patient portal and minors

by Yazmin Wunsch 7 min read

Patient Portals: Considerations for Minors

21 hours ago Information about services provided to a minor for which the minor has the right to consent to treatment cannot be placed in a portal that can be accessed by a parent or guardian. A portal for a minor may include these services. Other circumstances? Deven McGraw 202-637-9800 x115 deven@cdt.org www.cdt.org/healthprivacy >> Go To The Portal


Healthcare providers that do not have that ability to segregate sensitive data may need to grant a patient portal access solely to minors at age 13 so the parent cannot see their information. In the interview, Greene also discusses: The struggles healthcare providers will have with balancing strong authentication with easy access;

Full Answer

When to grant patient portal access solely to minors?

Information about services provided to a minor for which the minor has the right to consent to treatment cannot be placed in a portal that can be accessed by a parent or guardian. A portal for a minor may include these services. Other circumstances? Deven McGraw 202-637-9800 x115 deven@cdt.org www.cdt.org/healthprivacy

Can a patient portal be used for a parent?

Nov 29, 2016 · Minor and Parental Access to Patient Portals National and State-based examples and use cases This guide provides examples and overviews of patient portal considerations for minors as it relates to Meaningful Use, HIPAA. state consent laws and associated policies.

How can health care providers give parents access to minor medical records?

Nov 29, 2016 · This guide provides examples and overviews of patient portal considerations for minors as it relates to Meaningful Use, HIPAA. state consent laws and associated policies. The articles and presentations included for download and linked to from related websites currently include examples from the following national and state guidelines: National-level Minors' …

Should a parent have proxy access to a minor’s medical portal?

Feb 01, 2018 · Our practice is to allow parents to sign up for an account for the minor patient and have access to the portal until the patient reaches 13. At 13, we require both the parent and patient to sign an adolescent access form, which basically serves to educate both parties on what information they are agreeing to allow the other to access.

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Does HIPAA apply to parents of minors?

Answer: Yes, the Privacy Rule generally allows a parent to have access to the medical records about his or her child, as his or her minor child's personal representative when such access is not inconsistent with State or other law.Dec 19, 2002

Is it a HIPAA violation to look at your child's chart?

No. It is NOT a HIPAA violation to view your own medical record.

What information can be accessed through a patient portal?

The features of patient portals may vary, but typically you can securely view and print portions of your medical record, including recent doctor visits, discharge summaries, medications, immunizations, allergies, and most lab results anytime and from anywhere you have Web access.

What are the cons of a patient portal?

Con: Difficult patient buy-in The most frequently reported downside to patient portals is the difficulty providers often face in generating patient buy-in. Although providers are generally aware of the health perks of using a patient portal, patients are seldom as excited about the portal as they are.Feb 17, 2016

What does HIPAA say regarding confidentiality of a minor?

Generally, HIPAA offers no protection to minors and requires healthcare providers to release a minor patient's medical records to the child's parent or guardian upon request.Sep 1, 2021

What is snooping HIPAA?

In the context of healthcare security, the term “snooping” refers to when private medical records are accessed by someone who is not considered authorized under HIPAA. Snooping is often used as a catch-all term that refers to any type of inappropriate record access.Mar 2, 2021

What is the purpose of patient portal?

A patient portal is a secure online website that gives patients convenient, 24-hour access to personal health information from anywhere with an Internet connection. Using a secure username and password, patients can view health information such as: Recent doctor visits.Sep 29, 2017

What is the advantage of a patient portal for the patient?

The Benefits of a Patient Portal You can access all of your personal health information from all of your providers in one place. If you have a team of providers, or see specialists regularly, they can all post results and reminders in a portal. Providers can see what other treatments and advice you are getting.Aug 13, 2020

Why do patients not use patient portals?

The researchers found no demographic differences among nonusers who said that a technology hurdle, lack of internet access or no online medical record was the reason why they did not make use of a patient portal.May 14, 2019

Can patient portals be hacked?

Health outcomes improve. Unfortunately, what makes your patient portal valuable for patients is exactly what makes it attractive to cybercriminals. It's a one-stop shop for entire health records, and identity thieves can make a fast buck from stealing this data and selling it on.

Are patient portals effective?

Results of patient engagement were mixed: portals in some studies did not cause statistically significant improvement, but patients in other studies reported that portals enabled better engagement in their care.

Can you think of any potential disadvantages of patients using the patient portal system within the EHR justify your answer?

