This notice is separate from the website Privacy Policy. The website Privacy Policy is about oaklanedental.com. This notice is about protected health information in your dental record.
HIPAA requires a Notice of Privacy Practices for protected health information. Ohio law may give you additional rights. If a state rule gives you greater protection, we will follow that rule. This notice follows a generic dental covered-entity outline.
Covered entity: Merkley Midwest-Ohio Tiffin I, Inc. d/b/a Oak Lane Dental
Office: 19 W. Market St, Suite A, Tiffin, OH 44883
In this notice, “we,” “us,” and “our” mean that covered entity doing business as Oak Lane Dental. “PHI” means protected health information — health information that identifies you and that we keep in connection with your dental care.
Our duty to protect your information
We are required to maintain the privacy of PHI, to give you this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, and to notify you if a breach of unsecured PHI affects you, as applicable law requires.
We must follow the notice that is in effect. We may change this notice (see below).
How we use and disclose PHI for treatment, payment, and health care operations
We may use and share PHI as described here without a separate written authorization, unless a stricter rule applies.
Treatment. We use PHI to provide dental care. We may share it with your dentist, hygienist, specialists, laboratories, pharmacies, and other providers involved in your care — for example, a referral or a consult.
Payment. We use PHI to bill and collect for services, to confirm coverage, and to obtain payment from you, your insurer, or another payer.
Health care operations. We use PHI to run the practice — quality review, staff training, credentialing, customer service, and similar activities needed to operate Oak Lane Dental.
Other uses and disclosures often permitted
We may also use or disclose PHI in situations that the law often allows, including:
- Required by law. When a law requires us to disclose PHI.
- Public health. For example, reports the law allows or requires for public-health purposes.
- Health oversight. To agencies that oversee the health-care system, government programs, or civil-rights laws, as allowed.
- Judicial and administrative proceedings. In response to a court or administrative order, or in some cases a subpoena or similar process, as allowed.
- Law enforcement. As the law allows, for example to respond to a warrant or certain other lawful requests.
- Decedents. To a coroner, medical examiner, or funeral director, as allowed, and to persons involved in the person’s care or payment, as allowed.
- Organ, eye, or tissue donation. To organizations involved in donation or transplantation, as allowed.
- Research. Under applicable conditions. We will not use your PHI for research unless those conditions are met.
- Serious threat. To prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to health or safety, as allowed.
- Workers’ compensation. As authorized by workers’ compensation or similar programs.
- Business associates. To vendors who help us (billing, IT, our online booking platform, and similar services) under a written agreement that requires them to protect PHI.
This list is a plain-language summary, not a complete catalog of every situation the law allows. If a use does not fit a permitted category, we will ask for your written authorization.
Uses that generally need your written authorization
We generally need your written authorization before we:
- use or disclose PHI for marketing that is not a face-to-face communication or a promotional gift of nominal value;
- sell PHI; or
- use or disclose PHI for other purposes that the law says require authorization (for example, certain sharing of psychotherapy notes if we ever maintained them — dental practices typically do not).
You may revoke an authorization in writing, except to the extent we have already relied on it.
We do not sell patient health information.
Your rights
You have the right to:
- Access and copies. Ask to see or get a copy of PHI we maintain about you in a designated record set, with limited exceptions. We may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee for copies if the law allows.
- Amendment. Ask us to amend PHI you believe is wrong or incomplete. We may deny the request in some cases; if we do, you may submit a statement of disagreement.
- Accounting of certain disclosures. Ask for a list of certain disclosures we made of your PHI, with exceptions (for example, many treatment, payment, and operations disclosures).
- Request restrictions. Ask us to limit uses or disclosures for treatment, payment, or operations. We are not always required to agree. If you pay out of pocket in full for an item or service, you may ask us not to disclose that PHI to a health plan for payment or operations, and we will agree if the disclosure is not required by law.
- Confidential communications. Ask us to contact you in a specific way or at a specific place (for example, a cell number instead of a home number). We will accommodate reasonable requests.
- A paper copy of this notice. Ask for a paper copy, even if you agreed to receive it electronically.
- Complain. File a complaint if you believe we have violated your privacy rights. See below.
How to exercise these rights: write or call the office using the Privacy Contact at the end of this notice.
How to complain
If you believe we have violated your privacy rights, you may complain to this practice:
Privacy Contact — Oak Lane Dental
19 W. Market St, Suite A, Tiffin, OH 44883
Phone: (419) 447-9541
Email: smile@oaklanedental.com
You may also complain to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. Information is at https://www.hhs.gov/ocr.
We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.
We may change this notice
We may change this Notice of Privacy Practices. The revised notice will apply to PHI we already have and to PHI we receive in the future. If a revised notice is posted, it will be available at the office and, when used, on this website at https://oaklanedental.com/notice-of-privacy-practices/.
Privacy Contact
Oak Lane Dental
Merkley Midwest-Ohio Tiffin I, Inc. d/b/a Oak Lane Dental
19 W. Market St, Suite A, Tiffin, OH 44883
Phone: (419) 447-9541
Email: smile@oaklanedental.com
Website: https://oaklanedental.com/
For website cookies, forms, and online booking data that are not part of your dental record, see the website Privacy Policy at https://oaklanedental.com/privacy-policy/.
Last updated: 20 August 2026