Privacy Policy, Terms of Use and Notice of Privacy Practices

Notice of Privacy Practices (Psychotherapy)

New Path Family of Therapy Centers, Inc.

Effective Date: October 12, 2026

This version replaces the Notice that took effect on September 1, 2026.

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.

Why you are receiving this Notice

New Path Family of Therapy Centers, Inc. (“New Path,” “we,” “us”) submits claims to health plans electronically. We are therefore a covered entity under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and are required by law to maintain the privacy of your protected health information, to give you this Notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, and to follow the terms of the Notice currently in effect.

This Notice applies to New Path’s health care services — psychotherapy and clinical assessment — and to all of our clinicians, employees, associates, volunteers, contractors, and staff who take part in them. It does not apply to New Path’s coaching services, which are not health care and are governed by the Coaching Agreement instead. In addition to HIPAA, we are bound by California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act where applicable, the Patient Access to Health Records Act, the federal substance use disorder confidentiality rules at 42 CFR Part 2 where they apply, and the ethical standards of our professions. Where California law or another law provides greater protection than HIPAA, we follow the stricter rule.

This Notice describes our privacy practices. The circumstances in which we may break confidentiality for clinical or safety reasons — danger to self or others, abuse reporting, court orders — are described in more detail in your Psychotherapy Informed Consent.

Psychotherapy notes — a special protection

“Psychotherapy notes” are notes a clinician keeps separately from the rest of the clinical record to document or analyze the contents of a session. Federal law gives notes of that kind extra protection.

New Path’s clinicians do not keep psychotherapy notes. Everything your clinician documents about your care is in your clinical record, which you have the right to see (see “Right to Inspect and Obtain a Copy” below). The rest of this section describes the protection the law would give such notes if any existed.

Except in the narrow circumstances the law permits or requires, we will not use or disclose psychotherapy notes without your specific written authorization — including to your health plan. Your plan may not condition payment, enrollment, or eligibility on your authorizing the release of psychotherapy notes.

Psychotherapy notes do not include: your diagnosis, medication and prescription monitoring, session start and stop times, the modality and frequency of treatment, results of clinical tests, or a summary of your symptoms, prognosis, progress, and treatment plan. Those items are part of your clinical record and may be disclosed as described below.

Substance use disorder records — another special protection

Some records receive protection under a separate federal law, 42 CFR Part 2, which covers substance use disorder treatment records created by federally assisted substance use disorder programs. New Path is not itself such a program. But if we receive records of that kind about you — from a treatment program you attended, or from another provider who holds them — those records keep their Part 2 protection in our hands, and we apply it.

Part 2 records are more tightly protected than the rest of your record. Some uses and disclosures that HIPAA would otherwise permit are materially limited by Part 2. Where a Part 2 record is involved, we may need your written consent in the specific form Part 2 requires, even in situations where HIPAA alone would not have required it.

Part 2 records cannot be used against you in legal proceedings. Substance use disorder treatment records we receive from a Part 2 program, and testimony relaying what is in them, may not be used or disclosed in any civil, criminal, administrative, or legislative proceeding against you unless you have given written consent, or a court has issued an order after you or the holder of the record were given notice and an opportunity to be heard, as Part 2 provides. A court order by itself is not enough either: it must be accompanied by a subpoena or other legal requirement compelling the disclosure before the record is used or disclosed. A subpoena alone is never enough.

The limits follow the record. When Part 2 information is disclosed with your consent, the person who receives it is restricted in how they may pass it on. We include the notice Part 2 requires with any such disclosure.

Your right to complain. If you believe your rights under Part 2 have been violated, you may complain to us using the contact information at the end of this Notice, and you may also complain to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. You will not be retaliated against, and we will not deny you services, because you made a complaint.

If you are unsure whether any part of your record falls under Part 2, ask us. We will tell you, and we will explain what it changes.

How we may use and disclose your information without your authorization

Treatment

We use your information to provide, coordinate, and manage your care.

Examples: your clinician documents your sessions and treatment plan; your clinician consults a Clinical Supervisor about your care; a covering clinician reviews your record while your clinician is on leave; with your authorization, we coordinate with your psychiatrist or primary care physician.

Payment

We use and disclose your information to obtain payment for services.

Examples: we submit a claim to your health plan containing your diagnosis, dates of service, service codes, and clinician information; we respond to a plan’s request for a treatment plan or clinical review as a condition of authorization; we verify your eligibility and benefits; we process your payment card; if a balance goes unpaid and cannot be resolved, we may refer the account for collection, disclosing only the minimum information necessary.

Please note: for most kinds of health care, a health plan sends its Explanation of Benefits to the plan subscriber, who may not be you. Therapy is treated differently under California law — for plans regulated in California, communications about mental health care must go directly to you. See “Right to Request Confidential Communications” below.

Health Care Operations

We use and disclose your information to run our practice and support quality of care.

