--- title: "Notice of Privacy Practices" --- **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.** **Effective August 12, 2026.** We are required by law to protect the privacy of your health information, to give you this notice describing our legal duties and privacy practices, and to follow the terms of the notice currently in effect. This notice applies to all of the records of your care generated by Coastal Dermatology + Aesthetics, at both our San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria offices. **For treatment.** We use your health information to provide your care, and we share it with other providers involved in that care. If we refer you to a surgeon for Mohs surgery, or send a sample to a pathology laboratory, or coordinate with your primary care physician, we share what is needed for that purpose. **For payment.** We use and disclose your information to bill and collect payment for your care. This includes verifying coverage with your health plan, obtaining prior authorization, and submitting claims. **For health care operations.** We use your information to run the practice: quality assessment, staff review and training, licensing, business planning, and administration. **Other uses and disclosures permitted or required by law.** We may use or disclose your health information: - To remind you of appointments, and to tell you about treatment alternatives or health related benefits and services that may interest you - To a family member, friend, or other person you involve in your care or payment for your care, limited to information relevant to that involvement - For public health activities, including reporting disease, injury, and vital events, and reporting to the Food and Drug Administration about products and adverse events - To report suspected abuse, neglect, or domestic violence - For health oversight activities such as audits, investigations, inspections, and licensure - In response to a court order, subpoena, warrant, or other lawful process - To law enforcement in the limited circumstances the law allows - To coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors - For organ and tissue donation - For research, where an institutional review board has approved the use and privacy protections are in place - To prevent a serious and imminent threat to health or safety - For workers' compensation as authorized by law - For specialized government functions, including military and national security activities - As otherwise required by federal or state law We will not use or disclose your health information for any of the following without your written authorization: - Marketing. Communications that encourage you to buy a product or service, where we receive payment from a third party for making them - Sale of your health information - Psychotherapy notes, where any exist - Photographs used publicly. Before and after photographs are never published on our website, in print, or on social media without your separate written consent, and consent can be withdrawn at any time Any other use or disclosure not described in this notice will be made only with your written authorization. **You may revoke an authorization at any time, in writing.** Revoking it stops future use and disclosure. It cannot undo what was already done in reliance on it. Federal law provides additional protection for health information relating to reproductive health care. **We will not use or disclose your health information for the purpose of investigating or imposing liability on any person for seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating lawful reproductive health care.** Where a request for such information is made, we require a signed attestation that the request is not for a prohibited purpose before we will respond to it. **Access.** You have the right to inspect and get a copy of your records, in paper or electronic form, usually within 30 days of your written request. We may charge a reasonable, cost based fee for copies. **Amendment.** You have the right to ask us to correct information you believe is incorrect or incomplete. We may deny the request, and if we do we will tell you why in writing, and you may file a statement of disagreement that becomes part of your record. **Accounting of disclosures.** You have the right to a list of certain disclosures we have made of your health information, other than those for treatment, payment, and health care operations. **Request restrictions.** You have the right to ask us to limit how we use or disclose your information. We are not generally required to agree. **We are required to agree in one case: if you pay in full, out of pocket, for a specific service, you may require us not to disclose the information about that service to your health plan.** **Confidential communications.** You have the right to ask us to contact you a particular way or at a particular address, for example only by mail or only at a work number. We will accommodate reasonable requests and will not ask you why. **Paper copy.** You have the right to a paper copy of this notice at any time, even if you agreed to receive it electronically. Ask at either front desk. **Breach notification.** You have the right to be notified if a breach occurs that compromises the privacy or security of your health 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. California's Confidentiality of Medical Information Act gives you protections in addition to federal law. In general, California law requires your written authorization for disclosures that federal law might otherwise permit, and it provides its own remedies where medical information is released improperly. Where California law is more protective than federal law, we follow California law. - We are required by law to maintain the privacy and security of your health information - We are required to give you this notice and to follow the terms of the notice currently in effect - We will let you know promptly if a breach occurs that may have compromised your information - We will not use or disclose your information other than as described here, unless you tell us we may in writing **Changes to this notice.** We may change this notice, and the changes will apply to information we already hold as well as information we receive in the future. The current notice is always posted on this page with its effective date, and paper copies are available at both offices. If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, tell us. You can also complain directly to the federal government. **You will not be retaliated against, penalized, or refused care for filing a complaint.** **Complain to us:** Privacy Officer Coastal Dermatology + Aesthetics 892 Aerovista Place, Suite 120 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 (805) 544-5567 privacy@coastaldermaesthetics.com **Complain to the federal government:** Office for Civil Rights U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 200 Independence Avenue SW Washington, D.C. 20201 1-877-696-6775 [hhs.gov/hipaa/filing-a-complaint](https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/filing-a-complaint/index.html) Contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@coastaldermaesthetics.com or call (805) 544-5567. ```ld+json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://coastaldermaesthetics.com/notice-of-privacy-practices/#webpage", "name": "Notice of Privacy Practices", "url": "https://coastaldermaesthetics.com/notice-of-privacy-practices/", "description": "THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. 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