Notice of Privacy Practices

THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.

Effective date: August 2026. Reviewed at least annually.

Our Commitment to Your Privacy

STX Therapy Co. PLLC is required by law to maintain the privacy of your protected health information, to provide you with this Notice describing our legal duties and privacy practices, to notify you following a breach of unsecured protected health information, and to follow the terms of the Notice currently in effect.

Confidentiality is not an administrative formality in behavioral health care. It is a clinical condition of the work. People cannot speak honestly about the most difficult parts of their lives unless they trust that what they say is protected. This Notice explains how that protection works, where its limits lie, and what rights you hold.

We are required to abide by the terms of this Notice while it is in effect.

Protected Health Information

Protected health information, referred to in this Notice as PHI, is individually identifiable information that relates to your past, present, or future physical or mental health condition, the health care provided to you, or payment for that care.

In a behavioral health practice, PHI may include your name, contact information, and date of birth; the fact that you are or have been a client of this practice; the dates and times of your appointments; your diagnosis, symptoms, and treatment plan; clinical notes documenting the course of your care; assessments, questionnaires, and screening results; correspondence with other providers when you have authorized it; and billing, payment, and insurance records.

PHI is protected whether it is spoken, written on paper, or stored electronically.

How We May Use and Disclose Your Information Without Your Authorization

Federal law permits certain uses and disclosures without your written authorization. The most common are described below.

Treatment

We may use your PHI to provide, coordinate, and manage your care. This includes documenting sessions, developing and revising your treatment plan, reviewing your history, and, when clinically appropriate and permitted, consulting or coordinating with other health care providers involved in your care. Consultation for the purpose of clinical quality, including professional supervision or peer consultation, is conducted in a manner that protects your identity whenever possible.

Payment

We may use and disclose your PHI to obtain payment for services. This may include verifying eligibility and benefits, obtaining prior authorization, submitting claims, providing information necessary to determine coverage, billing you or a responsible party, and pursuing payment for services rendered. Disclosures for payment are limited to the minimum information necessary.

If you pay for a service in full out of pocket and ask us not to disclose information about that service to your health plan, we are required to honor that request, except where disclosure is otherwise required by law.

Health Care Operations

We may use and disclose your PHI for the administrative and quality activities that allow this practice to function. These include quality assessment and improvement, clinical documentation review, licensure and credentialing, professional training and supervision, legal and regulatory compliance, business planning, auditing, and general practice administration.

Appointment Reminders and Practice Communications

We may contact you to remind you of scheduled appointments, to confirm or reschedule an appointment, to follow up on a missed appointment, or to provide information about treatment alternatives or health-related services that may be of interest to you. Reminders may be sent by telephone, voicemail, text message, or email according to the preferences you provide. Reminder messages are limited in content and do not include clinical detail.

You may ask us to communicate with you in a specific way or at a specific location, and we will accommodate reasonable requests.

Other Permitted or Required Disclosures

We may also use or disclose PHI without your authorization when required or permitted by law, including to public health authorities; to health oversight agencies for audits, investigations, licensure, and similar activities; in response to a court order, subpoena, warrant, or other lawful process, subject to the additional protections that apply to mental health records; to coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors as authorized by law; for workers' compensation purposes as required by law; to law enforcement in the limited circumstances the law allows; and for specialized government functions such as military and national security activities.

Uses and Disclosures That Require Your Written Authorization

Any use or disclosure not described in this Notice will be made only with your written authorization. Written authorization is always required for the sale of PHI, for most uses and disclosures for marketing purposes, and for most disclosures of psychotherapy notes.

You may revoke an authorization in writing at any time. Revocation is effective going forward and does not apply to information already disclosed in reliance on the authorization.

Psychotherapy Notes

Psychotherapy notes are the private notes a clinician may keep, separate from the rest of your record, documenting or analyzing the contents of a counseling session. They receive heightened protection under federal law and are maintained separately from your medical record.

Psychotherapy notes do not include medication prescription and monitoring, session start and stop times, the modality and frequency of treatment, results of clinical tests, or summaries of diagnosis, functional status, treatment plan, symptoms, prognosis, and progress to date.

With limited exceptions, we will not disclose psychotherapy notes without your specific written authorization, and your health plan generally may not condition treatment, payment, enrollment, or eligibility for benefits on your providing that authorization.