The system must use strong passwords and should include the latest encryption and other protections. Otherwise, patient data could be compromised, leading to fraud and identity theft. A portal can be tough for some patients to comprehend, especially if they have been used to doing things the old-fashioned way.May 23, 2017

What is meaningful use stage 2?

In particular, meaningful use Stage 2 is pushing for healthcare providers to provide more immediate access, particularly the ability to view, download, and transmit information through what is normally expected to be some sort of patient portal.

Can a parent access a minor's medical records?

Healthcare providers can choose to give parents access to the minor's records via a patient portal, but the providers should consider segregating certain information to make those confidential services inaccessible by the parent, Greene says.

Participation of a Patient

The PHI of an unemancipated minor may not be accessed through the patient portal of the North Dakota health information network.

Participation of a Patient Representative

The personal representative, including the parents, of an unemancipated minor must not be invited to or participate on behalf of the unemancipated minor in the patient portal of the North Dakota Health Information Network.

Definitions

1. “ Minor ” means an individual under eighteen years of age.#N#2. “ Unemancipated minor ” means an individual who is under 18 years of age and is under the care or supervision of his or her parents or legal guardian.#N#3.

When do pediatric hospitals shift patient portal control?

Although most pediatric hospitals and clinics shift patient portal control from parents to patients once a child reaches adolescence, providers still have a responsibility to encourage open communication between both parties.

When do pediatric portals become more complicated?

As cumbersome as guardian authentication and proxy access may be, patient portals become even more complicated when patients reach adolescence. At this point, most pediatric providers begin to shift portal management to the child and retract some guardian privileges.

Why are patient portals important?

Patient portals in pediatrics raise several privacy issues, especially as patients age into adolescence and young adulthood. Patient portals are an important regulatory requirement, with industry professionals touting their ability to better engage the patient and help all participating parties manage patient health.

Why is proxy access important?

Proxy access is at the core of portal adoption because it legally allows guardians to access and manage a child’s patient portal. Gaining proxy access, something a guardian can usually do in the doctor’s office or through extensive online verification, is critical for pediatric patient portals until the child begins managing it on her own. ...

Consent laws and portal policies

Under most state and federal laws, for a minor to obtain health care services, the minor's parent or legal guardian must consent to such services. However, under certain circumstances, state laws and HIPAA permit minors to consent to care on their own.

Results

Since implementation, 1,534 adolescent patients have activated a portal account. Not counting patients who have since transitioned to adult accounts or otherwise left the system, the Institute currently has more than 500 adolescent users. Of these users, 223 have logged in more than five times in the past 12 months.

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The Role of Patient Portals

Privacy Challenges with Patient Portals

Authentication For Portal Use

  • MCGEE:What are the various ways that individuals can be credentialed and authenticated for accessing patient portals? GREENE:There are two stages here; the initial identity-proofing and the subsequent authentication every time someone logs into the patient portal. The identity-proofing normally happens either in-person or online. The in-person part could happen as part of the regis…
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Why only Passwords?

  • MCGEE:Why do you think most organizations that have a patient portals will go with the username and password only? GREENE:Difficulty and lack of demand. I think there is going to be a minority of patients who may want the more robust features of multi-factor authentication, and may want to feel confident that their information is not going to be accessible to others based on just the …
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Minors' EHRs

  • MCGEE:What are the privacy and security challenges involved with providing access to health records of minors via the patient portals? GREENE:This is a very tough situation. You're going to have, under the law, some minors who have their parent or guardian as their personal representative under HIPAA who has the right to access their information. B...
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Adult Caregivers

  • MCGEE:What are the privacy and security challenges involved with giving access to elderly patients' information to say, an adult children? GREENE: I think it's a great idea. I think you definitely want to give the tools so that the patient does not have to share their username and password, but instead could have a greater level of control by creating a delegate account wher…
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Other Methods of Access

  • MCGEE:How do patient portals compare with other methods of providing patients with access to their health information, such as secure e-mail? GREENE:I think it is much easier to use. It will also link in sometimes with these other practices. So for example, the patient portal may also be a messaging portal where a secure e-mail is received by an individual. They receive an unsecure e …
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Biggest Emerging Threats

  • MCGEE:What do you think the biggest emerging privacy and security threats for portals? GREENE:I think as you get more of these, there will be more stories of vulnerabilities that have been identified. If the individual changes the URL by one number, and they are able to see someone else's information, I think we'll see security challenges on that front. I think we're going to see a c…
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