Notice of Privacy Practices
NPP
Guadalupe Valley Women’s Health Care Center
Effective Date: April 2026
Last Updated: April 2026
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
Guadalupe Valley Women’s Health Care Center (“we,” “us,” “our,” or the “Practice”) is committed to protecting the privacy of your health information. This Notice describes how we may use and disclose your protected health information (“PHI”), our legal duties regarding PHI, and your rights concerning your PHI. We are required by law to maintain the privacy of PHI, provide you with this Notice, and follow the terms of the Notice currently in effect.
This Notice applies to the records of care and services provided to you by Guadalupe Valley Women’s Health Care Center, including gynecology services, women’s health services, hormone-related services marketed under the “Hormones Done Right” service line, in-person care, telehealth care, administrative services related to your care, billing activities, and related healthcare operations of the Practice. The marketing name “Hormones Done Right,” if used on the website or in patient materials, is a service-line descriptor and does not change the identity of the legal entity or entities actually providing care. That branding point is not dictated by HIPAA, but it is operationally important so your notice matches the actual covered entity providing care.
Our Uses and Disclosures of Your Health Information
We may use and disclose your PHI for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations without your separate written authorization, as permitted by HIPAA. HIPAA permits, but does not require, separate patient consent for those routine categories.
For Treatment
We may use and disclose your PHI to provide, coordinate, or manage your healthcare and related services. This may include sharing information with physicians, advanced practice clinicians, nurses, medical assistants, hospitals, laboratories, imaging centers, pharmacies, consultants, referral sources, or other healthcare providers involved in your care. It can also include reviewing prior records, ordering tests, discussing treatment options, coordinating follow-up, managing prescriptions, and providing telehealth services where appropriate. HIPAA expressly permits disclosures to another provider for that provider’s treatment of the individual.
For Payment
We may use and disclose your PHI to bill and collect payment for services you receive. This may include verifying insurance coverage, obtaining prior authorization, submitting claims, sending statements, collecting balances, and sharing information with health plans, payers, billing vendors, collection vendors, or others involved in payment activities.
For Healthcare Operations
We may use and disclose your PHI for healthcare operations necessary to run the Practice. Examples include quality assessment, clinical improvement, staff training, credentialing, licensing, auditing, compliance, legal review, business planning, customer service, and general administrative activities. We may also use PHI to evaluate provider performance, improve workflows, and maintain patient safety and service quality. HIPAA recognizes these kinds of operational activities as healthcare operations.
Appointment Reminders, Follow-Up, and Health-Related Communications
We may use your PHI to contact you for appointment reminders, follow-up care, lab or imaging coordination, referral coordination, care-management messages, test-result notifications, account matters, and information about treatment alternatives or health-related benefits and services that may be relevant to your care. The HIPAA notice rule specifically contemplates describing these types of communications in the notice.
Individuals Involved in Your Care or Payment for Your Care
Unless you object, or if professional judgment indicates it is in your best interest, we may share relevant PHI with a family member, personal representative, caregiver, or another person involved in your care or payment for your care. This may arise in situations such as scheduling, aftercare, transportation, pharmacy pickup, telehealth assistance, or billing support.
Business Associates
We may disclose PHI to third parties that perform services for us, such as billing companies, technology vendors, cloud vendors, consultants, attorneys, telehealth platform vendors, document-storage vendors, answering services, analytics vendors used in compliance-related operations, and similar service providers, when those parties are permitted to receive PHI under HIPAA and are required by contract to safeguard it. HIPAA allows covered entities to disclose PHI to business associates for permitted functions subject to those protections.
Other Ways We May Use or Disclose Your Health Information Without Your Written Authorization
We may also use or disclose your PHI without your written authorization when required or permitted by law in circumstances such as the following. HIPAA requires the notice to include enough detail for patients to understand these categories.
As Required by Law
We may use or disclose PHI when a federal, state, or local law requires us to do so and the disclosure complies with that law. HIPAA defines “required by law” as a legal mandate enforceable in court.
Public Health Activities
We may disclose PHI for public health activities such as disease reporting, reporting vital events, adverse event reporting, product recalls, and other activities authorized by law to protect public health and safety.
Health Oversight Activities
We may disclose PHI to health oversight agencies for activities authorized by law, including audits, investigations, inspections, licensure actions, and regulatory oversight.
Abuse, Neglect, or Domestic Violence
We may disclose PHI when authorized or required by law to report abuse, neglect, or domestic violence.
