Privacy Policy
TMJ & Sleep Apnea Center is deeply committed to protecting the privacy of our patients and site visitors. This policy outlines how we collect, use, and safeguard Protected Health Information (PHI) under the Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), federal confidentiality regulations for substance use disorder records (42 CFR Part 2), and California data privacy statutes.
Protected Health Information (PHI) & HIPAA
When you use our website to submit a New Patient Referral Form, schedule an Online Consultation, or complete a Snoring Assessment / ESS Survey, the health metrics you input become encrypted health data.
- Treatment & Operations: We utilize your information strictly to coordinate specialized diagnostic clinical scheduling, medical billing, and multi-disciplinary treatment pathways (e.g., referrals, billing, different treatment options, etc.)
- Third-Party Restriction: We explicitly execute a “never sell” data policy. Your identifiers are never traded or distributed to third-party marketing brokers.
- Your Patient Rights: Under HIPAA, you retain the complete right to request formal copies of your clinical files, demand restricted usage clauses, or check our formal disclosure logs.
Digital Cookies & Telemetry Data
We implement basic web analytics cookies to map general user traffic flow and help local San Diego County residents find our resources efficiently. This behavioral metadata is entirely anonymized and contains no medical chart records.
Privacy Contact & Inquiries
For explicit records deletion or data tracking questions, please contact our designated HIPAA Compliance Officer at (760) 510-1157 or via mail at 555 S Rancho Santa Fe Rd, #100, San Marcos, CA 92078.
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Contact forms
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Who we share your data with
We share your date with people you specifically authorize.
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where we send your data
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
Your contact information
Additional information
How we protect your data
Your digital data remains secure behind firewalls and proprietary management software.
What data breach procedures we have in place
In the unlikely event of a data breach, we contact the affected party by their method of contact on file.
What third parties we receive data from
When you provide us with your health insurance information, we receive your insurance data such as benefits and coverage from your insurance company.
What automated decision making and/or profiling we do with user data
When patients apply for financing through our online financing portal, the financing company and their agents make the financial agreement decisions.