Center for Reproductive Medicine, P.A. and Advanced Reproductive Technologies, P.A.
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND
DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE
REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
OUR PLEDGE AND LEGAL DUTY TO PROTECT
YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION
During your treatment at Center for Reproductive Medicine, P.A. and/or Advanced Reproductive Technologies, P.A. (collectively, “CRM” or “we”), doctors, nurses and other care providers may gather or create information about your past, present or future physical or mental health or condition; the provision of health care to you; or the past, present, future payment for health care furnished to you (“your health information” or “information about you”). This Notice of Privacy Practices (“Notice”) applies to information about you that is created or received by us, and explains how we may use and disclose this information and your related privacy rights.
Patient privacy is one of our highest priorities. We are required by law and our internal policies to maintain the privacy of your health information; to provide you with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices; and to notify you following a breach of your unsecured health information. We will diligently work to fulfill these responsibilities, and encourage you to contact us if you have any questions or concerns regarding this Notice or, more generally, the privacy of your health information. The contact information for our Privacy Officer is included at the end of this Notice.
USES AND DISCLOSURES OF YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION
Your health information may be used and disclosed for the following purposes:
- Treatment. We may use or disclose your health information to provide, coordinate, and manage your care and treatment. For example, your provider may share information about you with another provider during a consultation or when making a referral.
- Payment. We may use or disclose your health information to bill and collect payment for the treatment and services that we provide to you, and for other payment purposes. For example, we may give your health insurer information about you – such as your diagnosis, the treatments provided to you, and supplies used when providing such treatments – when asking your health insurer to pay us, or reimburse you, for the cost of treatments provided to you. We may also talk with the policyholder of your insurance coverage if we have questions about coverage for the services provided to you.
- Health Care Operations. We may use or disclose health information about you for our health care operations. Health care operations are those activities that are necessary to run CRM and help ensure that all our patients receive quality care. For example, we may use and disclose your health information when: reviewing the quality of your treatment and care; working with consultants and other business associates (e.g., billing, computer support, transcription services, etc.); and performing training or quality improvement activities.
In compliance with Minnesota state law, we will obtain your written consent before releasing your health information for treatment, payment, or health care operations purposes to anyone outside of CRM unless (i) the disclosure is to a related provider for current treatment, (2) we cannot obtain your consent due to a medical emergency, or (iii) the release is specifically authorized by Minnesota law.
- To Business Associates. Some of our services and activities are provided through contracts with business associates. Examples of business associates include, but are not limited to, our attorneys and accountants, medical record and practice management software vendor, management consultants, quality assurance reviewers, and billing and collection agencies. We may disclose information about you to our business associates so they can perform the job we have contracted with them to do. To protect the disclosed information, each business associate must sign a privacy agreement that requires them to appropriately safeguard the disclosed information.
- To People Assisting in Your Care. We may disclose information about you to your family members, close friends or others identified by you who are involved in your care or helping you pay for your care, to the extent permitted by law. If you can make your own health care decisions, we will ask your permission before disclosing your information to these individuals. If you are unable to make your own health care decisions, we will disclose relevant information to your family members or other responsible persons if we believe, in our professional judgment, that it is in your best interest to do so. For example, we may disclose limited information about you to your family member so that they can pick up a prescription for you, or in an emergency when the disclosure is necessary to help protect your health and wellbeing.
- Appointment Reminders and Other Outreach. We may use your health information to contact you and/or your spouse/partner with reminders about your appointments, test results, alternative treatments you may want to consider, or other of our services that may be of interest to you.
- As Required by Law. We will disclose information about you when required to do so by federal, state or local law.
Your protected health information may also be used and disclosed in the following special situations:
- Public Health. We may disclose information about you to public health authorities or other authorized persons or entities to help carry out certain activities relating to public health. For example, we may release information about you to: prevent or control disease, injury, disability, birth, or death; report child abuse or neglect, or the abuse of a vulnerable adult; report reactions to medications or problems with regulated products or devices; locate and notify persons of recalls of products that they may be using; or locate and notify persons who may have been exposed to a communicable disease or may be at risk of contracting or spreading a disease or condition.
- Health Oversight Activities. We may disclose information about you to a health oversight agency for health oversight activities that are authorized by law. These activities typically relate to the government’s monitoring of the health care system, government programs, and compliance with applicable laws. Examples of these activities include government audits, investigations, inspections, and licensure and disciplinary activities.
