Notice of Privacy Practices

Primary Care of North Carolina, PLLC · 2409 Murchison Road, Fayetteville, NC 28301 · Effective date: October 10, 2026

Our commitment to your privacy

Primary Care of North Carolina, PLLC (“we,” “us” or “our”) is required by law to keep your protected health information (PHI) private, to give you this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, to follow the terms of the notice currently in effect, and to notify you if a breach of your unsecured health information occurs. PHI is information that identifies you and relates to your past, present or future physical or mental health, the care you receive, or payment for that care.

Some of the information we keep, including records of opioid use disorder and other substance use disorder treatment, receives extra protection under federal law (42 CFR Part 2) and North Carolina law. Those added protections are described in the “Substance use disorder treatment records” section below.

Your rights

When it comes to your health information, you have the right to:

• Get a copy of your health record. You may ask to see or get an electronic or paper copy of your medical record and other health information we have about you. We will usually provide a copy or summary within 30 days of your request. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee.
• Ask us to correct your record. You may ask us to correct health information you think is incorrect or incomplete. We may say no, but we will tell you why in writing within 60 days.
• Request confidential communications. You may ask us to contact you in a specific way (for example, a home or office phone) or to send mail to a different address. We will say yes to all reasonable requests.
• Ask us to limit what we use or share. You may ask us not to use or share certain health information for treatment, payment or our operations. We are not required to agree, and we may say no if it would affect your care. If you pay for a service or item out of pocket in full, you may ask us not to share that information with your health insurer, and we will say yes unless a law requires us to share it.
• Get a list of those with whom we have shared information. You may ask for a list (accounting) of the times we have shared your health information for six years prior to the date you ask, who we shared it with, and why. This list will not include disclosures for treatment, payment and health care operations, and certain other disclosures (such as those you asked us to make). We will provide one accounting a year for free but may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee for additional requests within 12 months.
• Get a copy of this notice. You may ask for a paper copy of this notice at any time, even if you agreed to receive it electronically.
• Choose someone to act for you. If you have given someone medical power of attorney or if someone is your legal guardian, that person can exercise your rights and make choices about your health information.
• File a complaint if you feel your rights are violated. See “Questions and complaints” below.

Your choices

For certain health information, you can tell us your choices about what we share. In these cases, you have both the right and choice to tell us to:

• Share information with your family, close friends or others involved in your care.
• Share information in a disaster relief situation.

If you are not able to tell us your preference, for example if you are unconscious, we may share your information if we believe it is in your best interest. We may also share your information when needed to lessen a serious and imminent threat to health or safety.

We will never share your information for marketing purposes or sell your information unless you give us written permission. We do not conduct fundraising.

How we may use and share your health information

We typically use or share your health information in the following ways:

• To treat you. We can use your health information and share it with other professionals who are treating you. Example: a provider treating you for an injury asks another provider about your overall health condition.
• To run our practice. We can use and share your health information to run our practice, improve your care and contact you when necessary, including appointment reminders by phone, text or email. Example: we use health information about you to manage your treatment and services.
• To arrange payment. We do not bill health insurance. If a service you receive is paid for by a third party, such as a grant or public program that funds free care, we may share the minimum information needed to document and receive that payment, as allowed by law.

We are allowed or required to share your information in other ways, usually in ways that contribute to the public good, such as public health and research. We have to meet many conditions in the law before we can share your information for these purposes:

• Public health and safety. Preventing disease, helping with product recalls, reporting adverse reactions to medications, reporting suspected abuse, neglect or domestic violence, and preventing or reducing a serious threat to anyone’s health or safety.
• Research. We can use or share your information for health research when approved and permitted by law.
• Comply with the law. We will share information about you if state or federal laws require it, including with the Department of Health and Human Services if it wants to see that we are complying with federal privacy law.
• Organ and tissue donation requests.
• Medical examiners or funeral directors when an individual dies.
• Workers’ compensation, law enforcement and other government requests, including for special government functions such as military, national security and presidential protective services, and health oversight activities authorized by law.
• Lawsuits and legal actions. We can share health information in response to a court or administrative order, or in response to a subpoena, as permitted by law.
• Business associates. We may share information with companies that perform services for us, such as our secure email and records vendors. They must sign an agreement to protect your information.

Uses and disclosures not described in this notice, including most uses of psychotherapy notes, will be made only with your written authorization. You may revoke an authorization in writing at any time, except to the extent we have already acted on it.

Substance use disorder treatment records (42 CFR Part 2)

Records of opioid use disorder and other substance use disorder (SUD) treatment that we create as a federally assisted program are protected by federal law and regulations at 42 U.S.C. § 290dd-2 and 42 CFR Part 2, in addition to HIPAA. In general:

• Your written consent is required before we use or disclose these records, except in limited situations allowed by Part 2. You may give a single consent for all future uses and disclosures for treatment, payment and health care operations. You may revoke your consent in writing at any time, except to the extent we have already acted on it.
• Exceptions without consent are limited to medical emergencies, scientific research meeting federal requirements, audits and program evaluations, reports of suspected child abuse or neglect under state law, crimes on our premises or against our staff, de-identified public health reporting, and disclosures authorized by a qualifying court order.
• Legal proceedings. Your SUD records, or testimony describing their contents, may not be used or disclosed in any civil, criminal, administrative or legislative investigation or proceeding against you unless you give specific written consent or a court issues an order that meets Part 2 requirements, accompanied by a subpoena.
• Separate consent for counseling notes. SUD counseling notes, if kept separately from your record, may be disclosed only with a consent that applies specifically to them.
• Your rights under Part 2 include the right to request restrictions on disclosures for treatment, payment and health care operations, the right to an accounting of disclosures made with your consent, and the right to a list of disclosures made by intermediaries.
• Fundraising. We do not conduct fundraising. If we ever did, you would have the right to opt out of receiving fundraising communications.

Violation of Part 2 is a federal offense. You may report suspected violations to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (see below), and to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Federal law does not protect information about a crime committed by a patient at our program or against our staff, or about suspected child abuse or neglect reported under state law.

North Carolina law

North Carolina law gives additional protection to certain information, including mental health, developmental disability and substance use services records (N.C.G.S. Chapter 122C) and information about communicable diseases such as HIV (N.C.G.S. § 130A-143). Minors may consent to certain services, including treatment for substance use and emotional disturbance, under N.C.G.S. § 90-21.5, and we will protect that information as the law requires. When state law is more protective of your privacy than federal law, we follow the more protective law.

Our responsibilities

• We are required by law to maintain the privacy and security of your protected health information.
• We will let you know promptly if a breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your information.
• We must follow the duties and privacy 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 we can in writing.

Changes to this notice

We can change the terms of this notice, and the changes will apply to all information we have about you. The new notice will be available upon request, in our office and on our website.

Questions and complaints

If you have questions, want to exercise any of your rights, or believe your privacy rights have been violated, contact our Privacy Officer:

You may also file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights by writing to 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201, calling 1-877-696-6775, or visiting www.hhs.gov/ocr/complaints.

We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.