Because we are a free clinic and neither bill nor communicate with health insurance companies electronically, the San Francisco Free Clinic is a ‘non-covered entity” under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).  However, for purposes of good patient care, we will follow the HIPAA privacy and security guidelines to the best of our ability. 

The San Francisco Free Clinic has written Privacy Practices which are available for your review .  Our Privacy Practices document describes how we may use or disclose a patient's protected health information, with whom that information may be shared, and the safeguards we have in place to protect it.  This notice also describes a patient's rights to access and amend their protected health information.  They have the right to approve or refuse the release of specific information outside of our clinic system, except when the release is required or authorized by law or regulation.