Privacy Policy
Notice of Privacy Practices
Hope Vision Development Center, LLC
Address: 235 Citrus Tower Blvd., #107, Clermont, FL 34711
Phone: (352) 243-4673
Fax: (352) 243-4673
Email: info@hopevdc.com
Contact: Dr. Allison Toler, OD, FAAO, FOVDR
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.
We respect our legal obligation to keep health information that identifies you private. We are obligated by law to give you notice of our privacy practices. This Notice describes how we protect your health information and what rights you have regarding it.
TREATMENT, PAYMENT, AND HEALTH CARE OPERATIONS
The most common reason why we use or disclose your health information is for treatment, payment, or health care operations. Examples of how we use or disclose information for treatment purposes are: setting up an appointment for you; conducting vision evaluations and vision therapy sessions; prescribing glasses, contact lenses, prism lenses, or vision therapy home activities; referring you to another doctor or specialist for additional care; or obtaining copies of your health information from another professional that you may have seen before us.
Examples of how we use or disclose your health information for payment purposes are: asking you about your payment arrangements or scholarship funding (such as Florida Empowerment Scholarship FES-UA); preparing and providing invoices, superbills, Letters of Medical Necessity, or Good Faith Estimates; and collecting unpaid amounts either ourselves or through a billing service. "Health care operations" means those administrative and managerial functions that we need to carry out in order to run our office. Examples include: internal quality assurance; personnel decisions; business planning; defense of legal matters; and outside storage of our records.
We routinely use your health information inside our office for these purposes without any special permission. If we need to disclose your health information outside of our office for these reasons, we usually will not ask you for special written permission.
USES AND DISCLOSURES FOR OTHER REASONS WITHOUT PERMISSION
In some limited situations, the law allows or requires us to use or disclose your health information without your permission. Not all of these situations will apply to us; some may never come up at our office at all. Such uses or disclosures are:
When a state or federal law mandates that certain health information be reported for a specific purpose;
For public health purposes, such as contagious disease reporting, investigation, or surveillance; and notices to and from the federal Food and Drug Administration regarding drugs or medical devices;
Disclosures to governmental authorities about victims of suspected abuse, neglect, or domestic violence;
Uses and disclosures for health oversight activities, such as for the licensing of doctors; for audits by Medicare or Medicaid; or for investigation of possible violations of health care laws;
Disclosures for judicial and administrative proceedings, such as in response to subpoenas or orders of courts or administrative agencies;
Disclosures for law enforcement purposes, such as to provide information about someone who is or is suspected to be a victim of a crime; to provide information about a crime at our office; or to report a crime that happened somewhere else;
Disclosure to a medical examiner to identify a deceased person or to determine the cause of death; or to funeral directors to aid in burial; or to organizations that handle organ or tissue donations;
Uses or disclosures for health-related research;
Uses and disclosures to prevent a serious threat to health or safety;
Uses or disclosures for specialized government functions, such as for lawful national intelligence activities or military purposes;
Disclosures of de-identified information;
Disclosures relating to workers' compensation programs;
Incidental disclosures that are an unavoidable by-product of permitted uses or disclosures;
Disclosures to "business associates" who perform health care operations for us and who commit to respect the privacy of your health information.
Unless you object, we will also share relevant information about your care with family members or others who are assisting with your or your child's vision therapy care.
APPOINTMENT REMINDERS
We may call or write to remind you of scheduled appointments, or that it is time to make a routine appointment. We may also contact you to notify you of other treatments or services available at our office that might help you. Unless you tell us otherwise, we may mail you an appointment reminder, leave a reminder message on your voicemail, or send a message to the phone number or email address you have provided. If you provide a mobile phone number, we may send you SMS text message reminders. SMS consent is not shared with third parties.
SMS TERMS OF SERVICE
By opting into SMS from a web form or other medium, you are agreeing to receive SMS messages from Hope Vision Development Center. This includes SMS messages for conversations (external), conversations (between employees). Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. See privacy policy at www.hope.vision/privacy-policy. Message HELP for help. Reply STOP to any message to opt out.
