Privacy Policy | Dr Erika

Erika Schwartz MDPC, Erika Schwartz MD, Dr. Erika, DrErika and DrErika.com are hereinafter collectively referred to as DrErika.com. DrErika.com was founded to provide healthcare advice and services to people of all ages through two venues: clinical care from its base in New York City, New York; medical/health educational services through lectures, books and website nationally and internationally.

As a medical practice, the New York City office conforms to the strict regulations of Federal law, as detailed below. Both organizations protect your privacy to the fullest extent required by law.

DrErika.com will protect your privacy, including any health-related information, to the fullest extent of the law. We will not disclose any such information to any third party — not even your name and address — for any purpose other than the fulfillment of orders you have placed for our products and services.

DrErika.com has created this Policy in order to clearly communicate our commitment to your privacy. This Policy is applicable to this DrErika.com website and any other website or online communications facilities owned or operated by DrErika.com. DrErika.com reserves the right to change this Policy at any time. Using our web site demonstrates your consent to DrErika.com's collection and use of information pursuant to this Policy and continued use of this site following the posting of changes to this Policy will signify your acceptance of such changes. This Policy governs the use of your name, e-mail address, payment information, and similar personal information that you may provide DrErika.com in the course of using our website, products or services.

DrErika.com Collects Personal Information. We collect personal information in order to provide certain products and services to its customers. For example, if you:

Place a product order, DrErika.com will collect and use your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and credit card information;
Request promotional items, DrErika.com will collect and use your name and address, or e-mail address;
Post information on any of our interactive areas, DrErika.com will collect information from you in order to e-mail you major updates about Dr. Erika, the products and services;
Sign-up for the Dr. Erika mailing list, DrErika.com will collect information from you in order to facilitate the publishing of that mailing list; and
Send our link to friends through our website, DrErika.com will collect the information from you in order to facilitate the transmission of the e-mail.

Information that you submit about yourself may be used by DrErika.com to provide you requested services, communicate with you about DrErika.com products, improve your online experience, or support our continuing efforts to offer you the information and services you want most. Currently, we do not share your specific information with non-affiliated companies or organizations outside of DrErika.com without your permission. We reserve the right to do so in the future, however. DrErika.com does provide aggregate statistics and information about our sales, traffic patterns and related site information to third parties. We also reserve the right to share aggregate statistical data of which your personal information is a part, as well as your specific personal information sometime in the future. You are responsible for checking this Policy periodically to monitor any changes to our data sharing practices.

In addition, DrErika.com may, and you hereby authorize us to, disclose your personal information when required to do so by law, when DrErika.com, in its sole discretion believes that you are in violation of our Terms of Service Agreement, or when you violate any state or federal laws, or DrErika.com in its sole discretion deems it necessary or appropriate to protect the personal safety of other users of DrErika.com services or to protect the rights or property of DrErika.com or Dr. Erika.

DrErika.com's E-mail Announcements and Newsletters. DrErika.com may use e-mail to send announcements regarding new products, services, and/or promotions, and informational newsletters.. By posting material on any of our interactive areas, you are opting in to receiving these e-mail announcements. You can choose to unsubscribe to DrErika.com e-mail at any time by sending an email to unsubscribe@DrErika.com. DrErika.com will also send replies to customer e-mail via e-mail. Finally, if you have sent a request to DrErika.com about which we need to communicate with you, we may do so by e-mail.

Security is a Top Concern. Although DrErika.com carefully selects its third party service providers, advertisers and other affiliates, is sensitive to the privacy and security of your personal information, and intends to safeguard such information, DrErika.com and any such third parties cannot guarantee absolute security for such information. Such information may be transmitted through or using the Internet, other public telecommunications networks, servers, hardware and software ("systems") that are not owned, operated, or controlled by DrErika.com, and DrErika.com makes no assurances that such information will remain private when transmitted by DrErika.com through such systems. Although we use industry standard practices to protect your privacy, we do not promise, and you should not expect, that your personally identifiable information or private communications are impenetrable to hackers.

DrErika.com Uses Cookies. DrErika.com collects certain information about how website visitors and users use the DrErika.com website by using technology called "cookies", which are bits of information that a website transfers to an individual's hard drive for record keeping purposes. Cookies can enhance your online experience by automatically saving your preferences. We use cookies because they help us to provide you a better online experience. The information we collect through the use of cookies does allow DrErika.com to know when and for how long you logged on to the DrErika.com website, so that we can try to understand how to better serve your needs. If you object to the use of cookies for any reason, you may set your Internet browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, giving you the opportunity to decide whether to accept it. If, however, you decline to receive cookies, you may have difficulty in using certain features of this site.

DrErika.com's Interactive Areas. DrErika.com is not liable for information posted in interactive areas. DrErika.com provides interactive areas such as discussion forums to enhance the user experience and build a healthy community around our website's products and services. You acknowledge that should you participate in such interactive areas, the information you voluntarily post about yourself and third parties in such areas might be accessed, collected and used by third parties outside of DrErika.com.

In addition, you may not post any defamatory, obscene, slanderous, or otherwise illegal material, or any material which infringes any third-party copyrights or other intellectual property rights on any interactive areas. Violators will be subject to termination of accounts and possible legal action. Although DrErika.com employs advanced security technology, it cannot guarantee complete security in personal websites or password-protected areas, and DrErika.com will not be held liable for any user's or other visitor's disclosure of personal information on DrErika.com or any other website operated by DrErika.com.

The information we collect in connection with our Community section or as part of a User Submission is used to provide an interactive experience. For example, we may use this information to write E-mails, to publish submissions, or, from time to time, to offer you services, programs, or products.