Examples: clinical supervision and case consultation; internal quality review and chart audit; training and evaluation of clinicians, associates, and students; business planning and administration; resolving a complaint; defending a legal or professional claim; and responding to a licensing board investigation.

Business Associates

We use outside vendors for practice management, electronic records, telehealth, secure storage, payment processing, billing and claims, and clinical documentation support, including approved artificial-intelligence tools. Each is bound by a written Business Associate Agreement requiring it to safeguard your information, use it only for the services it performs for us, and report any breach. No vendor may use your information for unrelated purposes, and none may use therapy-session information to train publicly available AI models.

Other Uses and Disclosures Permitted or Required by Law

• To prevent a serious and imminent threat. When we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of you or another person, and the disclosure is made to someone able to reduce the danger. California law may also require reasonable protective action when a client communicates a serious threat of physical violence against a reasonably identifiable victim.
• Abuse and neglect reporting. Our clinicians are mandated reporters and must report known or reasonably suspected child abuse or neglect, and abuse of an elder or dependent adult, as California law requires.
• Judicial and administrative proceedings. In response to a court order, or to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process consistent with applicable law. A subpoena alone does not mean records will be released; where appropriate we will notify you, assert psychotherapist-patient privilege on your behalf, object, or require a court order. Where any part of your record is protected by 42 CFR Part 2, the stricter limits described above apply instead.
• Health oversight. To a health oversight agency for audits, investigations, licensure, or disciplinary actions — including the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.
• Public health activities. To public health authorities as required by law.
• Law enforcement. In the limited circumstances permitted by law, such as reporting certain injuries or responding to a court-ordered warrant.
• Coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors. As permitted by law.
• Workers’ compensation. As authorized by and necessary to comply with workers’ compensation law.
• Military, national security, and correctional institutions. In the specific circumstances the law provides.
• As otherwise required by law.

Individuals Involved in Your Care

Unless you object, we may disclose information directly relevant to a family member’s or friend’s involvement in your care or payment for it, and we may use or disclose information to notify a person responsible for your care of your location or condition. Where you are not present or are incapacitated, we will use professional judgment and disclose only what is directly relevant.

Appointment Reminders and Practice Communications

We may contact you to remind you of appointments and to tell you about treatment alternatives or services that may benefit you. We may send a practice newsletter, which you may opt out of at any time.

Uses and disclosures that always require your written authorization

We will obtain your written authorization before:

• disclosing psychotherapy notes (except as the law narrowly permits or requires);
• using or disclosing your information for marketing;
• selling your information — which we do not do;
• recording or observing your sessions, live or by any means; or
• any other use or disclosure not described in this Notice.

You may revoke an authorization in writing at any time. Revocation is not retroactive and does not affect disclosures already made in reliance on it.

We do not sell your personal or health information.

Your rights

Right to Inspect and Obtain a Copy

You may inspect and obtain a copy of your clinical and billing records, in paper or electronic form. We will respond within the timeframes California law requires — generally five business days for inspection and fifteen days for copies. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee, never more than California law allows — currently 25 cents per page for paper copies. We will never withhold your records because you owe us money. An unpaid balance and your right to your record are separate things.

Limited exception for mental health records. In narrow circumstances a licensed professional may determine that giving you direct access is reasonably likely to endanger your life or physical safety, or someone else’s. If we decline access on that basis, we will:

• tell you in writing that we have declined, and why;
• record in your file the date of your request and our reasons, including the specific harm we believe access would cause;
• tell you that you may name a licensed physician, psychologist, marriage and family therapist, clinical social worker, or professional clinical counselor to receive the record, and give the record to that person on your written request; and
• tell you about your right to have the decision reviewed, described next.

You may have that denial reviewed. If we deny access on this basis, you have the right to have the decision reviewed by a licensed health care professional who was not involved in making it. We will arrange the review promptly, tell you the outcome in writing, and give you the access if the reviewer says we should.

A summary instead of the full record — only if you agree. If you would rather have a treatment summary than the full record, we can prepare one. We do that only if you agree to it in advance, including any fee for preparing it.

There is no separate set of notes held back from this right. New Path’s clinicians do not keep psychotherapy notes, so what your clinician has written about your care is in the record described here.

Couples and family records. Where you were seen together with someone else, the record of those sessions describes both of you. On request we provide what we can while protecting the other participant — ordinarily a copy with the other person’s separately disclosed information removed, or, if you agree, a treatment summary. Where the whole record is wanted, we ask each adult participant to authorize its release. If a participant declines, we will tell you and explain what we can still give you.

Right to Request an Amendment

You may request that we amend information you believe is incorrect or incomplete. We may deny the request in the circumstances the law allows, and will tell you why in writing. Under California law you may in any event submit a written addendum of up to 250 words per item disputing or clarifying information in your record; we will attach it to your record. Original entries are never deleted.

