Notice of Privacy Practices

EFFECTIVE DATE: JANUARY 1, 2026

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

This notice of privacy practices (“Notice”) is stipulated by the Standards for the Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information (the “Privacy Rule”) created by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”). Schweiger Dermatology Group (“Schweiger”, “we”, or “our”)1 are committed to maintaining the privacy of your health information and we are required by law to ensure the confidentiality of your health information. Some of the uses and disclosures described in this Notice may be limited in certain cases by applicable state laws that are more stringent than the federal standards. These laws are complex, therefore, we have provided below the important information we are required to provide for your understanding. The following circumstances may require us to use or disclose your health information:

To Provide Treatment:

We will use your health information within our office to impart the highest quality healthcare possible. This may include administrative and clinical office procedures to schedule and coordinate care between physician, technician, nurse, medical assistant, and business office staff. This also includes pathology laboratories, pharmacies, or other healthcare personnel involved in your treatment and care. It may be necessary to release your test results to authorized healthcare providers treating you, even when the provider requesting the results did not originally order the tests.

To Obtain Payment:

We may include your health information with an invoice in order to collect payment for treatment you received in our office. This may include insurance forms filed for you by mail or electronically. Our office makes a concerted effort to work only with companies that maintain similar standards to protect and maintain the security of your health information.

¹ Schweiger Dermatology Group includes the following entities: The Connecticut Dermatology Group, PLLC, SCHWEIGER DERMATOLOGY GROUP, P.A. (formerly Lake Dermatology, P.A.), United Skin Specialists Illinois LTD, P.C., United Skin Specialists Ltd., United Skin Specialists Missouri Ltd, PC, SDG Dermatology, P.C., Schweiger Dermatology, P.C., The Dermatology Group, P.C., The Princeton Center for Dermatology, LLC, Schweiger Dermatology, PLLC, Citywide Dermatology, PLLC, ES Dermatology, PLLC, The Pennsylvania Centre for Dermatology, LLC, Clearly Derm, LLC, and CSI Medical Group.

To Conduct Healthcare Operations:

Your health information may be used during staff performance evaluations, or during audits by insurance companies or government-appointed agencies as part of their quality assurance and compliance reviews, i.e., the Joint Commission. Your health information may be reviewed during the routine processes of certification, licensing, or credentialing activities.

Additional Uses and Disclosures:

Other permitted and required uses and disclosures that may be made without authorization or an opportunity to agree or object include:

1. Required by Law: We may use or disclose your health information to the extent that the use or disclosure is required by law. The use or disclosure will be made in compliance with the law and will be limited to the relevant requirements of the law.
2. Public Health: We may disclose your health information for public health activities and purposes to a public health authority that is permitted by law to collect or receive the information. For example, a disclosure may be made for the purpose of preventing or controlling disease.
3. Communicable Diseases: We may disclose your health information, if authorized by law, to a person who may have been exposed to a communicable disease or may otherwise be at risk of contracting or spreading the disease or condition.
4. Health Oversight: We may disclose health information to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law, such as audits, investigations, and inspections. Oversight agencies seeking this information include government agencies that oversee the health care system, government benefit programs, other government regulatory programs, and civil rights laws.
5. Abuse or Neglect: We may disclose your health information if we believe that you have been a victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence to the governmental entity or agency authorized to receive such information. In this case, the disclosure will be made consistent with the requirements of applicable federal and state laws.
6. Food and Drug Administration: We may disclose your health information to a person or company required by the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) for the purpose of quality, safety, or effectiveness of FDA-regulated products or activities, including to report adverse events, product defects or problems, biologic product deviations, or to track products; to enable product recalls; to make repairs or replacements; or to conduct post-marketing surveillance, as required.
7. Legal Proceedings: We may disclose health information in the course of any judicial or administrative proceeding, in response to an order of a court or administrative tribunal (to the extent such disclosure is expressly authorized), or in certain conditions in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process.
8. Law Enforcement: We may also disclose protected health information, so long as applicable legal requirements are met, for law enforcement purposes.
9. Coroners, Funeral Directors, and Organ Donation: We may disclose health information to a coroner, medical examiner, or funeral director to assist them in performing their legally-authorized duties.
10. Research: We may disclose your health information to researchers when their research has been approved by an institutional review board that has reviewed the research proposal and established protocols to ensure the privacy of your health information.
11. Criminal Activity: Consistent with applicable federal and state laws, we may disclose your health information, if we believe that use or disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public. We may also disclose health information if it is necessary for law enforcement authorities to identify or apprehend an individual.
12. Military Activity and National Security: When the appropriate conditions apply, we may use or disclose health information of individuals who are Armed Forces personnel (1) for activities deemed necessary by appropriate military command authorities; (2) for the purpose of a determination by the Department of Veterans Affairs of your eligibility for benefits; or (3) to foreign military authorities if you are a member of that foreign military service. We may also disclose your health information to authorized federal officials for conducting national security and intelligence activities, including for the provision of protective services to the President or others legally authorized.
13. Workers’ Compensation: We may disclose your health information as authorized to comply with workers’ compensation laws and other similar legally established programs.
14. Minors: We may share a minor’s health information with the minor’s parents or guardians unless such disclosure is prohibited by state or federal law.

