Notice of Privacy Practices

Dabney Behavioral Health [confirm legal name] (Illinois) and Dabney Behavioral Health California
Effective date: [October 13, 2026, or the go-live date]

This notice describes how medical and mental health information about you may be used and shared, and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully.

Our duties

We are required by law to keep your health information private, to give you this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, to follow the notice currently in effect, and to tell you if there is a breach of your unsecured health information.

How we may use and share your information without your written permission

• Treatment. We share information among the clinicians, supervisors and staff who care for you, and with other providers involved in your care.
• Payment. We share information with your health plan (including Medicaid and Medi-Cal) to bill and get paid, for example to confirm coverage or get a prior authorization.
• Health care operations. We use information to run our practice: quality reviews, supervision, training, audits and compliance checks.
• Business associates. We share information with companies that help us, such as our electronic health record and secure file services. They must sign an agreement to protect it.
• When the law requires or allows it: to report suspected abuse or neglect of a child, older adult or person with a disability; to prevent a serious threat to your health or safety or someone else's; for public health activities; to health oversight agencies (such as audits and licensing); in response to a court order; to law enforcement in limited cases; to coroners and medical examiners; for workers' compensation; and for specialized government functions.

Uses that need your written permission

We need your written authorization to share psychotherapy notes, to use your information for marketing, or to sell it. We do not sell health information. You may take back (revoke) a permission in writing at any time, except for what we already did in reliance on it. We do not use your information for fundraising.

Stronger protections for mental health records

Illinois' Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act, and in California the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, give extra protection to mental health records. When state law is stricter than HIPAA, we follow the stricter rule. In many cases this means we ask for your written consent before sharing, even where HIPAA would not require it.

Substance use disorder records

If we keep records about substance use disorder treatment that are protected by federal law (42 CFR Part 2), we will not use or share them in a civil, criminal, administrative or legislative proceeding against you unless you give written consent, or a court orders it after notice to you and a chance to be heard. A court order must be accompanied by a subpoena or similar legal requirement. [Confirm whether DBHHC keeps any Part 2 records; counsel to confirm this section meets the 2024 Part 2 rule.]

Your rights

• See and get a copy of your records, on paper or electronically. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee.
• Ask us to correct information you believe is wrong or incomplete. We will answer in writing within 60 days.
• Ask for confidential communication, for example calls only to a certain phone number or mail to a different address. We will agree to reasonable requests.
• Ask us to limit what we use or share. We are not required to agree, except that we must agree not to share with your health plan a service you paid for in full out of pocket, if you ask.
• Get a list of certain times we shared your information in the last six years (an accounting of disclosures).
• Get a paper copy of this notice at any time, even if you agreed to get it electronically.
• Choose someone to act for you, such as a legal guardian or someone with medical power of attorney.
• File a complaint if you think your rights were violated. Contact us (below) or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, at www.hhs.gov/ocr/complaints or 1-800-368-1019. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.

Minors

For clients under 18, a parent or legal guardian usually makes these choices. Under Illinois law, a client 12 to 17 has certain rights of their own over their mental health records, and a parent's access may be limited if the teen objects and the clinician agrees access is not in the teen's best interest. [Counsel to confirm wording; add California minor-consent language for the California office.]

Changes to this notice

We can change this notice, and the changes will apply to all information we have. The new notice will be posted on this website, in our patient portal, and available on request.

Contact our Privacy Officials

Corrina [last name] and Derrick Wilson
Email: privacy@dbhhc.org
Illinois: 845 West 69th Street, Chicago, IL 60621 · (773) 651-6809
California: 626 W. Lancaster Blvd. 70, Lancaster, CA 93534 · (661) 220-8413 [confirm: the Privacy Notice page and California footer use (661) 220-9977]
Website privacy notice: Privacy Notice