SeaChange Mental Health SeaChange Mental Health

HIPAA

Notice of Privacy Practices

Effective September 22, 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.

Our commitment

SeaChange Mental Health LLC is required by law to protect the privacy of your health information, to give you this Notice explaining our legal duties and privacy practices, and to follow the terms of the Notice currently in effect.

“Protected health information” (PHI) means information that identifies you and relates to your mental or physical health, the care you receive, or payment for that care.

1. How we may use and disclose your health information without your authorization

For treatment

We use your health information to provide and coordinate your care. For example, we may share information with your primary care physician, another specialist involved in your care, or a pharmacy when sending a prescription.

For payment

We may use and disclose your information to bill and collect payment for services. For example, we may send your insurance carrier information about a visit so a claim can be processed, or share information with our billing service so an account can be reconciled.

For health care operations

We may use your information to run the practice: quality review, staff training, licensing, business planning, and similar activities that support providing good care.

Business associates

Some services are performed by outside vendors, including our electronic health record and patient portal (SimplePractice) and our billing service (Therassist). Each is bound by a written business associate agreement requiring them to protect your information under HIPAA.

Appointment reminders and care communications

We may contact you to remind you of an appointment, or to discuss treatment options. You may ask us to use a particular phone number, email address, or method. See §4.

2. Uses that always require your written authorization

We will not use or disclose your information for any of the following without your written authorization:

  • Psychotherapy notes. Notes recorded during a counseling session and kept separate from the rest of your record receive special protection. With limited exceptions permitted by law, they are not released without your specific authorization.
  • Marketing. We do not use your information for marketing.
  • Sale of your information. We never sell your health information.
  • Most other uses not described in this Notice.

If you give authorization, you may revoke it in writing at any time. Revocation stops future uses and disclosures but cannot undo ones already made in reliance on it.

3. Disclosures we may be required or permitted to make by law

In specific situations, the law requires or permits disclosure without your authorization:

  • When required by law: including federal, state, and local reporting obligations.
  • Abuse, neglect, or exploitation: Florida requires reporting suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a child, an elderly person, or a vulnerable adult.
  • Serious threat to health or safety: where disclosure is necessary to prevent a serious and imminent threat to you or to someone else.
  • Public health activities: such as reporting to a public health authority.
  • Health oversight: audits, investigations, inspections, and licensure activity by agencies overseeing the health care system.
  • Judicial and administrative proceedings: in response to a court order, or a subpoena where the required legal protections are satisfied.
  • Law enforcement: in the limited circumstances the law allows.
  • Workers' compensation: as authorized by workers' compensation laws.
  • Specialized government functions: including certain military, national security, and correctional situations.
  • Decedents: to coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors as permitted.
  • Research: only where an institutional review board has approved the study and the required privacy protections are in place.

Florida law may be more protective than HIPAA for mental health and substance use records. Where state law provides greater protection, we follow the stricter standard.

4. Your rights

Get a copy of your record

You may inspect and receive a copy of your health information, usually within 30 days of a written request. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee. In limited circumstances a request may be denied, and you may have the denial reviewed.

Ask us to correct your record

If you believe something is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask us to amend it. We may deny the request, but we will tell you why in writing and you may submit a statement of disagreement to be kept with your record.

Get a list of disclosures

You may request an accounting of certain disclosures we have made in the six years before your request. Disclosures for treatment, payment, and health care operations, and ones you authorized, are not included.

Request restrictions

You may ask us to limit how we use or share your information. We are not generally required to agree, with one important exception: if you pay in full, out of pocket, for a service, you may require us not to share information about that service with your health plan.

Request confidential communications

You may ask us to contact you a particular way or at a particular address, for example only by portal message, or only at a specific phone number. We will accommodate reasonable requests.

Get a paper copy of this Notice

You may request a paper copy at any time, even if you agreed to receive it electronically.

Be notified of a breach

You will be notified if a breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your information.

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 these rights on your behalf. We will verify their authority first.

5. Our responsibilities

  • We are required by law to maintain the privacy and security of your health information.
  • We will notify you promptly if a breach may have compromised it.
  • We must follow the duties and privacy practices described in this Notice and give you a copy of it.
  • We will not use or share your information other than as described here unless you tell us in writing that we may.

6. Changes to this Notice

We may change this Notice, and the changes will apply to all information we hold. The revised Notice will be posted on this page and available in our office on request. The effective date appears at the top.

7. Complaints

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with our Privacy Officer using the contact details below, or with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights at hhs.gov/ocr/complaints, or by calling 1-877-696-6775.

We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.

8. Contact

See also our website privacy policy, which covers ordinary visitors to seachangecare.com rather than patient health information.