Other Uses and Disclosures of Protected Health Information:

We will not use or disclose your health information for the following purposes without prior written authorization:

1. Psychotherapy Notes. Except for certain narrow exceptions permitted by law (such as legal defense in a proceeding you bring against us), we will not use or disclose any mental health professional’s psychotherapy notes (discrete notes that document the contents of conversations during counseling sessions) without your prior authorization.
2. Marketing or Sale. We will not use or disclose your health information for any paid marketing activities or sell your health information without prior authorization. [If we intend to use or disclose substance use disorder (“SUD”) treatment records for fundraising for our benefit, we will provide you with a clear and conspicuous opportunity to elect not to receive any fundraising communications.]
3. Other Uses and Disclosures Not Described in this Notice. Except as described in this Notice, other uses and disclosures will be made only with your written authorization. You may revoke your authorization as allowed under the Privacy Rule. However, you can’t revoke your authorization if we have taken action relying on it. In other words, you can’t revoke your authorization with respect to disclosures we have already made.

[SUD Treatment Records:

SUD treatment records or testimony relaying the content of any SUD treatment record, may not be used or disclosed in a civil, criminal, administrative, or legislative proceeding against you without either your written consent or a court order after you are provided notice and an opportunity to be heard. A court order authorizing use or disclosure of a SUD treatment record must be accompanied by a subpoena or other legal requirement compelling disclosure prior to the record being used or disclosed.]

Patient Rights:

When it comes to your health information, you have certain rights. This section explains your rights and some of our responsibilities to you.

1. Right to Request Special Privacy Protections. You have the right to request in writing that we restrict our use and/or disclosure of your health information for treatment, payment, or health care operations. We are not required to agree to your request, and may accept or reject your request in our sole discretion, and will notify you of our decision. Notwithstanding the foregoing, unless otherwise required by law, we will comply with your request to restrict disclosure of your health information to a health plan for purposes of carrying out payment or health care operations if the health information pertains solely to a health care item or service for which we have been paid in full by you or by a person other than the health plan.
2. Right to Request Confidential Communications. You have the right to request that we contact you in a specific way or at a specific location (for example, a home or office phone or to send mail to a different address). Schweiger will comply with all reasonable written requests.
3. Right to Inspect and Copy. You have the right to inspect and copy your health information, with limited exceptions. To access your information, you must submit a written request detailing the information you would like to access that specifies whether you would like to inspect the information or obtain a copy of the information. We may charge a reasonable fee, as allowed by law, for copies of your health information. We may deny your request for access under limited circumstances.
4. Right to an Electronic Copy of Your Electronic Medical Records. You have the right to request an electronic copy of your health information if the information that is the subject of your request is maintained in electronic format and it is readily producible in such form and format. If the health information is not readily producible in the form and format you request, Schweiger will provide your record in either our standard electronic format or a readable hard copy form.
5. Right to Amend or Supplement Your Medical Record. You have a right to request that we amend information you believe is incorrect or incomplete. You must make your amendment request in writing and must include the reason you believe the information is inaccurate or incomplete. We are not required to amend your health information. Schweiger may deny your amendment request if it does not have the information, if it did not create the information (unless the person or entity that created the information is no longer available to make the amendment), if you would not be permitted to inspect or copy the information, or if we determine the information is accurate and complete. If we deny your amendment request, we will inform you about the reasons for the denial and explain how you can respond to our denial. You also have the right to request that we add to your medical record a statement of up to 250 words concerning any information in your medical record that you believe is incomplete or incorrect.
6. Right to an Accounting of Disclosures. You have a right to receive an accounting of disclosures of your health information made by Schweiger for six (6) years prior to the date you ask. Schweiger does not have to account for disclosures of information for treatment, payment, and health care operations, and certain other disclosures (such as any you asked us to make). We’ll provide one accounting a year for free but will charge a reasonable, cost-based fee if you ask for another one within twelve (12) months.
7. Right to Copy of Notice. You have the right to a paper copy of this Notice, even if you have previously requested its receipt by e-mail.
8. Right to Choose Someone to Act for You. If you have given someone medical power of attorney or if someone is your legal guardian, that person can exercise your rights and make choices about your health information. We will make sure the person has this authority and can act for you before we take any action.

If you would like to have a more detailed explanation of these rights or if you would like to exercise one or more of these rights, contact the Privacy Officer using the contact information below in the “Complaints” section.

Complaints:

You can file a complaint if you feel Schweiger has violated your rights by sending a letter to our Privacy Officer at 13-15 West 27th St. Suite 1100, New York, NY 10001, calling 212-283-3000, or visiting www.schweigerderm.com. If you would like, you also may submit a formal complaint to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights by sending a letter to Centralized Case Management Operations, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Room 509F HHH Bldg., Washington, D.C. 20201, calling 1-877-696-6775, emailing [email protected], or visiting www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacv/hipaa/complaints/. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint with us or with the Department of Health and Human Services.

Redisclosures:

Please be aware that we may disclose your health information as described in this Notice. However, once information is disclosed to someone outside of our organization, it may be subject to redisclosure by the recipient and may no longer be protected by the Privacy Rule. Certain types of information remain subject to special protections under federal or state law and may not be redisclosed without your written permission or as specifically allowed by law.

Amendments:

We reserve the right to amend this Notice at any time without prior notice. Until such amendment is made, we are required by law to comply with this Notice. After the Notice is amended, the revised Notice will apply to all health information that we maintain, regardless of when it was created or received. We will keep a copy of the current Notice posted in our reception area, on our website, and will also make it available upon request.

PATIENT/GUARDIAN SIGNATURE

I have read and understand the content of this Notice.

Patient or Guardian Signature	Date
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Patient or Guardian Printed Name
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