Privacy Policy.

01Our commitment to your privacy

Star Wellness MD, PLLC (“the Practice,” “we,” “us”) is a physician-led medical practice at 1652 Pat Booker Road, Universal City, Texas 78148. Protecting your privacy is part of practicing good medicine. This policy explains two things in plain language: how we handle your health information as your medical practice, and how we handle website data when you visit starwellnessmd.com.

This page is a summary written to be readable. Your full legal notice is our Notice of Privacy Practices, which is included in the consent packet every patient signs, posted in our office, and available on paper any time you ask. If anything here differs from the Notice of Privacy Practices, the Notice controls.

02Your health information & HIPAA

We are required by law to maintain the confidentiality of health information that identifies you, to give you notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, and to follow the terms of the notice currently in effect. Records we create about your care — visit notes, lab results, photographs taken for treatment, messages about your care — are part of your protected health information.

Because we are a cash-pay practice, we do not routinely send your information to health insurers. Your information is not sold. Ever.

03How we may use your health information

Federal law allows us to use and disclose your health information without a separate authorization for three core purposes:

• Treatment. To care for you — for example, reviewing your history before a visit, coordinating with a laboratory or pharmacy, or, with your knowledge, involving a family member who helps with your care.
• Payment. To collect payment for your care — for example, processing your card on file or preparing a superbill at your request.
• Health care operations. To run the practice — for example, quality review, scheduling, and business planning.

We may also contact you with appointment reminders and information about health-related services that may interest you. Anything beyond these purposes — and anything this policy doesn’t cover — requires your written authorization, which you may revoke at any time going forward.

04Special circumstances

There are limited situations where the law requires or permits disclosure without your authorization, including: public health reporting (such as communicable disease or abuse reporting), health oversight activities such as licensure audits, court orders and lawful subpoenas, certain law-enforcement requests, serious threats to health or safety, workers’ compensation, and disclosures required by federal, state, or local law. The full list, with conditions, is in our Notice of Privacy Practices.

05Your rights over your health information

You have the right to:

• Inspect and receive a copy of your medical and billing records.
• Request an amendment if you believe something is incorrect or incomplete.
• Request restrictions on how we use or disclose your information (we will consider every request, though we are not always required to agree).
• Request confidential communications — for example, that we call you only at a certain number or contact you only by portal message.
• Receive an accounting of disclosures we have made of your information in certain categories.
• Receive a paper copy of the Notice of Privacy Practices at any time.
• File a complaint — with us or with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — without any penalty or change in your care.

To exercise any of these rights, send a written request to: Compliance Officer, Star Wellness MD, 1652 Pat Booker Rd, Universal City, TX 78148.

06Email, text & appointment reminders

The most secure way to message us is the patient portal. If you choose to communicate by email or text, know that standard email and SMS are not encrypted and can be intercepted; by using them you accept that risk, as described in the consent packet. Emails and texts about your care become part of your medical record. Some topics are too sensitive for these channels: please never use email or text for sexually transmitted or communicable conditions, mental or behavioral health, or substance use — raise these through the portal, by phone, or at a visit.

With your consent, we send appointment reminders by call or text, and may leave a message if you don’t answer. You can withdraw that consent in writing at any time.

Marketing messages are strictly opt-in and separate from appointment-related messages. Reply STOP to any marketing text to opt out, or use the unsubscribe link in any marketing email. Message and data rates may apply. Opting out of marketing never affects messages needed for your care.

07Photographs & marketing

Clinical photographs taken during your care — baseline photos, progress photos — are part of your medical record and are used for treatment purposes.

We will never use your photographs, name, or story in marketing, social media, or on this website without your separate, specific, written authorization. You may decline with no effect on your care, and you may revoke a prior authorization at any time going forward.

08Online reviews & social media

If you post a public review or comment about us, federal privacy law limits how we can respond: we cannot confirm that any person is our patient or discuss anyone’s care in public, even if the reviewer describes their own care. A generic reply inviting you to contact the office is not an acknowledgment that you are a patient.

Please don’t share your own health details in public comments or direct messages on social platforms — those platforms are outside our control. Call us or use the portal instead.

09Website data, cookies & analytics

When you visit starwellnessmd.com, we collect the kinds of information most websites collect: pages visited, approximate location from your IP address, browser and device type, and how you found us. We use this to understand what content helps people and to improve the site.

The site uses cookies and similar technologies, including analytics and advertising tools from third parties (such as Google and Meta), which may set their own cookies and receive information about your visit — for example, that a browser viewed a page — subject to their own privacy policies. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, and you can limit ad personalization through Google and Meta’s own ad-preference tools.

Browsing this website does not make you a patient, and information you submit through general website forms is not part of a medical record until you become one. We ask that you not include health details in general contact forms — use the portal or call us for anything clinical.

10Third-party services we use

We work with service providers to run the practice, and they may process your information on our behalf:

• Electronic health record, scheduling & portal (our practice management platform) — stores your record and handles online booking and secure messaging.
• Laboratories — process specimens your physician orders and bill you or your insurer directly for that testing.
• Pharmacies, including compounding pharmacies, fill prescriptions sent by your provider.
• Payment processors and financing partners (such as Cherry and CareCredit) handle transactions under their own terms and privacy policies.

Vendors that handle protected health information for us are required to safeguard it under written agreements as the law requires. Links from our site to third-party websites — booking, portal, financing, social media — take you to services we don’t control; their privacy practices are their own.

11How we protect your information

We use administrative, physical, and technical safeguards appropriate to a medical practice: access limited to staff who need it for your care, secured systems, and staff training on confidentiality. No system is perfectly secure, and no one can honestly promise otherwise — but if a breach of unsecured health information ever affects you, we will notify you as the law requires.

12Children’s privacy

This website is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information online from children under 13. Care for any patient under 18 requires a parent or legal guardian’s written consent, and certain services are not offered to minors.

13Changes to this policy

We may revise this policy and our Notice of Privacy Practices as our practices or the law change. Revisions apply to the records we hold, and the current version is always posted here and available in the office. The “last updated” date at the top of this page will change whenever we revise it.

14Questions & complaints

Privacy questions, requests, and complaints go to our Compliance Officer:

Compliance Officer
Star Wellness MD, PLLC
1652 Pat Booker Rd
Universal City, TX 78148
(210) 775-1785
info@starwellnessmd.com

You may also file a complaint with the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. You will never be penalized or treated differently for raising a privacy concern.

See also our Terms & Conditions, Financial Policy, and Good Faith Estimate notice.