- To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety. We may use and disclose information about you when necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health and safety of you, another person, or the public. Any such disclosure may only be made to someone who is able to help prevent the threat, and will be made in accordance with applicable state and federal law. These laws include, but are not limited to, the laws imposing a “duty to warn” on certain types of health care providers.
- Research: We may use and disclose information about you for research purposes, subject to the confidentiality provisions of state and federal law. For example, we may disclose information about you to an external researcher when you specifically authorize this disclosure in writing or when the research study’s privacy protections have been reviewed and approved by an Institutional Review Board or other authorized body. In some cases, external researchers may be permitted to use information about potential research participants in a limited way to evaluate the proposed study’s merit or the potential participants’ suitability for the study. When required by law, we will make a good faith effort to obtain your consent or refusal to participate in a research study before releasing any identifiable information about you to external researchers.
- Lawsuits and Other Disputes. We may use and disclose information about you when required by a court or administrative tribunal order. We may also use and disclose information about you in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other legal process, when required by law, or with your written consent.
- Military and Veterans. If you are a member of the armed forces or separated/discharged from military services, we may disclose health information about you as required by military command authorities or the Department of Veterans Affairs, as may be applicable.
- Law Enforcement: We may release your medical information to a law enforcement official in response to a valid court order or with your written consent. We may also release information to law enforcement that is not a part of the health record (in other words, non-medical information) for the following reasons:
- To identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person;
- If you are the victim of a crime and we are unable to obtain your agreement, to the extent permitted by law;
- About a death we believe may be the result of criminal conduct;
- About a crime or suspected crime committed at our offices or clinics; and
- In emergency circumstances, to report: a crime, the location of the crime or victims, or the identity, description or location of the person believed to have committed the crime.
We are also required to report certain types of wounds, such as gunshot wounds and some burns. In most cases, such reports will include only the fact of injury, and any additional disclosures would require a valid court order or your written consent.
YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION RIGHTS
Your right to access, inspect and receive a copy of your health information:
You have the right to access, inspect and receive a copy of the information contained in clinical, billing and other records that we maintain and use to make decisions about you. All access, inspection, and copy requests must be made in writing and sent to our Privacy Officer. If you request a copy of your health information, we may charge you for a reasonable fee for the supplies, postage and labor used to meet your request, to the extent permitted by state and federal law. If we maintain this information in an electronic health record, you have the right to receive your copy in electronic form. You may also direct us to provide your health information directly to an entity or person designated by you in writing.
We may deny your request to inspect and copy your health information in certain very limited circumstances. In these situations, we will respond to you in writing, stating why we cannot grant your request and describing your rights to request a review of our denial.
Your right to request alternate methods of communication:
You have a right to request that we communicate with you in certain ways or at a certain location. For example, you may ask that we contact you only at home or only at your place of business.
All requests for confidential communications must be made in writing and sent to our Privacy Officer. Your request must specify how or where you wish to be contacted, and we may require you to provide information about how payment will be handled. We will not ask you the reason for your request, and will accommodate all reasonable requests.
Your right to request an amendment of your health information:
If you believe the health information that we maintain about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to ask us to amend that information for as long as it is kept by us. All amendment requests must be submitted to our Privacy Officer in writing, and must include a reason why you believe the information is inaccurate or incomplete.
We may deny your request if it is not made in writing or does not include a reason supporting your request. We may also deny your request if the information you would like amended: was not created by us (unless the person or entity that created the information is no longer available to make the amendment); is not kept by or for us; is not part of the information you would otherwise be permitted to inspect and copy; or is already accurate and complete.
If we deny your request, we will respond to you in writing stating the reasons for the denial, and explaining how you may file a statement of disagreement and how any such statement will be included in future disclosures of your health information.
Your right to an accounting of disclosures:
You have the right to ask us for an “accounting” or list of certain disclosures of your information made by us. This list would not include:
- disclosures made to carry out treatment, payment and health care operations;
- disclosures made directly to you or disclosures that you have specifically requested/authorized;
- disclosures made to persons involved in your care;
- disclosures incident to a use or disclosure that is otherwise permitted or required by law;
- disclosures made for intelligence purposes or national security;
- disclosures made for research approved by our review process under strict federal guidelines; and
- certain other disclosures, as set forth in applicable law.
