Center for Cognition and Compassion — Notice of Privacy Practices
Effective date: September 29, 2026
Last updated: September 29, 2026
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
Our duties
The Center for Cognition and Compassion (“the practice”, “we”) is required by law to maintain the privacy of your protected health information (“PHI”), 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 PHI occurs. PHI includes information about your mental and physical health, the services you receive, psychological and neuropsychological test results, and payment for those services.
How we may use and disclose your information without your written authorization
Treatment. We may use and disclose PHI to provide, coordinate or manage your care — for example, consulting with your physician or another treating provider, or with a supervising psychologist when services are provided by a trainee under supervision.
Payment. We may use and disclose PHI to bill and collect payment for services, for example sending a claim to your health plan or verifying coverage.
Health care operations. We may use and disclose PHI to run the practice — for example quality review, training and supervision of clinicians, licensing, accreditation, legal and accounting services, and business management.
Business associates. We may share PHI with vendors who perform services for us (for example electronic records, scoring, billing and IT services). Where HIPAA requires it, those vendors must agree in writing to protect your information.
Appointment reminders and service information. We may contact you to remind you of appointments or to tell you about treatment alternatives or related services.
As required or permitted by law, including:
- reporting suspected child, elder or dependent adult abuse or neglect;
- preventing or lessening a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public, including duties to warn under California law;
- public health activities and health oversight activities (such as audits and licensing investigations by the Board of Psychology);
- judicial and administrative proceedings in response to a court order, or a subpoena where the law allows;
- law enforcement purposes as limited by law;
- coroners and medical examiners;
- specialized government functions, including national security and correctional institutions;
- workers’ compensation, to the extent the law requires; and
- research that has been approved under legal privacy safeguards.
Family and others involved in your care. Unless you object, we may share information relevant to your care with a family member or other person you identify as involved in your care or payment, or in an emergency when you cannot agree.
Uses and disclosures that require your written authorization
Other uses and disclosures require your written authorization, including most uses and disclosures of psychotherapy notes, uses for marketing, and any sale of PHI. You may revoke an authorization in writing at any time, except to the extent we have already acted on it.
Your rights
Right to access. You may inspect and obtain a copy (paper or electronic) of your PHI in our records. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee. In limited circumstances allowed by law we may deny access (for example, raw psychological test materials protected by test-security obligations may be released to another qualified professional you designate rather than to you directly); you may ask for a review of a denial.
Right to amend. If you believe information in your record is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask us in writing to amend it. We may deny the request in some cases; you may then submit a statement of disagreement, and under California law you may add a written addendum of up to 250 words for any item you believe is incomplete or incorrect.
Right to an accounting of disclosures. You may request a list of certain disclosures we made in the six years before your request, other than for treatment, payment, operations and certain other purposes. One list per 12 months is free.
Right to request restrictions. You may ask us to limit how we use or disclose your PHI. We are not required to agree, except that we must agree not to disclose information to your health plan about a service you paid for in full out of pocket, if you ask.
Right to confidential communications. You may ask us to contact you in a particular way or at a particular location (for example, only by mobile phone or at a different address). We will accommodate reasonable requests.
Right to a paper copy of this notice, even if you agreed to receive it electronically.
Right to choose someone to act for you. A legal guardian or a person with your medical power of attorney may exercise your rights. For minors, parents or guardians generally act for the minor, except where California law allows the minor to consent to their own care; in those cases the minor controls the records of that care.
Right to be notified of a breach of your unsecured PHI.
California law
We keep your medical information confidential and disclose it only as HIPAA and California law permit. California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (Civil Code §56 et seq.) and the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, where applicable, may give your information more protection than federal law. Where California law is more protective than HIPAA, we follow California law. Under California law you have the right to inspect your records within 5 working days of a written request and to receive copies within 15 days, subject to the exceptions the law allows. Additional protections apply to information about HIV test results, substance use disorder treatment records (42 CFR Part 2), and reproductive and gender-affirming care, and we will not disclose that information except as those laws permit.
Complaints
If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with the practice’s Privacy Officer (below), or with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, 200 Independence Avenue S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201, 1-877-696-6775, www.hhs.gov/ocr/complaints. You may also contact the California Board of Psychology. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.
Changes to this notice
We may change this notice and make the new notice apply to all PHI we hold. The current notice will be posted on our website and available on request, with its effective date.
Privacy Officer contact
Privacy Officer: Dr. Amir Ramezani, PhD, President and Training Director
Center for Cognition and Compassion, California
Phone: (323) 205-5352
Email: Ramezani@centercc.com
To exercise any right in this notice, write to the Privacy Officer at this email address or ask us for a form.