We sometimes use the non-personally identifiable information that we collect to improve the design and content of the Site and to enable us to personalize your Internet experience. We may also use this information in the aggregate to analyze site usage, as well as to offer you services, programs, or products. We may also sell, transfer or otherwise distribute certain aggregated non-personal information to third parties. DrErika.com may on occasion combine information we receive online with outside records to enhance our ability to offer information or market to you those services or products that may be of interest to you.

Links to/from Other Sites

DrErika.com contains links to other web sites that are operated by third parties. With prior permission, other sites may also reference or link to DrErika.com. DrErika.com is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those other sites. DrErika.com makes no representations concerning any effort to review the content of sites to which it may be linked and has no control over information submitted to other sites. Visitors should consult the other sites’ privacy notices prior to submitting any information, as we have no control over information that is submitted to, or collected by, these third parties.

Disputes. DrErika.com Privacy Policy disputes are handled by its customer service team with the highest concern for your privacy.

DrErika.com Links. DrErika.com may contain links to websites not owned or controlled by DrErika.com. DrErika.com is not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of any such sites. For other Terms of Service applicable to this site, please review the Terms of Service Agreement by clicking here.

A Special Note about Children. DrErika.com and its services are not directed to minors. We seek to dissuade registration from persons under 18 and do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from them. If you are under 18 years of age, do not use our service.

Notice of privacy practices regarding the New York City Office

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.

This Notice of Privacy Practices describes how we may use and disclose your protected health information to carry out treatment, payment or health care operations and for other purposes that are permitted or required by law. It also describes your rights to access and control your protected health information. “Protected health information” is information about you, including demographic information, that may identify you and that relates to your past, present or future physical or mental health or condition and related health care services.

We are required to abide by the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices. We may change the terms of our notice, at any time. The new notice will be effective for all protected health information that we maintain at that time.

Understanding your health record/information

Each time you visit the office, a record of your visit is made. Typically, this record contains your symptoms, examination and test results, diagnoses, treatment, and a plan for future care or treatment. This information, often referred to as your health or medical record, serves as a:

basis for planning your care and treatment;
means of communication among the professionals who contribute to your care;
legal document describing the care you received;
means by which you or a third-party payer can verify that services billed were actually provided
a tool in educating heath professionals;
source of data for medical research;
source of information for public health officials charged with improving the health of the nation;
source of data for facility planning and marketing;
a tool with which we can assess and continually work to improve the care we render and the outcomes we achieve.

Understanding what is in your record and how your health information is used helps you to:

ensure its accuracy;
better understand who, what, when, where, and why others may access your health information;
make more informed decisions when authorizing disclosure to others.

Your health information rights

Although your health record is the physical property of the healthcare practitioner or facility that compiled it, the information belongs to you. You have the right to:

request a restriction on certain uses and disclosures of your information;
obtain a paper copy of the notice of information practices upon request;
inspect and obtain a copy of your health record
amend your health record;
obtain an accounting of disclosures of your health information;
request communications of your health information by alternative means or at alternative locations;
revoke your authorization to use or disclose health information except to the extent that action has already been taken.

Our responsibilities

The office is required to:

maintain the privacy of your health information;
provide you with a notice as to our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to information we collect and maintain about you;
abide by the terms of this notice;
notify you if we are unable to agree to a requested restriction;
accommodate reasonable requests you may have to communicate health information by alternative means or at alternative locations.

We will not use or disclose your health information without your authorization, except as described in this notice.

Examples of disclosures for treatment and payment

We will use your health information for treatment.
For example: Information obtained by a member of your healthcare team will be recorded in your record and used to determine the course of treatment that should work best for you. We may provide your physician or a subsequent healthcare provider with copies of various reports that should assist him or her in treating you.

Business associates: There are some services provided in our office through contacts with business associates. When these services are contracted, we may disclose your health information to our business associate so that they can perform the job we’ve asked them to do and bill you or your third-party payer for services rendered. To protect your health information, however, we require the business associate to appropriately safeguard your information.

Notification: We may use or disclose information to notify or assist in notifying a family member, personal representative, or another person responsible for your care, your location, and general condition.

Communication with family: Health professionals, using their best judgment, may disclose to a family member, other relative, close personal friend or any other person you identify, health information relevant to that person’s involvement in your care or payment related to your care.

Research: We may disclose information to researchers when their research has been approved by an institutional review board that has reviewed the research proposal and established protocols to ensure the privacy of your health information.

Marketing: We may contact you to provide appointment reminders or information about treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA): We may disclose to the FDA health information relative to adverse events with respect to food, supplements, product and product defects, or post marketing surveillance information to enable product recalls, repairs, or replacement.

Workers’ Compensation: We may disclose health information to the extent authorized by and to the extent necessary to comply with laws relating to Workers’ Compensation or other similar programs established by law.

Public health: As required by law, we may disclose your health information to public health or legal authorities charged with preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability.

Law enforcement: We may disclose health information for law enforcement purposes as required by law or in response to a valid subpoena.

Federal law makes provision for your health information to be released to an appropriate health oversight agency, public health authority or attorney, provided that a work force member or business associate believes in good faith that we have engaged in unlawful conduct or have otherwise violated professional or clinical standards and are potentially endangering one or more patients, workers or the public.

This site is for informational and educational purposes only and the information contained herein does not constitute the rendering of medical advice or the provision of treatment or treatment recommendations. The content has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Browsing this site does not establish a professional relationship with Erika Schwartz, M.D. or any member of her professional staff. Any medical or other decision should be made in consultation with your qualified healthcare provider.