(Thanks, b. :)

Reader b. writes:

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The linked article is very weak, without attempting to explain why the hospital in question applies this; HIPAA Laws were put into effect in the US in 1996.

While they were referred to as relating to portability of health records at the start of the digital health record age (Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act), HIPAA laws had the affect of making 12 year old and older dependents read and sign a long statement, with a paragraph at the end explaining the underage patient did not need to disclose the prognosis/diagnosis with anyone except the doctor, and the doctor would not tell anyone, including their parents/guardian, anything about the appointment/treatment.

The juvenile had to sign the statement indicating they had been informed about portability of records, etc., but really it was a way to get minor children aware of their "right" to keep medical secrets from their parents, or anyone else that was financially responsible for the treatment.

HIPAA laws were written to convey adult privacy rights to minors, and eliminate the parent as a role model while maintaining the parent as financially responsible.

We saw this happen with our daughter, aged 12, to her and our confusion. We later experienced it when being billed a large sum and were unable to get any information, or even any medical codes that we were being billed for, from the Dr. office, even after our daughter told them they could disclose to us.

Enacted under the Bill Clinton administration, HIPAA was a way to ensure that 12 year and older children would have access to drug abuse and addiction treatments, birth control, venereal disease treatments, abortions, trans gender treatments, depression treatments, etc., without the parents having to know anything of it, or of the behaviors that lead to some of these problems. It effectively cuts the parents out of helping the child solve issues, or even of helping them make treatment decisions.

Some would argue that this is important in a home that has unhealthy or unsafe consequences for the children. But it also is a forbidding way to limit parents, especially separated parents, from understanding or helping the health or mental state of their children, which they are usually also financially responsible for.

HIPAA laws have been in force since 1996. The linked article does not address them in any way, and only scratches the surface of the deliberate and debilitating, confusing destabilizing result they have had on many American families.

We too felt the frustration and confusion the family in the article expresses.

The sad reality is HIPAA laws relating to childhood secrecy from their parents are an institutionalized effort to further disintegrate the family structure, with the evil intent of further sexualizing our children, and replacing the parenting model.

Thanks, Hobie. No identifying information, please. Best to you!

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