Privacy Policy
In the course of doing business, Journey Counseling gathers and maintains personal information about you. We care about your privacy and will always do whatever is necessary to protect it. This notice describes our privacy practices and how we protect the confidentiality of your PHI (Personal Health Information). PHI is information that identifies who you are and relates to your past, present, or future physical or mental health condition, the provision of health care to you, or a past, present or future payment for provision of health care to you.
We do not collect any personal information about you unless you voluntarily provide it to us. You may be required to provide certain personal information to us when you elect to use our services. This may include sending us an email message, submitting your credit card or other payment information, consenting to SMS text messages and phone calls.
How we protect your Personal health information
Access to your PHI is limited to those employees who have a need to use the information for billing, administrative or similar purposes, or who become involved with an issue regarding your health or a claim on your behalf.
PHI, including SMS Consent and/or phone numbers collected for SMS purposes, will not be shared under any circumstances for marketing purposes.
We maintain appropriate physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect your PHI against unauthorized use or disclosure.
Types of uses and disclosures of PHI we may make without your authorization:
For treatment purposes to people such as your physician, a hospital, or another therapist who may be involved in your treatment.
To communicate with family members or friends who you designate as being allowed to receive this information.
For payment purposes, such as to your insurance company or other third party payor.
For healthcare operations, such as to set up or confirm appointments, or for our receptionist who is directly involved in the business aspect of billing and payment.
For public health reporting purposes.
In cases of suspected abuse of the handicapped, elderly, or children.
To avert a serious threat to health or safety.
For health oversight activities.
For workers compensation purposes.
To business associates, such as answering services, collection agencies, etc. These organizations are required to sign agreements with Journey Counseling to safeguard and protect your PHI.
As otherwise provided by law.
In all other cases, we will disclose your PHI only upon receipt of a proper authorization signed by you or your legal representative.
Your rights regarding your PHI
Obtain a paper copy of this notice of information, policy and procedures and informed consent.
Inspect and request a copy of your counseling record.
Request to amend your counseling record.
Obtain an accounting of disclosures of your counseling information.
Request a restriction on certain uses and disclosures of your information.
Authorize individuals, including family and friends, access to your counseling information as it pertains to treatment, payments and/or healthcare operations.
Revoke your authorization to use or disclose counseling information except to the extent that it has already been disclosed.
Our Responsibilities
We have the following responsibilities regarding your PHI:
Maintain the privacy of your counseling information.
Provide you with this notice of our legal duties, privacy practices with respect to information we collect and maintain about you.
Abide by the terms of this notice.
Notify you if we are unable to agree to a requested restriction.
We reserve the right to change our practices and to make new provisions effective for all PHI we maintain. Should our privacy policies change, we will provide you with an updated copy of such information. We will discontinue to use or disclose your counseling information after we have received a written revocation of the authorization according to the procedures included in this authorization.
Electronic Communication and Social Media
At Journey Counseling we are committed to your privacy and strict confidentiality. Each therapist maintains counseling information beneficial to your treatment. This information typically includes symptoms, medications, progress, test results, diagnoses, and summary of sessions. This will continue during the course of your treatment with us. We use an EHR (electronic health record) system called Therapy Appointment™ to keep our records. In accordance with ACA ethical code, your therapist will keep your records for a period of seven years. In maintaining the chart, the clinician is the owner of the chart but you are the owner of the information. You must sign a Release of Information for your therapist to share any information with someone other than yourself. If you request a copy of the records, please be aware that there is a charge per page for copied medical records. We must advise you that records read by anyone other than the author are easily misinterpreted. A written summary is more appropriate and less likely to be misread. As for social media, Journey Counseling associates will not participate in following clients on social media nor accept requests to be followed by clients. This is to protect confidentiality.
Parents and Minors
While privacy in therapy is crucial to successful progress, parental involvement can also be essential. It is Journey Counseling’s policy not to provide treatment to a child under age 13 unless s/he agrees that the therapist can share whatever information they consider necessary with a parent. For children 14 and older, we request an agreement between the client and the parents allowing the clinician to share general information about treatment progress and attendance, as well as a treatment summary upon completion of therapy. All other communication will require the child’s agreement, unless the clinicians feel there is a safety concern (see section below on Confidentiality for exceptions), in which case the clinician will make every effort to notify the child of my intention to disclose information ahead of time and make every effort to handle any objections that are raised.
For more information or to report a problem
If you have a question, you may contact your therapist or the office of Journey Counseling. If you believe your rights have been violated, you can file a complaint with the people in the office listed below. There will be no retaliation for filing a complaint:
Office of Civil Rights
US Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Room 509F, HHH Building
Washington, DC 20201
The updated Journey Counseling Privacy Policy goes into effect on December 4, 2024.