Notice of Privacy Practices

Our Commitment to Your Privacy

Lizotte Clinical, LLC is required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Maine law to protect the privacy of your Protected Health Information (PHI), to give you this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, and to follow the terms of the notice currently in effect.

PHI is information that identifies you and relates to your past, present, or future mental health condition, the services you receive, or payment for those services. This includes session notes, assessments, evaluation reports, treatment plans, and billing records.

We will notify you if a breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your information.

How We May Use and Disclose Your Information Without Authorization

The law permits us to use or disclose your PHI without your written authorization for the following purposes:

Treatment

To provide, coordinate, or manage your care, including consultation with a clinical supervisor or other treating providers involved in your care.

Payment

To bill and collect payment for services. Because this practice is private pay, we do not bill insurance on your behalf. If you request a superbill for out-of-network reimbursement, it will include the diagnosis and service codes your insurer requires.

Health Care Operations

For quality review, record-keeping, scheduling, and business management, including secure vendors (such as electronic health record and telehealth platforms) who sign a Business Associate Agreement and must protect your information.

Appointment Reminders

To contact you with appointment reminders or information about services, using the contact method you choose.

Disclosures Required or Permitted by Law

We may disclose PHI without your consent in limited circumstances, sharing only the minimum necessary information:

Child or Adult Abuse and Neglect

As mandated reporters under Maine law, we must report suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a child or dependent/incapacitated adult to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) or law enforcement.

Serious Threat to Health or Safety

To prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of you, another person, or the public, including notifying a potential victim, emergency services, or law enforcement.

Court Orders and Legal Proceedings

In response to a court order signed by a judge. A subpoena alone is not sufficient; we will assert privilege on your behalf and seek your authorization or a court order before releasing records.

Court-Ordered Evaluations

When an evaluation is ordered by the court or requested by an attorney, guardian ad litem, or agency, the resulting report is released to the parties specified in the order or signed agreement. You will be informed of this limit before the evaluation begins.

Health Oversight and Government Functions

To licensing boards and health oversight agencies for audits, investigations, or inspections, and as otherwise required by federal or state law.

Public Health, Coroners, and Workers' Compensation

As required for public health activities, to a medical examiner, or to comply with workers' compensation laws.

Uses That Require Your Written Authorization

Any other use or disclosure, including sharing information with schools, probation or JCCO officers, other agencies, or family members not involved in your care, requires your signed Release of Information. You may revoke an authorization in writing at any time, except to the extent we have already acted on it.

Psychotherapy notes (a clinician's separate personal notes about session content) receive extra protection and will not be released without your specific authorization, except where required by law.

We will never sell your health information or use it for marketing.

Substance Use Disorder Records (42 CFR Part 2)

Records that identify you as having been assessed or treated for a substance use disorder (SUD), including SUD assessments and related treatment records, receive additional protection under federal law (42 U.S.C. § 290dd-2 and 42 CFR Part 2), beyond the protections provided by HIPAA.

Written Consent Required

We will not disclose information that identifies you as having or having had a substance use disorder without your written consent, except in the limited circumstances permitted by Part 2. You may give a single consent covering future uses and disclosures for treatment, payment, and health care operations, and you may revoke it in writing at any time.

Protection in Legal Proceedings

Your SUD records, or testimony describing their content, may not be used or disclosed in any civil, criminal, administrative, or legislative investigation or proceeding against you unless you provide specific written consent, or a court issues an order that meets Part 2 requirements and is accompanied by a subpoena or similar legal mandate. A subpoena alone is never sufficient.

Court, Probation, and JCCO Involvement

When SUD information must be shared with a court, probation officer, JCCO, or other justice-system agency as a condition of your case, it will be released only with your signed Part 2-compliant consent that names the recipient, the purpose, and how long the consent lasts.

SUD Counseling Notes

Separate clinician notes analyzing the content of SUD counseling sessions may only be disclosed with a consent specific to those notes. Consent for other records does not cover them.

Limited Exceptions Without Consent

Part 2 permits disclosure without consent only in narrow cases: a bona fide medical emergency, reporting suspected child abuse or neglect to state authorities, qualified research or audits with identifiers protected, communications with a Qualified Service Organization bound by Part 2, crimes committed on program premises or against program staff, and reporting to a medical examiner.

Limits on Redisclosure

Any recipient of your SUD records under a Part 2 consent receives a notice prohibiting further disclosure except as permitted by federal law. Records shared for treatment, payment, or operations remain protected from use against you in legal proceedings.

Minors and SUD Treatment

When a minor consents to SUD services on their own under Maine law, the minor's written consent is required before information is shared with parents or guardians, except where a safety risk permits disclosure.

Reporting a Part 2 Violation

Violations of 42 CFR Part 2 may be reported to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights, listed in the Questions and Complaints section below. You will not be retaliated against for filing a complaint.

Adolescents, Parents, and Guardians

In general, a parent or legal guardian acts as the personal representative for a minor and may access the minor's records. Maine law allows minors to consent to certain mental health and substance use services on their own; in those cases, the minor controls access to related records.

Effective adolescent therapy depends on trust. At the start of treatment, we will review with the teen and family what will be shared with parents (such as attendance, general progress, and any safety concerns) and what will remain confidential. Safety risks are always shared with parents or guardians.

In custody situations, both legal parents generally have equal access to a child's records unless a court order states otherwise. Please provide a copy of any relevant custody or court order at intake.

Your Rights Regarding Your Health Information

Right to Access and Copy

You may request to inspect or receive a copy of your records. We will respond within 30 days and may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee. In rare cases access may be limited if a licensed professional determines it is reasonably likely to endanger you or another person; you may request a review of that decision.

Right to Request an Amendment

If you believe information in your record is incorrect or incomplete, you may request a correction in writing. If we deny the request, you may submit a statement of disagreement to be included in your record.

Right to an Accounting of Disclosures

You may request a list of certain disclosures we have made of your PHI in the past six years, other than for treatment, payment, operations, or disclosures you authorized.

Right to Request Restrictions

You may ask us to limit how we use or disclose your information. We are not required to agree, except that we must honor a request not to share information with a health plan about services you paid for in full out of pocket.

Right to Confidential Communications

You may ask us to contact you in a specific way or at a specific location (for example, only by mobile phone or a private email). We will accommodate reasonable requests.

Right to a Paper Copy of This Notice

You may request a paper copy of this notice at any time, even if you have received it electronically.

Right to Choose Someone to Act for You

If you have a medical power of attorney or legal guardian, that person may exercise your rights and make choices about your health information.

Telehealth, Email, Text, and This Website

Telehealth sessions are conducted on a HIPAA-compliant video platform. Please join from a private location and do not record sessions without mutual written consent.

Standard email and text messaging are not fully secure. If you choose to communicate this way, you accept the associated risk. Please use these methods only for scheduling and logistics, not clinical or crisis information.

Information you submit through forms on this website is used only to respond to your inquiry and schedule services. Please share only the minimum clinical detail needed. This website does not sell visitor information.

Questions and Complaints

If you have questions about this notice or believe your privacy rights have been violated, please contact our Privacy Officer, the practice owner of Lizotte Clinical, LLC, using the contact page on this website. You will not be retaliated against for filing a complaint.

Changes to This Notice

We reserve the right to change this notice and to make the new notice effective for all information we maintain. The current notice, with its effective date, will always be posted on this page and is available on request.