy
We at GlennBerger.com are deeply committed to protecting the privacy of Internet users. We do not collect any personally identifiable information about you such as name, address, phone number, or e-mail address. Any information collected is not shared with third parties.

Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's computer tied to information about the user.

A cookie is a small data file containing certain information and is written to your hard drive when you visit the website. A cookie cannot be read by a website other than the one that sets the cookie. You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether to accept it. You can still browse our website even if you do not accept the cookie. The cookie gives you access to aspects of the site that require a login. Access to certain areas of the website may be limited without a login if you refuse the cookie.

Third Parties
GlennBerger.com is not able to control the practices of external websites and organizations that we may provide links to. If you have questions about how those sites use information gathered when you link to them, read their privacy policies.

All information received from you is stored in a secure location, and is only accessible by appropriate staff.