Privacy Policy

GR Medical Weight Management, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of your protected health information (PHI). This Privacy Policy describes how we may use and disclose your PHI to carry out treatment, payment, or healthcare operations, and for other purposes that are permitted or required by law. It also describes your rights to access and control your PHI.

We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your PHI and to provide you with this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices. We are required to abide by the terms of this notice.

PHI includes any information about your health status, medical care, or payment for healthcare services that can be linked to you. This includes:

• Medical records
• Treatment details
• Billing information
• Demographic data (e.g., name, address, date of birth)

We may use and disclose your PHI for the following purposes:

• Treatment: We may use and disclose your PHI to provide, coordinate, and manage your healthcare and related services. This includes sharing information with other healthcare providers involved in your care (e.g., specialists, laboratories, pharmacies). 
  • Example: A physician at GR Medical Weight Management may share your medical history with a dietitian to develop a personalized weight management plan.
• Payment: We may use and disclose your PHI to obtain payment for the healthcare services we provide to you. This may include billing your insurance company or other third-party payers. 
  • Example: We may send a claim to your health insurance provider with information about your visits and services received.
• Healthcare Operations: We may use and disclose your PHI for our healthcare operations, which include activities necessary to run our clinic and ensure quality care. These activities include: 
  • Quality assessment and improvement activities
  • Staff training and evaluations
  • Medical review, auditing, and compliance
  • Business planning and development
  • Example: We may use your health information to review the quality of our weight management programs.

Any use or disclosure of your PHI for purposes other than treatment, payment, or healthcare operations generally requires your specific written authorization. This includes:

• Marketing Purposes: We will not use or disclose your PHI for marketing purposes without your written authorization.
• Sale of PHI: We will not sell your PHI without your written authorization.
• Psychotherapy Notes: We require your authorization for most uses and disclosures of psychotherapy notes.

You have the right to revoke your authorization at any time, in writing, except to the extent that we have already acted in reliance on your authorization.

We may use or disclose your PHI without your authorization for certain purposes as permitted or required by law, including:

• Public Health Activities: For public health purposes, such as preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability; reporting births and deaths; reporting child abuse or neglect; reporting reactions to medications or problems with products; and notifying people who may have been exposed to a disease or are at risk of spreading a disease or condition.
• Health Oversight Activities: To health oversight agencies for activities authorized by law, such as audits, investigations, inspections, and licensure.
• Judicial and Administrative Proceedings: In response to a court order, subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process.
• Law Enforcement Purposes: To law enforcement officials for specific purposes, such as identifying or locating a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person; regarding victims of a crime; or in emergencies to report a crime.
• Decedents: To coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors to carry out their duties.
• Organ and Tissue Donation: To organ procurement organizations for organ, eye, or tissue donation and transplantation.
• Research: For research purposes, when the research has been approved by an Institutional Review Board or Privacy Board, and protocols are in place to ensure the privacy of your information.
• Serious Threat to Health or Safety: To prevent a serious and imminent threat to the health and safety of a person or the public.
• Workers' Compensation: As authorized by and to the extent necessary to comply with laws relating to workers' compensation or other similar programs established by law.
• Correctional Institutions: If you are an inmate of a correctional institution, we may disclose your PHI to the institution or its agents for your health and the health and safety of others.

You have the following rights regarding your PHI:

• Right to Inspect and Copy: You have the right to inspect and obtain a copy of your PHI that we maintain in a designated record set. We may charge a reasonable fee for the costs of copying, mailing, or other supplies associated with your request.
• Right to Amend: If you believe that the PHI we have about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may request that we amend it. We may deny your request in certain circumstances, but we will provide you with a written explanation for the denial and information about how you can appeal the decision.
• Right to an Accounting of Disclosures: You have the right to request an "accounting of disclosures," which is a list of certain disclosures we have made of your PHI. This does not include disclosures for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations.
• Right to Request Restrictions: You have the right to request a restriction or limitation on the PHI we use or disclose about you for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations. We are not required to agree to your request, except for disclosures to a health plan for services for which you have paid out of pocket in full.
• Right to Request Confidential Communications: You have the right to request that we communicate with you about medical matters in a certain way or at a certain location (e.g., by mail to a specific address, or by calling only your work phone). We will accommodate all reasonable requests.
• Right to a Paper Copy of This Notice: You have the right to a paper copy of this notice, even if you have agreed to receive this notice electronically. You may request a copy at any time.
• Right to Be Notified of a Breach: You have the right to be notified in the event of a breach of your unsecured PHI.

GR Medical Weight Management is required to:

• Maintain the privacy of your PHI.
• Provide you with this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your PHI.
• Abide by the terms of the notice currently in effect.
• Notify you if we are unable to agree to a requested restriction.
• Accommodate reasonable requests you have to communicate health information by alternative means or at alternative locations.
• Notify you of a breach of your unsecured PHI.

We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and the terms of this notice at any time, as permitted by law. Any changes will be effective for all PHI that we maintain. We will post a copy of the current notice in our clinic and on our website, if applicable.