Responding to Requests for Minors’ Protected Health Information: Guidelines for N.C. Local Health Departments
Requests for release of a minor’s protected health information (PHI) are similar in some respects to requests for an adult’s PHI. As with adults, the general rule is that PHI may be released with written authorization, and there are some circumstances in which PHI may be released without authorization. However, minors often must rely on an adult—usually a parent—to make their health care decisions, or to exercise their rights to access PHI or authorize disclosure of PHI. As a result, two frequently asked questions about disclosing minors’ PHI are:
• If a disclosure of a minor’s PHI requires authorization, who signs the authorization form?
• Are parents allowed to have access to a minor’s PHI?
This document focuses on those two questions, which have answers that can be quite complicated.