All accounting requests must be made in writing and sent to our Privacy Officer. In your written request, please state the time period covered by your request, which may be up to six years from the date of your request. The first accounting that you request in a 12-month period will be free, but we may charge you for the reasonable costs incurred by us when providing an additional accounting(s) within the same 12-month period. We will tell you about the costs in advance, and you may choose to cancel your request at any time before we incur these costs.
Your right to request restrictions on uses and disclosures of your health information:
You have the right to request a restriction or limitation on the medical information we use or disclose about you. All restriction requests must be made in writing and sent to our Privacy Officer. In your request, please tell us (1) the information you want to restrict; (2) how you want to restrict the information (for example, restricting use to this office, only restricting disclosure to persons outside this office, or restricting both); and (3) to whom you want the restrictions to apply. If we agree to your request, we will comply with your request unless the disclosure is needed to provide you with emergency treatment.
You also have the right to request that we restrict the information about you that we disclose to health plans for payment or health care operation purposes when you have paid out-of-pocket, in full, for the care that is subject to the requested restriction. We are required to comply with such a request. However, we are not required to agree to any other request.
Your right to a paper copy of this Notice:
You have the right to receive a paper copy of this Notice at any time, even if you previously agreed to receive this Notice electronically. To obtain a paper copy of this Notice, please contact our Privacy Officer.
OTHER USES OF YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION
Except as described above, we will not use or disclose your protected health information without a specific written authorization from you. If you provide us with this written authorization to use or disclose medical information about you, you may revoke that authorization, in writing, at any time. If you revoke your authorization, we will no longer use or disclose medical information about you for the reasons covered by your written authorization, except to the extent we have already relied on your authorization. We are unable to take back any disclosures we have already made with your permission, and we are required to retain our records of the care that we provided to you.
COMPLIANCE WITH MOST STRINGENT APPLICABLE LAW;
POTENTIAL FOR REDISCLOSURE
The privacy of your health information and your health information rights are governed by multiple state and federal laws, including the Minnesota Health Records Act (“MHRA”) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”). When multiple laws govern the privacy of your health information, we will comply with the law that most stringently protects this privacy. When multiple laws govern your health information rights, we will comply with the law that gives you the greatest right to access, amend, understand, and control your health information. For example, we will comply with the federal regulations governing the confidentiality of substance use disorder patient records (42 CFR Part 2) when these regulations prohibit uses and disclosures of these records that would otherwise be permitted under other applicable laws. However, these same laws may no longer protect your health information after it is disclosed by us. Therefore, there is a possibility that your health information may be redisclosed and no longer subject to legal protection after it is disclosed by us.
LIMITATION ON THE RELEASE OF REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH INFORMATION
We will not release your reproductive health information for health oversight activities, judicial or administrative proceedings, law enforcement matters, or coroner/medical examiner tasks for a prohibited purpose. For the purposes of this section, a prohibited purpose is (1) to investigate a person for seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating lawful reproductive health care, or to identify a person for such an investigation; or (2) to impose liability on a person for seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating lawful reproductive health care, or to identify a person for such an imposition of liability. For example, we will not release your reproductive health information to a law enforcement agency investigating your decision to obtain birth control prescriptions, devices, or services that were lawfully available to you.
CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE
The original effective date of this Notice of Privacy Practices was December 10, 2012, and it was most recently updated on June 13, 2025. We reserve the right to change this Notice at any time, and to make the revised or changed Notice effective for information we already have about you, as well as any information we receive in the future. If we change the terms of this Notice, we will provide you with a copy of the revised Notice upon request, and will post the revised Notice on our website (https://ivfminnesota.com) and in designated locations at our practice locations.
QUESTIONS OR COMPLAINTS
If you want more information about our privacy practices or have questions or concerns, please contact our Privacy Officer.
If you are concerned that your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with our Privacy Officer. You may also submit a complaint to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights. Information about the OCR complaint process, including instructions on how to file a complaint with OCR, is available at https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/filing-a-complaint/index.html.
We will not retaliate in any way if you choose to file a complaint with us or with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
PRIVACY OFFICER CONTACT INFORMATION
Amanda Tufano, Chief Operating Officer and
Privacy Officer, Center for Reproductive Medicine, P.A.
2828 Chicago Avenue South, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55407
Phone: 612-230-5533
