Notice of Privacy Practices

Effective Date: July 25, 2026

This notice describes how your medical information may be used and disclosed, and how you can get access to it — please review it carefully. This is the complete Notice of Privacy Practices for Clear Focus Psychiatry, reviewed and approved by legal counsel. Download a PDF copy. A signed acknowledgment of receipt is completed as part of intake through the Osmind Patient Portal.

Who Follows This Notice

This notice applies to Clear Focus Psychiatry, a solo telehealth psychiatric practice operated by Alexis Ali, PMHNP-BC, serving patients in Oregon and Washington. It describes the privacy practices of Alexis Ali, PMHNP-BC and all employees, staff, contractors, and business associates who may have access to your health information.

How We Use and Disclose Your Health Information

We collect and maintain health information about you — including your history, diagnoses, treatment, medications, and billing records. We call this your Protected Health Information (PHI).

Uses and Disclosures for Treatment, Payment, and Health Care Operations

We may use and disclose your PHI without your written authorization for the following purposes:

Treatment: To provide, coordinate, or manage your care. Example: we may share your diagnosis and medication list with your primary care provider or therapist to coordinate your treatment.
Payment: To obtain payment for services. Example: we may submit claims to your insurance company that include your diagnosis and the services provided.
Health Care Operations: To support our business activities and quality of care. Example: we may review your records to evaluate the quality of care you received or to train staff.

Uses and Disclosures Permitted Without Your Authorization

We may use or disclose your PHI without your written authorization in the following situations:

As required by law — when federal, state, or local law requires disclosure
Public health activities — to report disease, injury, vital events, or conduct public health surveillance
Victims of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence — including mandatory reporting of child abuse and elder abuse as required by Oregon and Washington law
Health oversight activities — to government agencies for audits, investigations, inspections, or licensing
Judicial and administrative proceedings — in response to a court order, or a subpoena with appropriate safeguards
Law enforcement purposes — for limited law enforcement activities, such as reporting certain types of wounds or identifying a suspect
To avert a serious threat to health or safety — including our duty-to-warn obligations under Oregon and Washington law
Coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors — to identify a deceased person or determine cause of death
Organ and tissue donation — if you are an organ donor, to organizations involved in procurement or transplantation
Research — under certain conditions approved by an institutional review board, with appropriate safeguards
Workers' compensation — as required by workers' compensation laws
Specialized government functions — for military, national security, protective services, or correctional institution activities

Uses and Disclosures That Require Your Written Authorization

For any use or disclosure not described above, we must obtain your written authorization, including most uses and disclosures of psychotherapy notes, uses for marketing purposes, and any disclosure that constitutes a sale of your health information. You may revoke your authorization in writing at any time, except to the extent we have already acted in reliance on it.

Special Protections for Psychotherapy Notes

Psychotherapy notes receive the highest level of protection under HIPAA. These are notes recorded by Alexis Ali, PMHNP-BC that document or analyze the contents of a counseling session, and are kept separate from your medical record. Psychotherapy notes do not include: medication prescribing and monitoring records, session start and stop times, diagnosis, treatment plan, symptoms, prognosis, progress notes, or results of clinical tests.

Authorization is required for almost all uses and disclosures of psychotherapy notes. We will not release your psychotherapy notes without your specific written authorization except in the following limited circumstances: use by Alexis Ali, PMHNP-BC for your treatment; as required by law (e.g., mandatory abuse reporting); to avert a serious and imminent threat to health or safety; for health oversight of Alexis Ali, PMHNP-BC; to defend against legal proceedings brought by you; or as required by the Secretary of HHS for compliance investigations.

Reference: 45 CFR 164.508(a)(2)

Substance Use Disorder Records

If you receive treatment related to a substance use disorder (SUD), those records receive additional federal protections under 42 CFR Part 2. SUD records cannot be used in any civil, criminal, administrative, or legislative proceedings against you without your written consent or a court order and subpoena. These protections apply in addition to HIPAA, and we will not disclose SUD records except as specifically permitted by 42 CFR Part 2.

Your Rights

You have the following rights regarding your health information:

Right to request restrictions — you may ask us to limit how we use or disclose your PHI for treatment, payment, or operations. We are not required to agree, except that we must agree to restrict disclosures to your health plan for services you paid for entirely out-of-pocket.
Right to confidential communications — you may request that we communicate with you about your health information in a specific way or at a specific location. We will accommodate reasonable requests.
Right to inspect and copy — you may request to inspect and obtain a copy of your health information. We will respond within 30 days per HIPAA, or within 15 working days for Washington patients per RCW 70.02.080. Reasonable fees may apply. Psychotherapy notes are generally excluded from this right.
Right to request amendments — you may ask us to amend your health information if you believe it is incorrect or incomplete. We may deny the request in certain circumstances, and you may submit a statement of disagreement.
Right to an accounting of disclosures — you may request a list of certain disclosures we have made of your PHI in the past six years. The first request in a 12-month period is free; additional requests may incur a fee.
Right to a paper copy of this notice — you may request a paper copy of this notice at any time, even if you received it electronically.
Right to breach notification — we will notify you if there is a breach of your unsecured PHI, as required by HIPAA.

Our Duties

We are required by law to maintain the privacy and security of your protected health information, provide you with this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, abide by the terms of this notice currently in effect, and notify you promptly if a breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your information.

We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and the terms of this notice at any time. If we make material changes, the revised notice will be posted on our website and made available through the Osmind Patient Portal. The revised notice will apply to all PHI we maintain.

Complaints

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with:

Alexis Ali, PMHNP-BC — call (971) 407-1230 or send a secure message through the Osmind Patient Portal
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights — hhs.gov/hipaa or call 1-800-368-1019

All complaints must be submitted in writing. You will not be retaliated against or penalized for filing a complaint.

Contact Information

Privacy Officer: Alexis Ali, PMHNP-BC
Phone: (971) 407-1230
Secure Message: Osmind Patient Portal
Email: contact@clearfocuspsychiatry.com

Additional Information

The sections below are supplementary practice and website information, not part of the counsel-approved notice above.

Telehealth & Technology

Clear Focus Psychiatry uses HIPAA-compliant technology to support telehealth visits, secure messaging, scheduling, billing, records, and electronic prescribing — including EPCS for controlled substances. Every technology partner that may handle your protected health information operates under a signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA), consistent with HIPAA's privacy and security requirements.

Website Privacy

New patient intake is handled through Osmind One. This website does not store medical records. The inquiry form, if used, collects basic contact information to facilitate scheduling and should not be used for urgent or detailed clinical information.

We do not use tracking cookies or third-party analytics on this website.

Additional State Law Citations

Oregon law (ORS 179.505; ORS 192.553–192.581) provides additional protections for mental health records beyond HIPAA. Psychotherapy notes and mental health records receive heightened protection and will not be disclosed without your specific written authorization except as required by law. A general medical release is not sufficient for mental health, substance use disorder, or HIV-related records (ORS 192.567).

Washington's Uniform Health Care Information Act (RCW 70.02) provides heightened protections for mental health records. The fact of admission to mental health services and all records from those services may not be disclosed except as specifically permitted by law (RCW 70.02.230).