Privacy Policy

THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND HIPAA NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES (“PRIVACY POLICY”) DESCRIBES HOW YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.

THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY IS SEPTEMBER 23, 2013.

Purpose

Donald S. Corenman M.D. is committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information, laboratory test results, and other protected health information. This Privacy Policy applies to all users of Donald S. Corenman M.D. website (neckandback.com), as well as employees, management and contractors of Dr. Donald S. Corenman.

Our Privacy Obligations

We are required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) to maintain the privacy of patients’ health information (“Protected Health Information”) and to provide our patients with this Privacy Policy, outlining our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to their Protected Health Information. Users of the Website and patients are referred to as “you” or “your” throughout this Privacy Policy. Dr. Donald S. Corenman and its workforce are referred to as “we”.

Responsibilities of Donald Corenman M.D.

Donald S. Corenman M.D. has established this Privacy Policy, including implementing and maintaining the various policies and procedures described herein, as an overall program in accordance with HIPAA guidelines.

Use and Disclosure Of Health Information

Donald S. Corenman M.D. is permitted by federal privacy law to use and disclose our Protected Health Information for treatment, payment, healthcare operations, and other purposes permitted or required by law. Protected Health Information is the information we create and obtain in providing our services to you, including billing documents related to the services we provide to you.

We may use and disclose your Protected Health Information for the following purposes:

1. Treatment. We may use or disclose your Protected Health Information for treatment purposes. For example, we may use your Protected Health Information to perform our testing services and disclose your Protected Health Information, including laboratory test results, to physicians and other health care providers involved in your care.

2. Payment. We may use or disclose your Protected Health Information to obtain payment for health care services we provide. For example, we may disclose your information to your health plan to receive payment for the services provided to you.

3. Health Care Operations. We may use and disclose your Protected Health Information for our health care operations. These activities include, for example, monitoring the quality of our testing services, reviewing the competence or qualifications of laboratory professionals, conducting training programs, performing accreditation, certification, licensing and credentialing activities, and other business and administrative functions.

4. Personal Representatives; Minors; Persons Involved in Your Care or Payment for Your Care. We may disclose Protected Health Information about you to your authorized personal representative, as defined by applicable law, or to an administrator, executor, or other authorized person responsible for your estate. As permitted by federal and state law, we may disclose Protected Health Information about minors to their parents or guardians. We may disclose your Protected Health Information to a person involved in your care or payment for your care, such as a family member or close friend, as designated by you or as we identify using our best efforts. We may use or disclose your Protected Health Information for disaster relief efforts or to notify a family member or close friend of your location or general condition. If you do not want us to use or disclose your Protected Health Information in these ways, you must notify us using the contact information at the end of this Privacy Policy.

5. Communications About Our Products and Services. We may use and disclose your Protected Health Information to contact you about our products and services which we believe may be of interest to you.

6. As Required by Law. We must disclose your Protected Health Information when required to do so by any applicable federal, state or local law. For example, we are required to report child abuse or neglect and must provide certain information to law enforcement officials in domestic violence cases.

7. Health Oversight Activities. We may disclose your Protected Health Information to a health care oversight agency for activities that are authorized by law, such as audits, investigations, inspections, and licensure activities. For example, we may disclose your Protected Health Information to agencies responsible for ensuring compliance with the rules of government health programs such as Medicare or Medicaid.

8. Research. Under certain conditions, such as following review by an institutional review board, we may use or disclose Protected Health Information for research purposes. We may allow researchers to look at Protected Health Information to develop a study, identify prospective research participants, or for similar purposes provided that the information is not removed from our premises.

9. Disclosures to Business Associates. We may disclose your Protected Health Information to other companies or individuals, known as “business associates,” who need your information to provide services to us. For example, we may use another company to perform billing services on our behalf. We will disclose your Protected Health Information only after a business associate has agreed in writing to safeguard that information. Our business associates also are required by law to protect the privacy of your Protected Health Information.

10. Judicial and Administrative Proceedings. Under certain circumstances, we may disclose your Protected Health Information in the course of a judicial or administrative proceeding in response to a court order, subpoena, or other lawful process.

11. Fundraising. We may use certain information to contact you about fundraising efforts, either on our behalf, or on behalf of the Steadman Philippon Research Institute. If you receive such a fundraising communication, you will be provided an opportunity to opt-out of receiving such communications in the future.

