Notice of Privacy Practices

Your information. Your rights. Our responsibilities. This notice applies to protected health information maintained by Big Hearts Home Healthcare Services Inc., doing business as Big Hearts Home Health, in connection with our services. It is separate from our Website Privacy Policy.

Your rights

See or receive your records

You may request an electronic or paper copy of your medical record and other health information we maintain about you. We usually provide access within 30 days. If a permitted extension is needed, we explain the reason and expected date in writing. Any fee will be reasonable and cost-based as allowed by law. If access is denied, we explain the reason and any applicable review rights.

Ask for a correction

You may ask us to amend information you believe is incorrect or incomplete. We respond within 60 days, subject to a permitted extension with written notice. If we deny the request, we explain why and how you may submit a statement of disagreement.

Request confidential communications

You can ask us to contact you in a specific way or at a different address. We accommodate reasonable requests. Contact our privacy contact to discuss your preferences.

Ask us to limit what we share

You may request restrictions on uses or disclosures for treatment, payment or operations. We are not required to agree to every request; if we agree, we follow the restriction except where emergency treatment or law permits otherwise. If you pay for an item or service out of pocket in full and ask us not to disclose that information to your health plan for payment or operations, we must agree unless disclosure is required by law.

Request an accounting of disclosures

You may request a list of certain disclosures made in the six years before your request, including who received the information and why. The accounting excludes treatment, payment, operations and other disclosures excluded by law, such as those you authorized. One accounting in a 12-month period is free; we will tell you in advance about any permitted fee for additional requests.

Receive a copy and choose a representative

You may receive a paper copy of this notice promptly at any time, even if you previously accepted an electronic copy. A legally authorized personal representative, such as a guardian or someone with applicable medical power of attorney, may exercise your rights. We verify their authority before acting, subject to applicable legal exceptions.

Your choices and authorizations

You can tell us whether to share relevant information with family, friends or others involved in your care or payment, or with disaster-relief organizations. When you cannot express a preference, we may share limited information if professional judgment determines it is in your best interest, as permitted by law.

Uses not described in this notice generally require your written authorization. Marketing, sale of protected health information and most uses or disclosures of psychotherapy notes require written authorization, subject to limited legal exceptions. We do not sell your personal information. You may revoke an authorization in writing, except to the extent we have already acted on it.

If we ever contact you for fundraising, you may opt out of further fundraising communications; your decision will not affect your care or payment. If records protected by 42 CFR Part 2 are involved, we provide any additional advance notice and choice required by that law.

Our uses and disclosures

• Treatment: we may share information with clinicians involved in your care. For example, a nurse may report a change in your condition to your physician.
• Payment: we may use information to prepare bills, collect payment and provide documentation you authorize. We currently accept private pay; this notice does not mean we bill Medicare, Medicaid or insurers directly.
• Health care operations: we may use information for care coordination, quality improvement, staff training, supervision and managing our services.

Other uses or disclosures may be permitted or required only when the relevant legal conditions are met:

• Public health and safety, including disease prevention, product recalls, adverse medication reactions, reporting suspected abuse or neglect, and preventing a serious and imminent threat.
• Health oversight, audits, investigations and compliance with state or federal law, including requests by HHS to review privacy-law compliance.
• Research when appropriate authorization or another legally permitted basis and required safeguards apply.
• Organ and tissue donation, and disclosures to coroners, medical examiners or funeral directors as permitted by law.
• Workers' compensation, qualifying law-enforcement requests and special government functions, such as military or national-security activities, within applicable legal limits.
• Court or administrative orders, subpoenas and other legal proceedings only when applicable requirements are satisfied.

Service providers that handle protected health information on our behalf must meet applicable confidentiality and safeguarding requirements. Except where an exception applies, we limit uses, disclosures and requests to the minimum necessary information.

Additional protections

We follow more protective state and federal requirements when applicable, including protections for mental-health records, HIV-related information, genetic information and substance use disorder records. These rules may require additional consent or place tighter limits on disclosure; not every generally permitted HIPAA disclosure is permitted for every record.

If we maintain substance use disorder patient records protected by 42 CFR Part 2, we will not use or disclose those records in civil, criminal, administrative or legislative investigations or proceedings against you without your written consent or a court order and subpoena meeting applicable requirements.

Our responsibilities

We maintain the privacy and security of protected health information, provide this notice and follow the duties and practices it describes. We notify affected individuals following a breach of unsecured protected health information as required by law. We will not use or disclose information beyond this notice without your authorization unless the law permits or requires it.

Questions, requests and complaints

Contact our Administrator, attention: Privacy Contact, to exercise your rights or raise a concern:

Big Hearts Home Health
1920 McKinney Ave, Dallas, TX 75201
(855) 902-2273 · info@bigheartshomehealth.com

Please request a secure way to send health records rather than emailing sensitive medical details through ordinary email.

You may also complain to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights at 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201, call 1-877-696-6775, or use the HHS privacy complaint instructions. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.

Changes to this notice

We may change this notice, and revised terms may apply to information we already maintain as well as future records. The revised notice will be available on this website, at our offices and upon request, with its effective date.

Reference: HHS model Notice of Privacy Practices for health care providers.

Effective date: November 1, 2026.