We respect our legal obligation to keep health information that identifies you private. We are obligated by law to give you notice of our privacy practices. Treatment,Payment and Health Care Operations The most common reason why we use or disclose health information is for treatment,payment or health care operations. Examples of how we use or disclose information for treatment purposes are: Setting up an appointment for you; testing or examining your eyes;prescribing glasses,contact lenses, or eye medications and faxing them to be filled; showing you low vision aids;referring you to another doctor or clinic for eye care of low vision aids and services; or getting copies of your health information from another professional that you may have seen before us. Examples of how we use or disclose your health information for payment purposes are: asking you about your health or vision care plans, or other sources of payment; preparing and sending bills or claims; and collecting unpaid amounts(either ourselves or through a collection agency or attorney). "Health care operations" mean those administrative or managerial functions that we have to do in order to run our office. Examples of how we use or disclose health information to health care operations are: Financial or billing audits; internal quality assurance; personnel decisions;participation in managed care plans;defense of legal matters;business planning; and outside storage records. We routinely use your health information inside our office for purposes without any special permission. If we need to disclose your health information outside of our office for these reasons,[we will][we usually will not] ask you for special written permission.