12. Law Enforcement; Threats to Health or Safety. We may disclose your Protected Health Information to the police or other law enforcement officials as required by law or in compliance with a court order, warrant, subpoena, summons, or similar process authorized by law. Under certain circumstances, we also may disclose Protected Health Information to law enforcement officials when the information is needed to: identify or locate a missing person or a suspect, fugitive, or material witness; determine whether an individual has been a victim of a crime; determine if a death resulted from criminal conduct; or investigate suspected criminal activity on our premises. We may also disclose Protected Health Information if necessary to prevent or reduce the risk of a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of an individual or the general public.

13. Workers Compensation. If you seek compensation for a work-related illness or injury, we may disclose your Protected Health Information as necessary to comply with requirements of workers’ compensation or similar programs that provide benefits for work-related injuries or illness without regard to fault.

14. All Other Uses and Disclosures of Protected Health Information. We will ask for your written authorization before using or disclosing your Protected Health Information for any purpose not described above. Specific examples of such types of uses include (1) most uses of your health information for marketing purposes and (ii) disclosures of your health information that constitute the sale of your health information. You may revoke your authorization, in writing, at any time, except that a revocation will not affect any use or disclosures we have made in reliance on your authorization.

15. Disaster Relief: We may use and disclose your health information to assist disaster relief efforts

16. Food and Drug Administration (FDA): We may disclose to the FDA health information relative to adverse events with respect to food, supplements, product or product defects, or post-marketing surveillance information to enable product recalls, repairs or replacement.

17. Coroners, Medical Examiners and Funeral Directors: We may disclose health information consistent with applicable law concerning deceased patients to coroners, medical examiners and funeral directors to assist them in carrying out their duties.

18. Organ and Tissue Donation: We may disclose health information consistent with applicable law to organizations that handle organ, eye or tissue donation or transplantation.

19. Military, Veterans, National Security and Other Government Purposes: If you are a member of the armed forces, we may release your health information as required by military command authorities or to the Department of Veterans Affairs. We may also disclose medical information to authorized federal officials for intelligence and national security purposes.

20. Correctional Institutions: If you are an inmate, we may disclose information necessary for your health and the health and safety of other individuals in the institution or its agents.

Your Rights

The health and billing records we maintain are the physical property of The Steadman Clinic. The information in those records, however, belongs toyou. You have the following rights with respect to your Protected Health Information. To exercise any of these rights, please contact us.

• Access to Protected Health Information. You or your authorized or designated personal representative have the right to inspect and copy your Protected Health Information and billing information maintained by us. We may deny access to certain information for specific reasons, for example, where state law prohibits such patient access. Health information that is maintained electronically may be accessed in an electronic format. We may assess a reasonable, cost-based fee for production of records. Please note that federal and state laws regulating laboratories generally prohibit us from disclosing test results directly to a patient. PLEASE NOTE THAT FEDERAL AND STATE LAWS REGULATING LABORATORIES GENERALLY PROHIBIT US FROM DISCLOSING TEST RESULTS DIRECTLY TO A PATIENT.

• Restrictions on Uses and Disclosures. You have the right to request restrictions on our use and disclosure of your Protected Health Information. While we will consider all requests for additional restrictions carefully, we are not required to agree to a requested restriction. If we do agree to a requested restriction, we will notify you in writing. If you have paid for services out-of-pocket in full, you may request that we not disclose information related solely to those services to your health plan.

• Confidential Communications. You have the right to request that we communicate with you about your Protected Health Information by alternative means or to an alternative address. Your request must be in writing and must specify the alternative means or location.

• Correct or Update Information. If you believe the Protected Health Information or billing information we maintain about you contains an error, you may request that we correct or update your information. Your request must be in writing and must explain why the information should be corrected or updated. We may deny your request under certain circumstances, if the information (i) was not created by us; (ii) is not part of the health information kept or for Steadman; (iii) is not part of the information that you would be permitted to inspect or copy; or (iv) is accurate and complete. If your request is denied, you will be informed of the reason for the denial and will have an opportunity to submit a statement of disagreement to be maintained with your records.

• Accounting of Disclosures. You may request in writing a list, or accounting, of certain disclosures of your Protected Health Information made by us or our business associates for purposes other than treatment, payment, healthcare operations, and certain other activities. The first list will be provided to you for free, but you may be charged for any additional lists requested during the same year.

