Effective date: November 8, 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.
About this notice
This notice is provided by Megan Boedecker, MS, LMHC, and her practice, Boedecker Counseling Services Inc. (“we” or “us”). It applies to the health information we create and keep about you.
Two laws protect your information: the federal HIPAA Privacy Rule and Florida law. Florida law makes what you tell your counselor confidential (section 491.0147, Florida Statutes), and in many situations it protects you more than HIPAA does. Where Florida law is more protective, this notice describes the Florida rule, and we follow it.
If you receive counseling through Headway, your counselor provides it as an independent contractor of Headway Florida Behavioral Health Services, P.A., a Headway-affiliated practice. That practice bills for those sessions and keeps their records in Headway’s system, and Headway’s Notice of Privacy Practices also applies to that care. It is available on Headway’s website and in your Headway account. Requests about those records may be handled together with Headway. This notice describes how we protect your information, including information we keep outside Headway. In every case, your counselor follows Florida’s confidentiality law, which in many situations protects you more than HIPAA does.
Our duties
We 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 notify you if a breach of your unsecured protected health information occurs. We must follow the notice currently in effect.
How we use and share your information
With your written consent
Under Florida law, we share information about your counseling only with your written consent, except in the situations listed in the next section. For example, we ask for your written consent before we:
- Coordinate your care: share information with your physician, psychiatrist, or another provider.
- Bill for services: send your health plan the information needed for payment, such as dates of service, the services provided, and your diagnosis. For counseling through Headway, you give this consent in Headway’s intake forms, and Headway’s affiliated practice submits the claims.
- Talk with people you choose: share information with a family member, partner, or friend involved in your care.
- Reach help in an emergency: if you have an emergency during a session, we may contact your emergency contact or emergency services, as you agreed in Headway’s telehealth consent.
In couples or family counseling, information from joint sessions is released to anyone else only with the written consent of each participant. If you took part, you may ask for your own information from those sessions; we provide it with the other participants’ information removed, unless they consent to its release.
Within the practice, we use your information to provide counseling and to run the practice, for example for scheduling, record keeping, and billing. Companies that provide services to us may handle your information for us only under a written agreement that requires them to protect it.
When we may share without your consent
Federal and Florida law allow or require us to share information without your consent only in these situations:
- Serious threat to another person: if you make a specific threat of serious bodily injury or death to an identified or readily available person, and your counselor believes the threat is imminent, we may tell that person and must tell law enforcement.
- Abuse reporting: we must report known or suspected abuse, abandonment, or neglect of a child, and abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a vulnerable adult, to the Florida Abuse Hotline, and give investigators the information the law requires.
- Emergency mental health evaluation: if you appear to meet Florida’s criteria for an involuntary examination (the Baker Act), your counselor may start one and share the information it requires.
- Court proceedings: Florida’s psychotherapist-patient privilege protects your counseling communications in court. It does not apply in proceedings to hospitalize you for mental illness, in a court-ordered examination of your mental or emotional condition, or when you rely on your mental or emotional condition as part of a claim or defense. Otherwise, we release your records only with your written consent or when a judge orders us to do so. A subpoena alone is not enough: if we receive one, we will not release your records unless you consent in writing or a court orders us to.
- Complaints against your counselor: if you bring a complaint or lawsuit against your counselor, information may be used in that matter only.
- Oversight: to the Florida Department of Health in a licensing investigation, as Florida law allows, and to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to show that we comply with privacy law.
- Other laws: when another federal or Florida law specifically requires it.
HIPAA would allow some other disclosures without consent, for example for public health, research, law enforcement, or workers’ compensation. Because Florida law is more protective, we do not make those disclosures without your written consent unless a law requires them.
Uses that require your written authorization
We need your written authorization for most uses and disclosures of psychotherapy notes (notes your counselor keeps separately from your record about what was discussed in sessions), for marketing, and for any sale of your information. Any use or disclosure not described in this notice also requires your written authorization. We do not use your information for marketing, and we never sell it.
You may revoke an authorization or consent in writing at any time, except for action we have already taken in reliance on it.
Substance use disorder records
If we receive records from a substance use disorder treatment program protected by federal law (42 CFR Part 2), those records, or testimony about their content, will not be used or disclosed in civil, criminal, administrative, or legislative investigations or proceedings against you unless you give written consent, or a court orders it after you or the record holder had notice and an opportunity to be heard. The court order must be accompanied by a subpoena or other legal requirement compelling disclosure.
Your rights
To use any of these rights, contact us using the information below. We may ask you to make your request in writing.
- See or get a copy of your records. You may inspect your records or get a paper or electronic copy. We respond within 30 days; if we need up to 30 more days, we will tell you why in writing. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee. Psychotherapy notes are not included. If we deny your request, we will explain why and tell you whether you can have the decision reviewed.
- Ask us to correct your records. We respond within 60 days, or up to 30 more days if we tell you why in writing. If we say no, we will explain why, and you may submit a statement of disagreement.
- Ask for confidential communications. You may ask us to contact you in a specific way, such as a different phone number or address. We will agree to reasonable requests, and you do not have to tell us why.
- Ask us to limit what we share. We do not have to agree, except that if you pay for a service in full yourself, we will not share information about that service with your health plan for payment or our operations unless a law requires it.
- Get a list of disclosures. You may ask for a list of the times we shared your information in the six years before your request, who we shared it with, and why. It includes every disclosure except those for treatment, payment, or our operations, and certain others, such as ones you asked us to make. We respond within 60 days. The first list in any 12 months is free; if you ask for another within 12 months, we will tell you the reasonable, cost-based fee first, and you may change or withdraw your request.
- Get a paper copy of this notice, even if you agreed to receive it electronically.
- Choose someone to act for you. If someone has authority to act for you, such as a legal guardian or a person with your medical power of attorney, they can use your rights and make choices about your health information. We will make sure they have this authority before we act. If you are under 18, your parent or guardian can generally use these rights for you, and Florida law gives parents access to a minor’s records, with limited exceptions.
- File a complaint. If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may complain to us by phone, by email, or in writing, using the contact information below. You may also complain to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights, by phone at 1-877-696-6775 or online (link below). We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.
Changes to this notice
We may change this notice, and the changes will apply to all information we keep about you. The new notice will show its effective date, and we will post it on our website and give you a copy on request.
Contact us
Boedecker Counseling Services Inc.
Privacy contact: Megan Boedecker
Telephone: (941) 529-7118
Email: megan@boedeckercounselingservices.com
Ordinary email may not be secure, so please do not send medical records, mental health or treatment details, passwords, or other sensitive information by email.
To file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights, see: