Privacy notice
Notice of Privacy Practices
This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed, how you may obtain access to that information, and the privacy rights available to you.
Effective date: May 1st, 2026
At a glance
Your information, rights, and choices
This notice explains your rights, the choices available to you, and how Sattva Psychiatry may use or disclose health information for treatment, payment, healthcare operations, and other purposes permitted or required by law.
Virginia, District of Columbia, and New York law may provide additional protections depending on the jurisdiction, the type of record, and the purpose of a proposed use or disclosure.
Access, amendment, and complaints
Your Rights
You have rights concerning protected health information, subject to federal and applicable state law.
Depending on the circumstances and applicable law, you may:
- inspect or obtain an electronic or paper copy of your record;
- ask that inaccurate or incomplete information be amended;
- request communication in a particular way or location;
- ask for restrictions on certain uses or disclosures;
- obtain an accounting of certain disclosures;
- obtain a paper or electronic copy of this notice;
- authorize a lawful personal representative to act for you; and
- file a privacy complaint without retaliation.
Access to your record
You may submit a written request to inspect or receive a copy of protected health information maintained in an applicable designated record set. Requests are addressed within the time required by federal and applicable state law.
Access may be denied or limited only in circumstances permitted by law. When a denial is reviewable, information about the applicable review process will be provided.
Requesting an amendment
You may ask Sattva Psychiatry to amend information that you believe is incorrect or incomplete. The request may be denied in circumstances permitted by law.
If an amendment is not made, you may have the right to submit a written statement of disagreement that becomes associated with the record.
Confidential communications
You may ask Sattva Psychiatry to contact you in a particular way or at a particular location. Reasonable requests will be honored when required by applicable law.
Restrictions on uses and disclosures
You may ask Sattva Psychiatry not to use or disclose certain information for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations. Sattva Psychiatry generally is not required to agree unless applicable law requires it.
If you pay in full out of pocket and ask that information about that service not be disclosed to a health plan for payment or healthcare operations, the request will be honored unless the disclosure is otherwise required by law.
Accounting of disclosures
You may request an accounting of certain disclosures made during the applicable period. The accounting does not include every disclosure, including certain disclosures for treatment, payment, healthcare operations, or disclosures made pursuant to your authorization.
Personal representatives
A legal guardian, healthcare agent, personal representative, or other person with lawful authority may exercise applicable rights on your behalf, consistent with the scope of that authority and applicable law.
Additional protections
Virginia, District of Columbia, and New York Rights
State law may provide rights or protections in addition to HIPAA.
District of Columbia
District of Columbia law provides specific protections for mental-health information. A written authorization may be required for a disclosure and generally must identify the information, person making the disclosure, recipient, purpose, expiration, and applicable revocation rights.
A District mental-health authorization generally may not remain effective for more than 365 days. A copy is provided to the patient and maintained as required by law.
District patients may request in writing to inspect or duplicate mental-health records. Access is generally provided within 30 days, subject to lawful limitations and applicable review rights.
District law may also provide a process for submitting an amendment or statement of disagreement after accessing a record.
District treatment-disclosure choice: Sattva Psychiatry’s privacy practices permit disclosure of mental-health information to another healthcare provider when necessary for diagnosis, evaluation, treatment, case management, quality activities, or rehabilitation, as permitted by District law. This authority does not include separately maintained progress notes. A District patient may request that disclosures under this particular provision not be made. Other disclosures may remain permitted or required by law.
District law may require documentation of disclosures and a warning restricting unauthorized redisclosure of mental-health information.
Virginia
Virginia patients may request copies of or electronic access to health records in writing. Requests are generally addressed within 30 days.
When specifically requested and available under Virginia law, access may include an audit trail showing additions, deletions, or revisions to the record.
Access may be limited in circumstances permitted by law, including when disclosure would be reasonably likely to endanger life or physical safety or cause substantial harm to another person referenced in the record. Applicable review rights will be provided when required.
Virginia law may restrict a recipient’s redisclosure of health records beyond the purpose for which the information was disclosed.
New York
A qualified person who makes a written request for access to New York patient information governed by Public Health Law section 18 is generally entitled to an opportunity to inspect the information within 10 days, subject to lawful limitations.
New York access rights may not include certain personal notes and observations maintained separately by the practitioner, as defined by New York law.
If access is denied or limited under New York law, the requester will be informed of the basis and any available review rights.
New York law may require documentation of the recipient and purpose of a disclosure and may limit the disclosure to information necessary for the stated purpose.
State rights depend on the law applicable to the particular record, service, patient location, and requested use or disclosure. When applicable state law provides greater protection than HIPAA, Sattva Psychiatry follows the more protective requirement.
Preferences and authorizations
Your Choices
Some uses and disclosures depend on your instructions or written authorization.
You may tell Sattva Psychiatry whether and how information may be shared with family members, close friends, other clinicians, or other people involved in your treatment or payment for treatment.
If you cannot communicate a preference, information may be shared when permitted by law and when professional judgment indicates that the disclosure is in your best interest.
Written authorization
Uses and disclosures not otherwise permitted or required by law will be made only with a valid written authorization. Authorization requirements may differ by jurisdiction.
You may revoke an authorization in writing at any time, except to the extent that action has already been taken in reliance on it.
Marketing and sale of information
Sattva Psychiatry does not sell protected health information. Protected health information will not be used or disclosed for marketing when written authorization is required unless you provide that authorization.
Treatment, payment, and operations
How Information May Be Used and Disclosed
Protected health information may be used or disclosed as permitted or required by federal and applicable state law.
Treatment
Information may be used or disclosed to provide, coordinate, or manage treatment and related services when permitted by applicable law.
This may include communication with another healthcare professional involved in your treatment. District patients have the additional treatment-disclosure choice described in the state rights section.
Payment
Information may be used or disclosed as reasonably necessary to collect payment, process payments, maintain billing records, prepare Good Faith Estimates, and provide superbills or other payment documentation requested by you.
If you submit a superbill or other documentation to an insurance plan, the plan may use the information to process your request for out-of-network reimbursement.
For District patients, disclosures to a third-party payor are subject to applicable District mental-health confidentiality requirements.
Healthcare operations
Information may be used for lawful practice operations, including quality review, compliance, auditing, credentialing, licensing, legal and accounting services, business management, records administration, and technology support.
Business associates
Information may be disclosed to service providers performing functions for Sattva Psychiatry, including electronic health record, telehealth, payment-processing, secure-communication, legal, accounting, and technology services.
When required, these service providers are contractually obligated to protect the information.
Other permitted or required disclosures
Information may be used or disclosed without written authorization when permitted or required by law, including:
- public-health and health-oversight activities;
- mandatory reports of abuse, neglect, or exploitation;
- emergency intervention or prevention of a serious and imminent threat to health or safety;
- court orders, subpoenas, discovery requests, or other lawful legal process after applicable requirements are satisfied;
- law-enforcement or authorized government functions;
- workers’ compensation or similar lawful programs;
- medical examiners, coroners, funeral directors, or organ procurement organizations;
- research permitted by applicable law; and
- other uses or disclosures required by law.
Disclosures of mental-health information are limited to the extent required by applicable Virginia, District of Columbia, or New York law. Sattva Psychiatry documents disclosures and provides redisclosure restrictions when required.
Clinical documentation
Psychotherapy Documentation and Separate Notes
Psychotherapy may be documented within the ordinary medical record or, in limited circumstances, in separately maintained notes.
Documentation in the medical record
Psychotherapy visits may be documented within the medical record. This documentation may include session time, treatment modality, symptoms, diagnosis, functional status, treatment goals, interventions, progress, medication information, safety assessment, and the treatment plan.
Psychotherapy documentation maintained in the medical record is part of the health record and is subject to the ordinary access, use, and disclosure rules applicable to that record.
Separately maintained psychotherapy notes
If Sattva Psychiatry voluntarily creates notes that document or analyze the contents of a counseling conversation and maintains those notes separately from the medical record, those notes may qualify for additional protection as psychotherapy notes under HIPAA or as separately maintained progress notes under applicable law.
Separately maintained psychotherapy notes do not include medication prescription or monitoring, session start and stop times, treatment modality or frequency, clinical test results, or summaries of diagnosis, functional status, symptoms, prognosis, treatment plan, or progress.
Most uses and disclosures of qualifying separately maintained psychotherapy notes require written authorization, except in limited circumstances permitted or required by law.
Sattva Psychiatry is not required to create or maintain a separate set of psychotherapy notes. Documentation of psychotherapy and medication management may be included within one integrated medical record.
Privacy, security, and updates
Our Responsibilities
Sattva Psychiatry is required to maintain privacy and security protections for protected health information.
Sattva Psychiatry is required to:
- maintain the privacy and security of protected health information;
- provide this Notice of Privacy Practices;
- follow the notice currently in effect;
- maintain appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards;
- notify affected individuals and government authorities of breaches or unauthorized disclosures when required; and
- refrain from retaliating against a person who makes a privacy complaint.
Changes to this notice
Sattva Psychiatry may revise this notice. A revised notice may apply to information already maintained by the practice and to information created or received after the revision.
The current notice will be posted on this page and made available electronically or on paper upon request.
Portal, email, and video treatment
Telehealth and Electronic Communication
Telepsychiatry and electronic communication involve specific privacy and security considerations.
Telepsychiatry is provided using technology selected for secure healthcare communication. Patients must be physically located in Virginia, Washington, DC, or New York during treatment.
The patient portal may be used for forms, appointment information, billing information, and secure practice communications.
Email may be used for administrative matters and limited practice communication. Sensitive clinical information may be redirected to the patient portal or addressed during an appointment.
Email, text messaging, and other electronic communications may carry privacy risks and should not be used for emergencies, urgent concerns, medication changes, or highly sensitive clinical information.
Additional federal protections
Substance Use Disorder Patient Records
Certain substance-use-disorder patient records may be subject to additional federal confidentiality protections.
To the extent that Sattva Psychiatry creates or maintains substance-use-disorder patient records governed by 42 CFR Part 2, those records will not be used or disclosed in civil, criminal, administrative, or legislative investigations or proceedings against you without your written consent or a court order and subpoena, as required by applicable law.
This protection applies only to records governed by 42 CFR Part 2. Not all psychiatric, mental-health, medication, or substance-use information is a Part 2 record.
Privacy concerns
Complaints
You may raise a privacy concern without retaliation.
You may file a complaint with Sattva Psychiatry if you believe your privacy rights have been violated.
You may also file a health-information privacy complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights.
Sattva Psychiatry will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint with the practice or with a government agency.
Privacy contact
Questions, requests, or complaints
Sattva Psychiatry Privacy Contact
Vivek Jayadeva, MD
Email:
contact@sattvamd.com
Phone:
(703) 829-7121
Effective date: May 1st, 2026
A paper or electronic copy of this notice is available upon request.