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Does HIPAA cover children?
Does HIPAA cover children?
| Does HIPAA cover children? |
 Children are future adults and any medical information held on them could be valuable both now and in later life. HIPAA covers access to PHI or Private Health Information for adults, but does it apply to children?The general rule of thumb is if a child has the right to make a health related decision about themselves, then they are covered under HIPAA. The privacy rule asserts that if they have the right to make decisions, they have the right to control the information related to those decisions, and further, any medical information to the same extent as adults. If the child does not have the right to make their own decisions then a parent or guardian can make them on their behalf. The same is true for HIPAA. The parent or guardian can exercise their rights under the rule on the child's behalf. School health records are not subject to HIPAA. This may seem a little surprising considering the information that may be held, but schools are covered by another piece of legislation. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act or FERPA prevails in these circumstances. This is a completely different set of rules protecting the information of children under the age of eighteen before they go on to further education. The FERPA rules are stricter in some senses about what information can be shared about their students, especially in regard to medical information. However other information such as the students name, date of birth, telephone number and qualifications can be shared without consent unless a parent or guardian 'opts out' in advance. So in essence if a child can make their own decisions about treatments, they can make their own decisions about the records pertaining to it.  |