HIPAA which was passed into law in 1996 and one of its significance was to provide confidentiality on issues concerning health information and protected medical records of individuals. The law involved significant protections for minor children combined with a substantial level of deference to individual state standards for such protections in addition to the judgment of healthcare professionals (Brodnik & American Health Information Management Association, 2012). The HIPAA law necessarily had to establish some compromise between contrasting perspectives about the importance of parental access to health information about their children, as well as, the need to provide confidential health care services to adolescents. The essence of this paper is to explain the consent of the minor on some medical problems and the pros and cons of the North Carolina laws.
Adults are responsible for the treatment of the juvenile’s health because their rights are employed through progenitor or anyone else who has legal authority to the child. This is where in some situations the minor may not be granted permission to treatment unlike in other cases. According to Brodnik & American Health Information Management Association (2012), a patient should recognize a suggested medical care that includes the unpredictability, benefits or substitute of that modality. The patient can give out his/her permission that safeguarded health data can be exposed. Consequently, some situations such as “humanitarian status” may force the adolescent to seek medical attention without first consulting an adult (Brodnik & American Health Information Management Association, 2012). The situation relates to instances where the minors require lifesaving medical attention. In this case, health professionals are secured from answerability for lack of permission by an adult responsible for the kid before offering medical care to the minor at the spot of a calamity or a mishap. However, despite a lack of the adults consent the healthcare assistant has full authority to give full medical attention to the patient. This consent may fall under the category of general consent
Other situations include when the privacy of the minor has to be observed. This is evident in cases such as when the patient is suffering from certain private illnesses such as STI (Brodnik & American Health Information Management Association, 2012). In the past decades, nations have expanded authority to adolescents to testing for STIs and other diseases which include HIV. In such situations, the kid may shy off from discussing what they are going through with their parents. Some parents may condemn the kid to a point where the kid may decide to take drastic makes upon themselves. On the other hand, infections of such diseases may be termed as immorality which may lead to discriminations by friends and family, and that may be the biggest fear of most youths. The rationale for this is respecting and giving permission to minors to have their consent on some intense and private diseases.
Similarly, cases such as minors suffering from substance abuse disorders have issued the right to stand for themselves in the medical institutions (Brodnik & American Health Information Management Association, 2012). The laws protect the kids from silent, painful occurrences. This is where the kid is suffering from addiction to drugs but cannot talk to their parents about an issue because of fear. The Program that child is going to go through will determine whether parental consent is needed. When the patient is an outpatient parental consent may necessarily not be needed unlike when the child is going to be admitted to the hospital. The rationale for minor’s access to medical cares is that confidentiality is frequently required to help the adolescent in dealing with the trauma and since they are more comfortable in letting only the doctors be aware of their situation is their first healing step (Brodnik & American Health Information Management Association, 2012).
In North Carolina, adolescents have the permission of seeking clinical treatment without the consent of their guardians concerning the medical health services such as diagnosis and treatment of genital diseases, substance abuse, and gestation (North Carolina Health Information Exchange Authority, 2017). However, the statute does not extend to a minors’ right to obtain medical treatment involving abortion, sterilization, or being admitted to a psychiatric or substance abuse, inpatient treatment facility. Lots of discretion is given to physicians in North Carolina, who may make decisions about whether or not a minor is capable of making such decisions on his or her own (North Carolina Health Information Exchange Authority, 2017). Furthermore, that state determines that doctors may obtain parental consent without the permission of a juvenile if notification is essential to the life or health of the minor (Moore, 2015).
The advantage of these rules is that children to a certain extent have authority to medical assistance. On the other hand, the disadvantage of the law is that it does potentially completely bypass the will and judgment of the people who have known that child for his or her entire life and who may be in the best position to make these decisions. In conclusion, it is evident that despite some states allowing minors to seek medical assistance without the consent of parents, the adults still have some access and control over the kids.
