The HIPAA Privacy Rule and Adolescents: Legal Questions and Clinical Challenges

Abstract

English and Ford comment on the clinical challenges of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule, which protects the privacy of adolescents' health information and medical records. They say that this rule represents a compromise between competing viewpoints about the importance of parental access to minors' health information and the availability of confidential adolescent health care services. With all of the rule's legality, it is not yet clear how state and federal laws and policies will evolve as implementation of the HIPAA privacy rule proceeds.