HIPPA violation??

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Working in a clinic, this may not be something that everyone else deals with but what would you do if you had a minor teenager come in for their annual exam and the MD did a GC/Chlamydia and pregnancy test on the patient then the parent calls for test results? What I have heard from other nurses is that you cannot tell the parent these results but I have never heard of a HIPPA regulation for specific test results. If they are the patient's legal guardian, do they have a right to these results? Anyone have any thoughts?

I have also been told by other nurses that once a teenager becomes pregnant, that patient is legally emancipated, which I'm not so sure is true. Let's say you have a pregnant 16 year old - can you discuss any test results with their parent?

This happens all the time in our clinic. Per our policy we cannot give any info to anybody other than the pt in this situation, unless the pt gives us the ok in writing. Parents hate this, but confidentiality is a big deal. When we send out labs, we do not give pts address either. This ensures no info is sent to the residence. Plus with minors everything is covered under the Family Pact program. We see alot of teens.

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