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.

This notice applies to Khoury Eye Care, the optometric practice of Sam Khoury, Optometrist. In it, “we” and “the practice” mean Khoury Eye Care. “Health information” means the records we hold about your eyes, your health, your visits and your billing.

Khoury Eye Care · Effective 12 September 2026

Your rights

These are yours to use, and using them costs you nothing beyond the copying fees noted below. Ask at the desk or call and we will tell you how.

Get a copy of your records

You can see or get a copy of your eye records and billing records, on paper or electronically, and you can ask us to send them to someone else. We will provide a copy or a summary, usually within 30 days. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee for copying.

Ask us to correct your records

If you believe something in your record is wrong or incomplete, you can ask us to correct it. We may say no, and if we do we will tell you why in writing within 60 days.

Ask us to contact you a particular way

You can ask us to call a specific number, to write to a different address, or to avoid a particular method entirely. We will say yes to all reasonable requests, and we do not require you to explain why.

Ask us to limit what we share

You can ask us not to use or share particular information for treatment, payment or running the practice. We are not required to agree — for instance, if it would affect your care — and if we do agree we may still share it if you need emergency treatment.

One restriction we must honour. If you pay for a visit, a test or an item out of pocket in full, you can tell us not to share information about it with your health plan for payment or operations, and we will agree unless a law requires us to share it.

Get a list of who we have shared your information with

You can ask for an accounting of the times we shared your health information in the six years before your request, who received it and why. It leaves out sharing for treatment, payment and running the practice, and anything you asked us to send. One list a year is free; we may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee for another within twelve months.

Get a paper copy of this notice

You can ask for a paper copy at any time, even if you agreed to receive it electronically, and we will give you one promptly.

Choose someone to act for you

If someone holds your medical power of attorney or is your legal guardian, that person can exercise these rights and make choices about your health information. We will confirm the authority before acting on it.

Complain if you think your privacy was not respected

Tell us, or tell the federal government, or both. Details are at the end of this notice. We will not retaliate against you for complaining.

Your choices

For some information you can tell us what you want done. If you have a preference, say so and we will follow it.

You can tell us whether to share with family or friends. We may share relevant information with a family member, a close friend or anyone else involved in your care or in paying for it — and you can tell us not to. If you are not able to tell us your preference, for example if you are unconscious, we may share what we believe is in your best interest. We may also share what is needed to reduce a serious and immediate threat to anyone's health or safety.

You can tell us whether to share in a disaster relief situation, so that family can be notified of your condition and location.

Three things we never do without your written permission: use or share your information for marketing; sell your information; or share psychotherapy notes. We do not maintain psychotherapy notes. If you give written permission you can withdraw it at any time, in writing.

Appointment reminders, recall notices, test results and anything else about your own care are not marketing, and we will continue to send those unless you ask us to stop.

How we normally use and share your information

To treat you

We use your record to examine you, follow findings over time and decide what to do next, and we share it with other professionals treating you. For example: when we refer you to a retinal specialist we send the imaging ahead, and when another doctor asks us for a test we send the result back to them — visual fields and retinal scans to the rheumatologist who asked for hydroxychloroquine screening, a diabetic eye report to your endocrinologist or primary care doctor.

To run the practice

We use your record to schedule appointments, recall you for follow-up, review the quality of care we give, train staff and meet our legal obligations. For example: we use your record to work out when your next screening is due and to contact you about it.

To get the visit paid for

We use and share your information to check your coverage, submit claims and collect payment. For example: before your appointment we may check your eligibility with your medical plan or vision plan, and after the visit we send the plan the information it needs to pay the claim.

Through the companies that help us do those things

The practice uses outside services to operate — an electronic health record system, an online new-patient form, appointment and telephone services, and billing and payment processing. They see only what they need in order to do that work, and each is bound by a written contract to protect your information and to use it for nothing else.

Other ways the law allows or requires us to share

The law sets conditions we have to meet before sharing for any of the following, and we share only what the situation requires.

Public health and safety — reporting a communicable disease, an adverse reaction to a medication, a product problem or recall, or suspected abuse, neglect or domestic violence; and preventing or reducing a serious threat to anyone's health or safety
When a law requires it — including with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services when it is checking whether we are following federal privacy law
Health oversight — audits, investigations and licensing activity authorised by law
Courts and law enforcement — in response to a court order, an administrative order or a subpoena, and for law enforcement purposes permitted by law
Workers' compensation claims
Organ and tissue donation, and sharing with a coroner, medical examiner or funeral director after a death
Research, under the conditions the law sets for it
Special government functions — military, national security and protective services

In all of the cases above, if we hold substance use disorder patient records about you that are subject to 42 CFR part 2, we cannot use or share information in those records in a civil, criminal, administrative or legislative investigation or proceeding against you without either your written consent or a court order together with a subpoena.

Substance use disorder records

This practice does not diagnose or treat substance use disorder. Records we receive from other providers may nonetheless contain substance use disorder information that federal law protects more strictly than ordinary health information, and this section applies if they do.

We cannot use or share those records against you in any civil, criminal, administrative or legislative investigation or proceeding without your written consent or a court order together with a subpoena. Anyone who receives such records from us may not pass them on again except as that law permits. You may complain about a possible violation to us or directly to the federal Office for Civil Rights, using the details at the end of this notice. Unauthorised disclosure of these records can carry criminal penalties.

Where New Jersey law is stricter, we follow New Jersey law

Some categories of information carry protection beyond what federal law requires, and for those we follow the stricter rule:

HIV and AIDS-related information — not released without your specific written authorisation, except in the narrow circumstances New Jersey law allows
Genetic information and the results of genetic testing — not released without your written informed consent, except where New Jersey law permits it
Mental health records — released only with your written consent, unless it is for your treatment or another law requires it

If you want to know how a particular category of information in your record would be handled, ask and we will tell you before anything is sent.

Text messages and email

You can ask us to reach you by text or email, and we will. You should know what that means before you choose it.

Text messages and ordinary email are not secure channels. The content can be read in transit, your carrier retains records of the message outside our control, and anyone with access to your phone or inbox can read it. We use text for appointment and scheduling matters only. We do not send test results, imaging or clinical detail by text, and we ask you not to describe symptoms or send photographs that way — call instead.

If you would rather we never text or email you, tell us and we will note it in your record.

Our responsibilities

We are required by law to maintain the privacy and security of your health information.
We will tell you promptly if a breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your information.
We must follow the duties and practices described in this notice, and give you a copy of it.
We will not use or share your information other than as described here unless you tell us in writing that we can. If you tell us we can, you may change your mind at any time — let us know in writing.

Changes to this notice

We can change the terms of this notice, and a change applies to all the information we hold about you, including information we already had. The current notice is always posted at khouryeyecare.com/privacy, displayed in the office, and available on request.

Questions and complaints

If you have a question about this notice, or you believe your privacy rights have not been respected, contact the practice first — most of it is faster to sort out directly. You do not have to, and you may go straight to the federal government instead, or do both.

Privacy Official
Sam Khoury, Optometrist
Khoury Eye Care
4403 Black Horse Pike
Mays Landing, NJ 08330
Telephone (609) 246-0236
Email info@khouryeyecare.com
Fax (609) 855-5028

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights
200 Independence Avenue S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201
Telephone 1-877-696-6775
hhs.gov/hipaa/filing-a-complaint

We will not retaliate against you for making a complaint, to us or to anyone else, and it will not affect your care.

Khoury Eye Care · Notice of Privacy Practices · Effective 12 September 2026