Notice of Privacy Practices

Your information. Your rights. Meridian’s responsibilities. This notice describes the privacy practices of Meridian Plastic Surgeons.

Your rights

To exercise any of these rights or ask how to submit a request, contact Meridian’s Privacy Officer at the address or telephone number below.

• Inspect or obtain an electronic or paper copy of your medical record and other health information used to make decisions about you. We usually provide access within 30 days. A reasonable, cost-based fee may apply as permitted by law.
• Ask us to correct information you believe is wrong or incomplete. If we deny your request, we will explain why in writing, usually within 60 days, and explain your right to submit a statement of disagreement.
• Ask us to contact you in a specific way or at a different address. We will accommodate reasonable requests for confidential communications.
• Ask us to limit certain uses or disclosures for treatment, payment, operations, or people involved in your care. We generally do not have to agree. However, if you or someone other than your health plan pays us in full for an item or service, we must honor your request not to disclose information solely about that item or service to your health plan for payment or operations, unless disclosure is required by law.
• Ask for an accounting of certain disclosures made in the six years before your request. This generally excludes treatment, payment, operations, disclosures you authorized, and certain other disclosures. One accounting in a 12-month period is free; we will tell you about any permitted fee for additional requests.
• Request a paper copy of this notice at any time, even if you agreed to receive it electronically. We will provide it promptly and without charge.
• Have a legally authorized personal representative exercise your rights. We will verify the person’s authority before acting on a request.
• Complain if you believe your privacy rights were violated. We will not retaliate against you. You have the right to be notified of a breach of unsecured protected health information when the law requires notice.

Your choices

You may agree or object to sharing information directly relevant to a family member’s, friend’s, or other person’s involvement in your care or payment for care, and to sharing information for disaster relief. Tell us your preferences. If you cannot express a preference, we may share relevant information when permitted by law and our professional judgment finds it in your best interest.

Most marketing, sales of health information, and uses or disclosures of psychotherapy notes require your written authorization. Other uses or disclosures not described in this notice also require your written authorization. You may revoke an authorization in writing to the Privacy Officer, except to the extent we have already relied on it.

Treatment, payment, and health-care operations

• Treatment: We may use and share information to provide and coordinate care. For example, we may share relevant records with another clinician treating you.
• Payment: We may use and share information to bill and obtain payment. For example, we may send diagnosis and service information to your health plan for a claim.
• Operations: We may use and share information to run the practice and improve care. For example, we may review records to evaluate the quality of our services. Service providers handling information for us must meet applicable privacy safeguards.

Other permitted or required disclosures

We may use or share information for the following purposes only when the applicable legal conditions and safeguards are met. Stricter protections described below still apply.

• Public health and safety: To report disease, product problems, recalls, or adverse reactions; report suspected abuse, neglect, or domestic violence; or help prevent a serious threat to health or safety.
• Research: For research with your authorization or with the privacy approvals or other safeguards the law permits.
• Oversight and legal requirements: For authorized audits, investigations, inspections, and other health oversight; and when law requires disclosure, including to HHS to evaluate privacy compliance.
• Legal proceedings and law enforcement: In response to a qualifying court or administrative order, subpoena, or other lawful process, or for law-enforcement purposes, subject to the applicable limits.
• Workers’ compensation and government functions: As authorized for workers’ compensation, military missions, national security, protective services, or lawful correctional responsibilities.
• Donation and death-related duties: To organ-procurement organizations and to coroners, medical examiners, or funeral directors carrying out legally authorized duties.

Specially protected information

When Indiana or other applicable law gives information stronger protection than HIPAA, Meridian follows that law. A general permission in this notice does not override a requirement for specific consent or a law that limits who may receive protected mental-health, communicable-disease, genetic, or substance-use information.

If Meridian receives substance-use-disorder records protected by 42 CFR Part 2, those records, or testimony describing their contents, cannot be used or disclosed in civil, criminal, administrative, or legislative proceedings against you without your written consent or a qualifying court order. Part 2 requires notice and an opportunity for you or the record holder to be heard before such an order is issued. An authorizing court order must also be accompanied by a subpoena or another legal requirement compelling disclosure.

Meridian’s duties and changes to this notice

We are required by law to maintain the privacy of protected health information, give you this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, and notify you after a breach of unsecured protected health information when required. We must follow the notice currently in effect.

We reserve the right to change this notice and apply revised terms to all information we maintain, including information already held. The current notice is available on request, at our office, and on our website.

Questions or complaints

To ask a question, exercise a right, or make a privacy complaint, call 317-575-0330 and ask for the Privacy Officer, or write to: Privacy Officer, Meridian Plastic Surgeons, 170 W. 106th St., Carmel, IN 46290.

You may also complain to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights at 200 Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20201; call 1-877-696-6775; or visit hhs.gov/hipaa/filing-a-complaint. Meridian will not retaliate for a complaint.

Effective September 29, 2026.