Disclosures to Family Members and Others Involved in Your Care

We will not discuss your care with family members, partners, employers, or anyone else without your written authorization, except in the limited circumstances described below.

If you are present and capable of making health care decisions, we will obtain your agreement, give you an opportunity to object, or reasonably infer from the circumstances that you do not object before disclosing information to a person involved in your care.

If you are not present or are incapacitated, we may disclose information directly relevant to that person's involvement in your care if, in our professional judgment, disclosure is in your best interest. We may also disclose the minimum necessary information to notify a family member or personal representative of your location or general condition.

For clients who are minors, a parent or legal guardian generally holds the right to access information about their child's treatment, subject to the exceptions provided by Texas law and to our clinical judgment about what disclosure best supports the young person's care.

Situations in Which Confidentiality Must Be Broken

There are circumstances in which the law requires disclosure regardless of your preference. These limits are explained at the beginning of treatment and are described here so that they are never a surprise.

We are required to report suspected abuse or neglect of a child, an elderly person, or a person with a disability to the appropriate Texas authorities. We may disclose information to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of you or another identifiable person, including notifying potential victims and law enforcement where the law requires or permits it. We may disclose information when compelled by a court order or other lawful legal process. We may disclose information in response to a licensing board investigation or, in defending against a formal complaint or lawsuit brought by you, to the extent necessary and permitted by law.

When disclosure is required, we disclose only the minimum information necessary and, when it is safe and appropriate to do so, we discuss the disclosure with you first.

Your Rights Regarding Your Health Information

You have the right to inspect and receive a copy of your record. You may request access to the PHI we maintain about you, including an electronic copy where we maintain the record electronically. A reasonable, cost-based fee may apply for copies. In limited circumstances, access may be denied, and certain denials are subject to review by a licensed health care professional. Access to psychotherapy notes may be restricted.

You have the right to request an amendment. If you believe information in your record is inaccurate or incomplete, you may request a correction in writing. We may deny the request in certain circumstances and will explain any denial in writing, and you may submit a statement of disagreement to be included in your record.

You have the right to an accounting of disclosures. You may request a list of certain disclosures of your PHI made in the six years prior to your request, excluding disclosures for treatment, payment, health care operations, and certain other categories.

You have the right to request restrictions. You may ask us to limit how we use or disclose your PHI. We are not required to agree to every request, but we must agree to a request to restrict disclosure to a health plan for a service you paid for in full out of pocket.

You have the right to request confidential communications. You may ask us to contact you at a particular telephone number, address, or by a particular method. We will accommodate reasonable requests and will not ask you to explain the reason for the request.

You have the right to a paper or electronic copy of this Notice at any time, even if you have agreed to receive it electronically.

You have the right to be notified following a breach of unsecured PHI.

You have the right to revoke a prior authorization in writing at any time, as described above.

You have the right to file a complaint without retaliation, as described below.

How to Request Your Records

Requests to inspect, copy, amend, or restrict your health information should be made in writing to STX Therapy. To protect your privacy, please do not send clinical detail through the website contact form; we will provide the appropriate request form and confirm your identity before releasing any information.

We will act on a request for access within thirty days, or within sixty days if an extension is necessary and you are notified in writing. Requests involving mental health records are handled in accordance with both federal law and Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 611.

Complaints

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with us and you may file a complaint with the federal government. We will not retaliate, deny you services, or take any adverse action against you for filing a complaint.

To file a complaint with this practice, contact our Privacy Officer using the information below. We ask that complaints be submitted in writing so that we can investigate thoroughly and respond in writing.

To file a complaint with the federal government, contact the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20201, by telephone at 1-877-696-6775, or online at hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints. Complaints must generally be filed within one hundred eighty days of when you knew or should have known that the violation occurred.

You may also contact the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council regarding the conduct of a licensed clinician, or the Office of the Texas Attorney General regarding state medical privacy requirements.

Privacy Officer

Privacy Officer STX Therapy Co. PLLC San Antonio, Texas Email: contact@stxtherapy.com

Please do not include protected health information, clinical detail, or emergency information in an email or website message. If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, call or text 988 or call 911.

Changes to This Notice

We reserve the right to change this Notice and to make the revised Notice effective for PHI we already maintain as well as information we receive in the future. The current Notice is posted on this website with its effective date, and a copy is available on request.

This Notice of Privacy Practices is reviewed at least annually and updated whenever legal requirements or our practices change.