PRIVACY POLICY

We may collect information you voluntarily provide to us, including but not limited to:

• Your name, phone number, email address, and mailing address
• Date of birth and demographic information
• Appointment and scheduling information
• Health history, injury details, treatment records, and other information necessary to provide athletic training and rehabilitation services
• Insurance and payment information

We may use your information to:

• Provide, coordinate, and manage athletic training, injury rehabilitation, and related healthcare services
• Schedule and manage appointments
• Communicate with you about appointments, services, treatment plans, and your requests
• Process payments and billing
• Respond to questions and inquiries
• Improve our website, services, and patient experience
• Comply with legal, regulatory, and professional obligations

“Protected Health Information” (PHI) is information about you — including demographic information that may identify you — that relates to your past, present, or future physical or mental health condition and related healthcare services. We are required by federal law to maintain the privacy of your PHI and to provide you with this notice of our privacy practices.

By receiving treatment at The Body Mechanic, you consent to the use and disclosure of your PHI by Dr. Shaylene Ward, our staff, and authorized third parties involved in your care for the purposes described below.

Treatment: We will use and disclose your PHI to provide, coordinate, and manage your healthcare. This includes sharing information with other healthcare providers involved in your care — for example, a referring physician, specialist, or laboratory — to ensure they have the information necessary to diagnose or treat you.

Payment: Your PHI may be used as needed to obtain payment for services provided. This may include activities your health plan undertakes before approving or paying for services, such as determining eligibility, reviewing medical necessity, and conducting utilization review.

Healthcare Operations: We may use or disclose your PHI to support the business operations of The Body Mechanic. This includes quality assessment, staff training, and administrative functions necessary to run our practice and provide you with quality care.

Business Associates: We may share your PHI with third-party business associates that perform services on our behalf — such as billing, appointment scheduling, and patient management systems. We maintain written agreements with these partners that require them to protect the privacy of your information.

We may use or disclose your PHI without your authorization in the following circumstances, as permitted or required by law:

• Required by law: When disclosure is required by federal, state, or local law
• Public health activities: To a public health authority for the purpose of preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability
• Health oversight: To a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law, such as audits, investigations, and inspections
• Abuse or neglect: To a government authority authorized to receive reports of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence
• Legal proceedings: In response to a court order, subpoena, or other lawful process
• Law enforcement: For law enforcement purposes as required or permitted by law
• Workers’ compensation: As authorized to comply with workers’ compensation laws
• Others involved in your care: Unless you object, we may disclose relevant PHI to a family member, relative, or close friend involved in your care

Other uses and disclosures of your PHI not described in this notice will be made only with your written authorization. You may revoke any such authorization at any time in writing, except to the extent that we have already acted in reliance on it.

You have the following rights with respect to your PHI:

• Right to inspect and copy: You may request to inspect and obtain a copy of your health information maintained by The Body Mechanic. We may charge a reasonable fee for copies.
• Right to request amendment: You may request that we amend your health information if you believe it is incorrect or incomplete. We may deny the request in certain circumstances and will provide a written explanation if we do.
• Right to request restrictions: You may request that we restrict certain uses or disclosures of your PHI. We are not required to agree to all restriction requests, but we will consider each one. You have the right to restrict disclosures to a health plan when you pay out of pocket in full.
• Right to confidential communications: You may request that we communicate with you at an alternative address or by an alternative method. We will accommodate reasonable requests.
• Right to an accounting of disclosures: You may request an accounting of certain disclosures of your PHI that we have made, other than those for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations.
• Right to a paper copy: You have the right to obtain a paper copy of this notice upon request.
• Right to breach notification: You have the right to be notified in the event of a breach of your unsecured PHI.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the information provided at the bottom of this page.

If you voluntarily provide your mobile phone number and separately opt in to receive text messages from The Body Mechanic, you may receive appointment reminders, scheduling information, service-related communications, or other messages consistent with the consent you provided.

Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply.

You may opt out of text messages at any time by replying STOP. For help, reply HELP.

We do not sell, rent, or share your mobile phone number or SMS opt-in information with third parties or affiliates for their own marketing or promotional purposes.

Our website and practice may use or link to third-party services, including but not limited to:

• ChiroTouch — patient management, scheduling, and electronic health records platform. Information you provide through the ChiroTouch patient portal is subject to ChiroTouch’s own privacy policy and security practices.
• Web3Forms — processes contact form submissions from our website.
• Vercel Analytics & Speed Insights — collects anonymous, aggregated usage data (page views and performance metrics) to help us improve the site. No personally identifiable information is collected by these tools.
• YouTube — video content on this site is served via YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode. YouTube may collect data in accordance with Google’s Privacy Policy.

These third-party services have their own privacy policies and practices. We encourage you to review them. The Body Mechanic is not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites or services.

We do not use cookies for tracking or advertising purposes. Vercel Analytics operates without cookies. Third-party services such as YouTube may set cookies when you interact with embedded content.

We take reasonable administrative, physical, and technical measures to protect the information you provide to us. However, no method of electronic transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Contact form submissions are retained only as long as necessary to respond to your inquiry. Health records are retained in accordance with applicable federal and state law and professional licensing requirements.

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with The Body Mechanic using the contact information below, or you may file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated effective date. The revised policy will apply to all information we maintain at that time.