Our Responsibilities

Donald S. Corenman M.D. is required to:
• Maintain the privacy of your health information as required by law.
• Provide you with a notice as to our duties and privacy practices as to the information we collect and maintain about you.
• Abide by the terms of this notice.
• Notify you if we cannot accommodate a requested restriction or request.
• Notify you following a breach of your health information that is not secured in accordance with certain security standards.
We reserve the right to change the terms of this notice and to make the provisions of the new notice effective for all health information that we maintain. If we change the terms of this notice, the revised notice will be made available upon request, posted to our website and posted in prominent locations at Steadman, and will be effective for all Protected Health Information we maintain, including information created or received prior to implementation of the new notice.

Health Care Providers Covered By This Notice
This notice applies to The Steadman Clinic and its personnel, volunteers, students and trainees. This notice also applies to other health care providers that come to the Steadman Clinic to care for patients, such as physicians, physician assistants, therapists and other health care providers who are not employed by Steadman. These health care providers will follow this notice for information they receive about you from Steadman, but these providers may follow different practices at their own offices of facilities.

Questions And Complaints

If you want more information about our privacy practices pertaining to Protected Health Information, have general questions or concerns, or want to report a problem regarding the handling of your information, please contact us at (970) 476-1100.
You also may write to us at:

Donald S. Corenman M.D.
Attn: Sara Striegl
181 West Meadow Drive, Suite 400
Vail, Colorado 81657
Fax: 970.479.5835

The Steadman Clinic, Professional LLC
Attn: Kate Wilmouth
181 West Meadow Drive, Suite 400
Vail, Colorado 81657
Fax: 970.479.5835

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint at the Steadman by delivering the written complaint to the address above. You may also file a complaint by contacting the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) at:

Office for Civil Rights
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Ave. S.W.
Room 509F HHH Bldg.
Washington, DC 20201
[email protected]

We cannot, and will not, retaliate against you for filling a complaint. We cannot, and will not, require you to waive the right to file a complaint with HHS as a condition of receiving treatment from the hospital.

Website: Notice is published on website at: neckandback.com
Privacy notice updated October, 2017.

Donald Corenman, MD, DC

Average rating:

81 reviews

Eric S

Sep 26, 2021

by Eric S on Donald Corenman, MD, DC

Successful pars repair at 46 years old

Back in November of 2018 (at 46 years old) I came from Vancouver BC to have a pars repair done with Dr. Donald Corenman at the Steadman Clinic in Vail Colorado. I'm finally posting this review nearly three years later in late 2021. The reason I waited so long was I wanted to know the final result before I posted my review. Unfortunately in that time Dr. Corenman has retired. Nevertheless, I want to post this review of Dr. Corenman and his staff at the Steadman Clinic in their excellent treatment of my L5 pars interarticularis.

I fractured my pars at age 42 back in 2014 when rolling on the gym floor, and was denied treatment by the Canadian healthcare system, probably due to my age. First my GP told me there was no surgical option for a pars defect, which was quite incorrect! I tried to live with it, but the symptoms worsened (periodic random spine slippage and weeks of resultant pain after just bending over to tie my shoe, so I eventually learned to mostly squat and hardly bend). When I finally consulted with Canadian spine surgeons, I was told they believed my pars defect had been congenital (since birth). This was absurd, considering I had done extreme martial arts (including jiu jitsu) for years prior, as well as 5 years of reinforcing steel full time in my 20s, probably the hardest job on the back you can find. No pars defect like mine would possibly have allowed this--ergo it was impossible that I had had the defect since birth. I did however have an asymptomatic congenital spina bifida occulta that made me more susceptible to a pars fracture. In 2014 in one instant, I went from having the strongest back people I knew said they'd ever seen, to being unable to safely bend over and tie my shoe without a non-negligible risk of my spine slipping randomly (which would lead to weeks of pain after each occurrence). This was due to the unilateral L5 pars defect, otherwise known as spondylolysis. It was when lying in pain on the floor 4 years later after maybe the 6th spine slippage event post injury, that I had had enough, and resolved to have surgery. If Canada's "universal health care" said no, I would make lemonade from lemons, and find the very best surgeon in the world at pars repairs. That was Dr. Donald Corenman. Dr. Corenman back in 2018 ran a website https://neckandback.com/ that dedicated many pages to the science of every aspect of pars repairs, from eligibility (good discs on MRI), to best surgical techniques (minimal open compared to minimally invasive), best imaging to use (i.e., O-Arm with Stealth imaging vs. older fluoroscopy), the ideal amount of BMP to use and why not use too much or too little, and much more, all to do with pars repairs, pages upon pages of his site just on the pars, with scientific references and his own extensive expert opinion. As a health research statistician, I was very impressed with this. It was in stark contrast to the websites of other spine surgeons which barely gave the pars a word or two, focusing almost exclusively on fusions. I had found the best surgeon in the world for pars repairs, and so after Dr. Corenman personally screened my MRI to ensure my discs were healthy, I booked the surgery.