Judicial and Administrative Proceedings
We may disclose PHI in response to a court order or, in some circumstances, in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process, subject to applicable legal requirements.
Law Enforcement
We may disclose PHI for certain law-enforcement purposes as permitted or required by law, subject to HIPAA limits and any other applicable protections.
Coroners, Medical Examiners, Funeral Directors
We may disclose PHI to coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors as permitted by law.
Organ and Tissue Donation
If applicable, we may disclose PHI to organ procurement organizations or others involved in cadaveric organ, eye, or tissue donation and transplantation.
Research
We may use or disclose PHI for certain research purposes when permitted by HIPAA, including when appropriate approvals, waivers, or legal conditions are satisfied.
To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety
We may use or disclose PHI when permitted to help prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public.
Specialized Government Functions and Workers’ Compensation
We may disclose PHI for specialized government functions and for workers’ compensation purposes as permitted or required by law.
Uses and Disclosures That Generally Require Your Written Authorization
Except as otherwise described in this Notice or permitted by law, we will obtain your written authorization before using or disclosing your PHI. In general, authorization is required for uses or disclosures not otherwise permitted by HIPAA, and you may revoke an authorization in writing at any time, except to the extent we have already acted in reliance on it. HIPAA’s overall notice framework requires the notice to explain that certain uses and disclosures require authorization and that an authorization may be revoked.
Where applicable under HIPAA, we will obtain your authorization for uses or disclosures involving psychotherapy notes, most marketing uses of PHI, and disclosures that constitute a sale of PHI. Those categories are part of the HIPAA notice framework, though they may not commonly arise in your practice’s routine gynecology and hormone-care workflows.
Your Rights Regarding Your Health Information
HIPAA requires the notice to describe individual rights. Your rights under HIPAA generally include the following:
- Right to Inspect and Obtain a Copy
You generally have the right to inspect and obtain a copy of PHI about you in a designated record set, subject to certain legal exceptions. Requests should be made in writing to the Practice’s Privacy Contact listed below. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee where allowed by law.
- Right to Request an Amendment
If you believe PHI we maintain about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may request an amendment in writing. We may deny the request in certain circumstances permitted by law, but if we do, we will explain the denial process.
- Right to an Accounting of Disclosures
You have the right to request an accounting of certain disclosures of your PHI made by us, as provided by law. This right does not apply to all disclosures, such as many disclosures for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations.
- Right to Request Restrictions
You have the right to request restrictions on certain uses or disclosures of your PHI for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations, or to persons involved in your care. We are not required to agree to most requested restrictions, but if we do agree, we will comply except where the law permits otherwise. HIPAA also provides a special restriction right in certain circumstances when a patient has paid out of pocket in full and requests that the information not be disclosed to a health plan for payment or healthcare operations.
- Right to Request Confidential Communications
You have the right to request that we communicate with you in a certain way or at a certain location, such as by calling only a specific phone number, mailing to a certain address, or using a particular communication method where reasonable. We will accommodate reasonable requests as required by law.
- 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 it electronically. HHS also states that patients can ask for a copy of the notice at any time.
Our Duties
We are required by law to maintain the privacy of PHI, provide you with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to PHI, abide by the terms of the Notice currently in effect, and notify affected individuals following a breach of unsecured PHI when required by law. The core duties to maintain privacy, provide the notice, and follow its terms are part of the HIPAA notice rule and HHS guidance.
We reserve the right to change this Notice and to make the revised or changed Notice effective for PHI we already have about you as well as any information we receive in the future. HIPAA permits covered providers to revise the notice and apply it prospectively and to existing PHI, so long as the updated notice is made available as required. HHS guidance also notes that a provider generally is not required to mail the revised notice to every patient.
The current Notice will be available in our office, through our patient materials where applicable, and on our website. HIPAA requires website posting for covered providers that maintain such a site.
Complaints
If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with the Practice using the contact information below. You may also file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. OCR states that individuals can file complaints if they believe their health information privacy rights have been violated. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.
Contact Information
Guadalupe Valley Women’s Health Care Center
1255 Ashby Street
Seguin, Texas, 78155
Phone: (830) 372-0600
Fax: (830) 372-0602
Email: admin@gvwhcc.com
To request records, amendments, restrictions, confidential communications, an accounting of disclosures, or a paper copy of this Notice, please contact the Privacy Contact above.