Disclaimer & Copyright

The material on this site is provided for your information and education only. You should never treat yourself for a medical condition based on the information we have provided here. Likewise, you should never decide that you do not need treatment based on this information. In other words, the information available through this site should not be interpreted as medical or professional advice. All medical information, from this or any other source, needs to be reviewed carefully with your own doctor before you act upon it in any way. If you are sick, you have to go to the doctor. No exceptions.

Disclaimer of Liability

With respect to documents and information available from this site, Mercy Health Services, Inc., its affiliated physicians, employees, directors, agents and any other parties involved in the creation, production or delivery of the site are not liable for any direct, incidental, consequential, indirect, or punitive damages arising out of your access to, or use of, the site. Mercy Health Services is providing this site and its contents on an "as is" basis and makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to this site or its contents. Mercy Health Services disclaims all such representations and warranties, including for example warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Likewise, Mercy Health Services disclaims any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, procedure, method, apparatus, product, or process posted on the site. Neither Mercy Health Services, nor its physicians, employees, or associates assumes any responsibility for loss or damages resulting from the use of information contained on this site.

Disclaimer of Endorsement

Any reference made on the site to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not indicate or imply that Mercy Health Services endorses, recommends, or favors the item mentioned. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of Mercy Health Services or the Sisters of Mercy, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

Availability of Product

Since the site may be accessed from international locations where Mercy Health Services does not do business, Mercy Health Services does not represent that it is doing business in all such areas, or that its services will be available in any particular country or jurisdiction. Such products will only be made available in compliance with applicable laws, and only when Mercy Health Services decides to offer them.

Proprietary Rights

The text and images of people or places displayed on the site are the property of either Mercy Health Services or a third party. The use of these images and/or text by you, or anyone authorized by you, is prohibited unless you obtain the express, written permission of Mercy Health Services. Any unauthorized use of these images and/or text may violate copyright laws, trademark and service mark laws, the laws of privacy and publicity, and communications regulations and statutes. The trademarks, logos, and service marks (collectively the Trademarks") displayed on the site, including, "Dial a Downtown Doctor," "The Woman's Doctor," "Obagi," and the graphics for Mercy Health Services' featured specialties and Centers, are registered and unregistered Trademarks of Mercy Health Services and others. No Trademark displayed on the site may be used without the written permission of the party that owns that Trademark. Mercy Health Services will aggressively enforce its intellectual property rights to the fullest extent of the law, including the seeking of criminal prosecution where authorized.

Other Sites

Mercy Health Services has not reviewed all of the sites linked to the Mercy site, and is not responsible for the contents of any off-site pages or any other sites linked to the site. Mercy Health Services expressly disclaims all liability for images, content, and opinion expressed on other sites that may be accessed through links on the Mercy site. Likewise, Mercy Health Services disclaims all liability for images, content, and opinion expressed on outside sites that choose to link to the Mercy page.

Safe Harbor Regulations

For some time now, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been examining safe harbors for physician referral programs. Complying with these harbors guarantees that you will have no legal problems regarding the fraud and abuse regulations. Foregoing the implementation of one or more of these harbors does not guarantee a problem, but may put you in a riskier, grayer area of the law. Proposed harbors were released in January 1989. The final harbors were released in the Federal Register on July 29, 1991.

As reported in this document, the following are the four standards:

The referral service does not exclude as a participant in the referral service any individual or entity who meets the qualifications for participation.

Any payment the participant makes to the referral service is assessed equally against and collected equally from all participants, and is only based on the cost of operating the referral service, and not on the volume or value of any referrals to or business otherwise generated by the participants for the referrals to or business otherwise generated by the participants for the referral service which payment may be made in whole or in part under Medicare or State health care programs.

The referral service imposes no requirements on the manner in which the participant provides services to a referred person, except that the referral service may require that the participant charge the person referred at the same rate as it charges other persons not referred by the referral service, or that these services be furnished free of charge or at reduced charge.

The referral service makes the following five disclosures to each person seeking a referral, with each such disclosure maintained by the referral service in a written record certifying such disclosure and signed by either such person seeking a referral or by the individual making the disclosure on behalf of the referral service:

The manner in which it selects the group of participants in the referral service to which it could make a referral.
Whether the participant has paid a fee to the referral service. The manner in which it selects a particular participant from this group for that person.
The nature of the relationship between the referral service and the group of participants to whom it could make the referral.
The nature of any restrictions that would exclude such an individual or entity from continuing as a participant.