Being 46 years old at the time of surgery in 2018, with a 4-year-old pars fracture from 2014 combined with a congenital SBO meant my pars fragment was somewhat atrophied, but it was "very solid", said Dr. Corenman in the operative report. Nevertheless, it was challenging with two things to fix, the pars and SBO, and OR time was around 4 hours. Recovery over the following months was guided by a very clear "Spine binder" from the Steadman Clinic with strict rules of "no BLT" (no bending, lifting or twisting), and illustrated physiotherapy guidelines. They even warned patients to avoid fish oil supplements, which could excessively dampen inflammation and hence slow bone healing. They answered many questions I had during months of recovery, with responses coming from the very supportive Lori Fugate (then director of Dr. Corenman's practice), and Ehrich Bean (then physician's assistant at the practice), as well as a couple calls with Dr. Corenman himself after two of the CT scans. Ehrich Bean offered great advice for taking the spine binder conservatively due to the nature of pars repairs vs. fusions. The final post-op CT scan I had was a couple weeks ago at 34 months post-op, and Dr. Corenman had retired, but I got a very positive and informative call from Eric Strauch (current PA at the Steadman Clinic under Dr. Corenman's replacement there, and who had also worked with Dr. Corenman previously). The staff at the Steadman Clinic were extremely supportive all the way through the process. I should mention, the local Canadian spine surgeon did offer me very good post-operative support including antibiotics as needed to deal with a mild surface incision-site infection early on, booking numerous x-rays when I felt something was amiss, as well as booking all four of my post-op CT scans. I am very grateful for that support also.

My final result shows plenty of solid bone across the pars and a healed SBO, with my vertebral body now a solid bone ring instead of being broken at two places as it was pre-op. Does my spine hold up in the real world? You bet! I have recently dug and moved several yards of dirt and sand and gravel by myself (shovel and wheelbarrow!) to fix our water main, pulled roots from the yard, moved several "portable" (these are HUGE) air conditioners up several flights of stairs my myself, and lifted weights. I now run 2 miles (3.2 KM) several times weekly with a hard 100 meter dash in the middle. I bend deeply before each run I go on, with no spine slippage. My spine feels amazing. I can bend over to do exercise, or real word tasks, with no risk of spine slippage.

My sincere thanks to God, Dr. Donald Corenman, Lori Fugate, Ehrich Bean, Eric Strauch, and the Steadman Clinic, as well as the Canadian spine surgeon who offered me excellent post-operative care back in Canada. You have all given me a new lease on life.

Sincerely,
Eric S

Robert S

May 11, 2021

by Robert S on Donald Corenman, MD, DC

Back Fusion Surgery

I had my entire lumbar spine fused in November of 2018. I had scoliosis , with pinched nerves that were so painful I could hardly walk - and standing for more than a few minutes was impossible. Even sitting was painful.
The fusion surgery produced immediate relief! And the recovery was much easier than I expected.
To this day I can do all the activities I love from hiking, to standing in a stream fly fishing to riding my bike long distances - or just walking down the street with my wife.
Kudos to Dr. Corenman and his staff, (including the two Erics) for taking such good care of me!

Leslie R

Jul 9, 2020

by Leslie R on Donald Corenman, MD, DC

TLIF

I had my TLIF surgery on 6/24/2020 by Dr. Corenman, I can not say enough good things about the Dr or his staff. I was always treated with respect and explained everything throughly, that made it easy for everyone to understand. I highly recommend Dr. Corenman and the Steadman Clinic.

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About the Author: Donald Corenman, MD, DC