Right to an Accounting of Disclosures

You may request a list of certain disclosures we made in the six years before your request. The accounting excludes disclosures for treatment, payment, and health care operations, disclosures you authorized, and certain others the law exempts. One accounting in any twelve-month period is free.

Right to Request Restrictions

You may ask us to restrict how we use or disclose your information for treatment, payment, or health care operations, or to a person involved in your care. We are not required to agree, except in one case: if you pay for a service in full out of pocket and ask us not to disclose information about that service to your health plan, we must agree, unless the disclosure is otherwise required by law. You do not have to make that request before the service — but tell us as early as you can, because once a claim has been submitted it cannot be recalled.

Right to Request Confidential Communications

You may ask us to communicate with you in a particular way or at a particular place — a specific phone number, an alternate address, no voicemail. We will accommodate reasonable requests and will not ask why.

Communications from your health plan are separate, and California gives you more protection than you may expect. Mental and behavioral health care is a “sensitive service” under California law (Civil Code §56.05). For plans and insurers regulated in California, Civil Code §56.107 and Insurance Code §791.29 require your plan to direct communications about that care — including Explanations of Benefits — to you rather than to the subscriber, automatically and without any request from you. This applies to any adult on the plan, and to a minor who can lawfully consent to the care alone.

You may also ask your plan to use a particular address, phone number, or email. Your plan must accommodate that request, may not ask you to justify it, and must implement it within 7 calendar days of an electronic, telephone, or website request or 14 calendar days of one sent by first-class mail.

Two limits worth knowing: some employer plans are self-funded and governed by federal rather than California law, so the automatic protection may not apply to them — federal law still allows you to request confidential communication; and a claim already submitted to your plan cannot be recalled. If it matters that the subscriber not receive information about your care, contact your plan before your first session. We will help you understand the process.

Right to Notification of a Breach

You will be notified if a breach occurs that compromises the privacy or security of your unsecured health information.

Right to a Paper Copy of This Notice

You may request a paper copy at any time, even if you agreed to receive it electronically.

Right to Choose Someone to Act for You

If you have given someone medical power of attorney, or if someone is your legal guardian or conservator, that person may exercise your rights. We will verify their authority before acting.

Minors

Where a minor lawfully consents to their own treatment under California law, the minor generally holds the privacy rights described in this Notice, and a parent’s or guardian’s access to the record may be limited. Where a parent or guardian consents to a minor’s treatment, the parent or guardian generally holds these rights, but California law permits us to deny access where the clinician determines in good faith that access would have a detrimental effect on the professional relationship or on the minor’s physical safety or psychological well-being. These issues are addressed further in your Psychotherapy Informed Consent.

Our duties

We are required by law to:

• maintain the privacy and security of your protected health information;
• notify you promptly if a breach compromises it;
• follow the terms of the Notice currently in effect; and
• give you this Notice and make a good-faith effort to obtain your written acknowledgment that you received it. If we cannot, we document the effort and the reason.

We reserve the right to change this Notice and to make the revised Notice effective for information we already hold as well as information we receive in the future. If we make a material change, the revised Notice will show a new effective date. We will post it on our website, make it available in the client portal, and give you a copy whenever you ask for one.

Record retention. We retain clinical records for at least seven years after therapy ends for adult clients, and for a minor client at least seven years after the minor reaches age eighteen, consistent with California law and professional standards. Records are destroyed securely.

How to ask a question or make a complaint

If you have a question about this Notice, or want to exercise any right described in it, contact us:

Sherry Grewal — Privacy Contact
New Path Family of Therapy Centers, Inc.
3880 South Bascom Ave, Suite 216
San Jose, CA 95124-2675
Phone: (408) 475-2746 · Fax: (408) 426-9335 · Email: privacy@newpathfamily.com

Our Privacy Official is Dr. Harry Motro, Psy.D., LMFT, who is responsible for our privacy policies and who personally handles complaints, requests to restrict disclosure to a health plan, and requests from a health plan for clinical records.

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with us at the address above, and you may file a complaint with the federal government:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights
200 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20201
1-877-696-6775 · www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/

You may also contact the California Attorney General’s Office regarding rights under California law.

You will not be retaliated against for filing a complaint.

Complaints about the professional conduct of a clinician may be directed to the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, www.bbs.ca.gov, (916) 574-7830.

Relationship to your other documents

Where privacy rights or our privacy duties are concerned, this Notice controls. Your Practice Policies and other agreements govern their own subjects — fees, scheduling, dispute resolution — and nothing in those documents limits the rights described here.

New Path Family of Therapy Centers, Inc. · a California professional corporation · 3880 S. Bascom Ave., Suite 216, San Jose, CA 95124

Free educational material is published separately by New Path Couples Therapy, Inc. (New Path Family), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, at newpathfamily.com — its privacy policy is here.