OTHER USES AND DISCLOSURES
We will not make any other uses or disclosures of your health information unless you sign a written "authorization form." The content of an "authorization form" is determined by federal law. Sometimes, we may initiate the authorization process if the use or disclosure is our idea. Sometimes, you may initiate the process if it is your idea for us to send your information to someone else.
If we initiate the process and ask you to sign an authorization form, you do not have to sign it. If you do not sign the authorization, we cannot make the use or disclosure. If you do sign one, you may revoke it at any time unless we have already acted in reliance upon it. Revocations must be in writing. Send them to the office contact person named at the beginning of this Notice.
YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION
The law gives you many rights regarding your health information. You can:
Ask us to restrict our uses and disclosures for purposes of treatment (except emergency treatment), payment, or health care operations. We do not have to agree to do this, but if we agree, we must honor the restrictions that you want. To ask for a restriction, send a written request to the office contact person at the address or email shown at the beginning of this Notice.
Ask us to communicate with you in a confidential way, such as by calling you at a specific number, mailing health information to a different address, or using a specific email address. We will accommodate these requests if they are reasonable. Send written requests to the office contact person shown at the beginning of this Notice.
Ask to see or get photocopies of your health information. By law, there are a few limited situations in which we can refuse access. For the most part, however, you will be able to review or receive a copy of your health information within 30 days of asking us. You may be charged for photocopies in advance. If we deny your request, we will send you a written explanation and instructions about how to get an impartial review if one is legally available.
Ask us to amend your health information if you think that it is incorrect or incomplete. If we agree, we will amend the information within 60 days. We will send the corrected information to persons we know received the wrong information, and others that you specify. If we do not agree, you can write a statement of your position, and we will include it with your health information along with any rebuttal statement that we may write.
Get a list of the disclosures that we have made of your health information within the past six years (or a shorter period if you prefer). By law, the list will not include disclosures for treatment, payment, or health care operations; disclosures with your authorization; incidental disclosures; disclosures required by law; and some other limited disclosures. You are entitled to one such list per year without charge.
Get additional paper copies of this Notice of Privacy Practices upon request, regardless of whether you previously received one electronically or in paper form. Send a written request to the office contact person shown at the beginning of this Notice.
OUR NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
By law, we must abide by the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices until we choose to change it. We reserve the right to change this Notice at any time as allowed by law. If we change this Notice, the new privacy practices will apply to your health information that we already have, as well as to such information that we may generate in the future. If we change our Notice of Privacy Practices, we will post the new notice in our office, have copies available in our office, and post it on our website.
COMPLAINTS
If you think that we have not properly respected the privacy of your health information, you are free to complain to us or to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. We will not retaliate against you if you make a complaint. If you want to complain to us, send a written complaint to the office contact person at the address or email shown at the beginning of this Notice. If you prefer, you can discuss your complaint in person or by phone.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
If you want more information about our privacy practices, call or visit the office contact person at the address or phone number shown at the beginning of this Notice.
WEBSITE PRIVACY POLICY
The following information describes the privacy practices for www.hopevdc.com. This privacy notice applies solely to information collected by this website. It will notify you of the following:
What personally identifiable information is collected from you through the website, how it is used, and with whom it may be shared.
What choices are available to you regarding the use of your data.
The security procedures in place to protect the misuse of your information.
How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.
Information Collection, Use, and Sharing
We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to and collect information that you voluntarily give us via email, inquiry forms, or other direct contact. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone.
We will use your information to respond to you regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as necessary to fulfill your request, or as required by law.
Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about news, services, or changes to this privacy policy.
Your Access to and Control Over Information
You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time. You can do the following at any time by contacting us via the email address or phone number shown on our website:
See what data we have about you, if any.
Change or correct any data we have about you.
Have us delete any data we have about you.
Express any concern you have about our use of your data.
Security
We take precautions to protect your information. When you submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and offline. Wherever we collect sensitive information, that information is encrypted and transmitted to us in a secure way. You can verify this by looking for a lock icon in the address bar and "https" at the beginning of the web page address.
While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only staff members who need the information to perform a specific job are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers and servers on which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.
Effective Date: June 16, 2026