Notice of privacy practices

Sandel Duggal Plastic Surgery and MedSpa is required by law to protect the privacy of your protected health information, to give you this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, and to follow the terms of the notice currently in effect.

“Protected health information,” or PHI, means information that identifies you and relates to your physical or mental health, the care we provide you, or payment for that care. It includes your medical record, your surgical and treatment history, your photographs, and your billing information.

How We May Use and Disclose Your Health Information

The following describes the ways we may use and disclose your health information without your written authorization. Not every permitted use is listed, but every use we make falls within one of these categories.

For Treatment

We use your health information to provide, coordinate, and manage your care. This includes sharing it with the physicians, nurses, medical assistants, aestheticians, anesthesiologists, and other personnel involved in your treatment. For example, if Dr. Sandel plans a rhinoplasty, he may share your imaging and history with the anesthesiologist and the operating room staff at West Annapolis Surgery Center. We may also disclose information to physicians outside the practice who are involved in your care, such as a referring physician, a dermatologist performing a Mohs excision, or your primary care physician.

For Payment

We may use and disclose your health information so that we can bill and be paid for the treatment we provide. This may include sending information to your health insurer, to a financing company you have applied to, or to a collection agency. For example, if a septoplasty is medically necessary and you intend to submit a claim, we may provide the operative report and diagnosis codes your insurer requires.

For Health Care Operations

We may use and disclose your health information to run the practice and make sure you receive quality care. This includes quality review, staff training and evaluation, licensing and accreditation, business planning, and audits. For example, we may review a series of surgical outcomes to assess and improve our technique.

Appointment Reminders and Practice Communications

We may contact you by telephone, voicemail, text message, email, or mail to remind you of an appointment, to give you pre-operative or post-operative instructions, or to follow up on your care. If you have given us a phone number or email address, we will use it for these purposes. You may ask us to use a different method or a different number at any time.

Treatment Alternatives and Practice Services

We may tell you about or recommend treatment options, health-related products, or services that may be of interest to you. Communications that promote a product or service for which we receive payment from a third party require your written authorization.

Individuals Involved in Your Care

Unless you object, we may share information relevant to your care with a family member, friend, or other person you have identified as involved in your treatment or in payment for it. If you are not present or are unable to agree or object, we will use our professional judgment to decide whether a disclosure is in your best interest. For example, we may give post-operative instructions to the person driving you home from surgery.

As Required by Law and for Public Purposes

We may use or disclose your health information when required or permitted by law, including for:

• Public health activities, such as reporting communicable disease, birth or death, or adverse events involving a medical device or a drug.
• Reporting suspected abuse, neglect, or domestic violence.
• Health oversight activities, such as audits, investigations, inspections, and licensure by government agencies.
• Judicial and administrative proceedings, in response to a court order, subpoena, or discovery request.
• Law enforcement purposes, such as responding to a court order or warrant, identifying a suspect or missing person, or reporting a crime on our premises.
• Coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors, so they can carry out their duties.
• Organ and tissue donation, where applicable.
• Averting a serious threat to the health or safety of you or another person.
• Workers’ compensation, as authorized by law.
• Specialized government functions, including military and veterans’ activities, national security, and protective services.
• Research, where an institutional review board has approved the research and has established protocols to protect your privacy.

Photographs

Clinical photography is a routine part of plastic surgery. We take photographs to plan your procedure, to document your result, and to compare your appearance before and after treatment. These photographs are part of your medical record and are protected in the same way as the rest of it.

We will not publish, display, or otherwise use your photographs for marketing, teaching, our website, our photo gallery, or social media without your separate written authorization. That authorization is a distinct document from your surgical consent, it describes how the images may be used, and you may decline it without affecting your treatment in any way. You may revoke it in writing at any time, though we cannot retrieve copies already distributed or printed.

Uses and Disclosures That Require Your Written Authorization

Other than the uses described above, we will not use or disclose your health information without your written authorization. In particular, your written authorization is required for:

• Most uses and disclosures of psychotherapy notes, where we hold any.
• Uses and disclosures for marketing purposes, including use of your photographs.
• Any sale of your protected health information.

If you give us an authorization, you may revoke it in writing at any time. A revocation stops any further use or disclosure for the purpose you authorized, but it does not undo a use or disclosure we already made while the authorization was in effect.

Your Rights Regarding Your Health Information

Right to Inspect and Copy

You have the right to inspect and receive a copy of your medical and billing records. Submit your request in writing to the practice. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee for copying, mailing, or supplies. If you ask for an electronic copy and we maintain the record electronically, we will provide it in the electronic form you request if it is readily producible. In limited circumstances we may deny a request, and where the law provides for it you may ask for that denial to be reviewed.

Right to Request an Amendment

If you believe information in your record is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask us in writing to amend it, giving your reason. We may deny the request if the information was not created by us, is not part of the records we keep, is not information you would be permitted to inspect, or is accurate and complete. If we deny your request, we will explain why in writing and tell you how to submit a statement of disagreement.

Right to an Accounting of Disclosures

You have the right to request a list of certain disclosures we have made of your health information. The list does not include disclosures for treatment, payment, or health care operations, disclosures you authorized, or several other categories the law excludes. Your first request in a twelve-month period is free; we may charge a reasonable fee for further requests.

Right to Request Restrictions

You may ask us to restrict how we use or disclose your health information for treatment, payment, or health care operations, or to restrict what we disclose to a person involved in your care. We are not required to agree, except in one case: if you pay for a service in full out of pocket and ask us not to disclose that information to your health plan, we must agree, unless the law requires the disclosure. Because most cosmetic procedures are paid in full out of pocket, this right may be relevant to you.

Right to Request Confidential Communications

You may ask us to contact you about medical matters in a particular way or at a particular place — for example, only at a work number, only by mail, or not by text message. You do not need to give a reason. We will accommodate all reasonable requests.

Right to a Paper Copy of This Notice

You have the right to a paper copy of this notice at any time, even if you agreed to receive it electronically. Ask at the front desk and we will give you one.

Right to Be Notified of a Breach

You have the right to be notified if we discover a breach of your unsecured protected health information.

Our Responsibilities

We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your protected health information, to give you notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, to notify you following a breach of unsecured protected health information, and to abide by the terms of the notice currently in effect.

We reserve the right to change this notice and to make the revised notice effective for health information we already hold as well as for information we receive in future. If we make a material change, we will post the revised notice on this website and make copies available in the office.

Complaints

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with the practice or with the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. You will not be penalized, and your care will not be affected, for filing a complaint.

To complain to the practice, contact our Privacy Officer at the address or telephone number below, or put your complaint in writing and address it to the Privacy Officer.

To complain to the federal government, write to the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20201, call 1-877-696-6775, or file a complaint online at hhs.gov/ocr/complaints.

Contact

For questions about this notice, to exercise any of the rights described in it, or to make a complaint, contact:

Effective date: August 20, 2026

Questions about your record?

Ask for the Privacy Officer and we will walk you through it.