We are committed to protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your health information. Please read this notice carefully.
Effective Date: January 1, 2025Clear Sound Hearing Care is a licensed hearing aid dispensing practice located at 9901 Paramount Blvd., Suite 236 (Second Floor), Downey, CA 90241. As a healthcare provider, we are a Covered Entity under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and its implementing regulations, including the HIPAA Privacy Rule, Security Rule, and Breach Notification Rule.
This Notice describes how we may use and disclose your Protected Health Information (PHI) to carry out treatment, payment, and 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, to provide you with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, to notify you if a breach of your unsecured PHI occurs, and to abide by the terms of this Notice.
Protected Health Information (PHI) is any information we maintain about you that relates to your past, present, or future physical health or condition; the provision of healthcare to you; or payment for healthcare services — and that identifies you or could reasonably be used to identify you.
PHI includes, but is not limited to:
We use and disclose health information about you for the following purposes. These are the most common reasons; other uses and disclosures may also apply.
We may use your PHI to provide, coordinate, or manage your hearing healthcare and related services. For example, we may share your audiogram results with a referring physician, or communicate with another hearing specialist involved in your care.
We may use and disclose your PHI to obtain payment for services we provide to you. This includes submitting claims to your insurance company, verifying coverage, and processing billing. For example, we may send your insurance carrier information about the hearing aids you received so they can process your claim.
We may use and disclose your PHI to support the business activities of our practice. This includes quality assessment and improvement activities, reviewing the competence of our staff, conducting training, and other activities necessary to run our practice.
We may contact you to remind you of appointments, provide information about treatment alternatives, or other health-related benefits or services that may be of interest to you.
We will disclose your PHI when required to do so by applicable federal, state, or local law, including disclosures to public health authorities, law enforcement, or as authorized by court order.
We may share your PHI with third-party "business associates" (such as billing services, IT providers, or auditing firms) who help us operate our practice. We require all business associates to agree in writing to protect the privacy of your information in accordance with HIPAA.
We will not use or disclose your PHI for any purpose not described in this Notice without your written authorization, except as permitted or required by law. This includes:
You have the right to revoke any written authorization you provide to us, except to the extent that we have already acted in reliance on that authorization.
You have the following rights with respect to your PHI. To exercise any of these rights, please submit a written request to our office using the contact information at the end of this Notice.
You have the right to inspect and receive a copy of your PHI that we maintain in a designated record set. We may charge a reasonable fee for copies. We may deny your request in certain limited circumstances, and if so, we will explain why in writing.
You have the right to request that we amend your PHI if you believe it is inaccurate or incomplete. We may deny your request if we believe the information is accurate and complete, or for other legally permissible reasons. If we deny your request, we will explain why in writing.
You have the right to receive an accounting of certain disclosures we have made of your PHI during the six years prior to your request. This right does not apply to disclosures made for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations, or to disclosures you authorized in writing.
You have the right to request that we restrict how we use or disclose your PHI for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations. We are not required to agree to your request in most cases; however, if we do agree, we will honor that restriction. One exception: if you pay out-of-pocket in full for a service, you may request that we not disclose PHI about that service to your health plan, and we are required to honor that request.
You have the right to request that we communicate with you in a specific way or at a specific location. For example, you may ask us to contact you only at your work phone number or to send correspondence to a P.O. box. We will accommodate all reasonable requests.
You have the right to receive a paper copy of this Notice at any time, even if you previously agreed to receive it electronically. Please contact our office to request a printed copy.
You have the right to be notified if there is a breach of your unsecured PHI. We will notify you without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days after we discover the breach, as required by law.
We are required by law to:
We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and the terms of this Notice at any time, provided such changes are permitted by applicable law. Any revised Notice will apply to PHI we already hold about you as well as any PHI we receive in the future. We will post the revised Notice on our website and make printed copies available at our office. The effective date of the current Notice is stated at the top of this page.
This section describes how we collect and use information through our website at clearsoundhearingcare.com.
When you submit our contact form to request an appointment or ask a question, we collect the information you provide: your name, phone number, email address, reason for contact, and insurance information. We use this information solely to respond to your inquiry and provide you with care. We do not use this information for marketing purposes or share it with third parties without your consent.
Like most websites, our site may use standard web technologies that collect certain non-identifying information, such as your browser type, the pages you visit, and the time and date of your visit. This information is used only to understand how our website is used and to improve your experience. It is not linked to any personally identifiable information.
Our website may use cookies — small text files placed on your device — to improve functionality and user experience. We do not use cookies to collect personal health information or to track you across other websites. You may disable cookies in your browser settings; however, some parts of the site may not function properly if you do.
Our website uses Google Maps to display our office location. Google Maps is subject to Google's Privacy Policy.
Our website may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites and encourage you to review their privacy policies independently.
We take reasonable technical and administrative measures to protect information submitted through our website. However, no internet transmission is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee the absolute security of information sent to us electronically. For sensitive health matters, we encourage you to contact us by phone.
Our website is not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please contact us immediately so we can delete it.
If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you have the right to file a complaint with us or with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.
Please submit written complaints to the Privacy Officer at the address listed in Section 8 below, or by email to info@clearsoundhearingcare.com. We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint and investigate the matter promptly.
You may file a complaint directly with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:
If you have questions about this Notice or wish to exercise any of your rights, please contact us:
This Notice is effective as of January 1, 2025. If we make material changes to this Notice, we will post the updated version on our website and make printed copies available at our office.