Parents will no longer have access to Protected Health Information (PHI) belonging to children 13 and older, in accordance with state privacy laws. The result is that upon turning 13, your child will have sole access to test results, chart notes, and all discussions with medical personnel in the practice or during a hospital stay. The current access to the child's healthcare information ended April 5th. This in addition to other laws protecting healthcare privacy. This is the law in my state. Your state may be a bit different. The age may be 16 or in a few states 18 in others, but there is a law in all but a few states.
There is no better way to describe this than bull shit. Parents and other caregivers have to have access to children's health information in order to care for the child. Suppose your child has sever headaches and the doctor orders a CT Scan and it is determined that he has brain tumor. The doctor or nurse ask the child if he wants this disclosed to his parents and he says I don't want anybody to know. It is not uncommon for kids to want to hide their health condition.
I am writing this because my family has become a victim of this horrible law. My grandson was diagnosed with Schizophrenia when he was 16 years old. He was picked up by police walking out in front of traffic and taken to the ER because he was having hallucinations. His parents were notified because the ER needed insurance information. To make a long short, he was involuntary committed and released 2 weeks later with release instructions and prescriptions which he disposed in the nearest trash can. Thus began 3 years of pure hell for the family trying to care for a severely schizophrenic child with no help or coordination with healthcare professionals until they got a court order declaring him mentally incompetent and appointing the parent as legal guardian. Kids need to have some rights but parents need to be able to care for their kids.
What state is that. If they are under 18 and you are paying their healthcare, should be seeing and hearing everything it takes to be counted in on plans and decisions. Kids are idiots at best.
This particular legislation is in Washington State and the age is 13 or older, but similar laws exist in a number states. The state law allow the child to request certain medical procedure without parent consent; that is the child is the decision maker, not the parent. HIPPA language does not allow healthcare providers to release information to parties that are not decision makers without the patient's consent. The law lists the follows medical procedure in which child, not parent can make the medical decisions, SDI testing, Birth Control Services, Abortion Services, Out Patient Mental Health Treatment, Inpatient Mental Health Treatment, In Patient Substance Abuse, etc.. The alternative is for the parent to ask the court to declare the child mental incompetent and no parent wants to do that. Being declared mentally incompetent by the court can cause a lot of problems in year to come, such as getting a drivers license, buying a gun, getting married, serving in the military, leasing or selling property. In fact mental incompetency is legal grounds to revoked any legal contract.
Another major problem is the fear healthcare providers have of being sued for violating patient confidentiality. If in doubt, the provider will insist on a signed release by the child. Try getting an ROI signed by 16 year old kid who is psychotic.