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Committee approves House bill altering minor medical-record access, rejects broader withholding amendment
Summary
The committee adopted a House bill (H.B. 2402) to expand parental access to minors' medical records by removing certain confidentiality exemptions, but rejected an amendment that would have allowed physicians to withhold records on narrow clinical grounds; the committee reported the bill to the full Senate with recommendation to pass.
The committee considered House Bill 2402, which would change access to a minor’s medical records by limiting some current confidentiality exemptions. Counsel described the bill as removing certain statutory exemptions that currently require prior minor consent for release of records related to birth control, prenatal care, drug rehabilitation or venereal disease and removing the exemption tied to the AIDS-related testing confidentiality act. The bill also addressed disclosures by child-placing agencies and clarified that a parent, guardian, foster parent or kinship placement generally may not be denied access to a minor’s medical records.
Committee and witness exchange: Counsel and senators described the bill as the House version with minor changes. Pediatrician John Frona, chair of the Department of Pediatrics at CAMC/Charleston, testified in opposition on clinical and public-health grounds. Frona said the existing law allowing limited confidentiality is aligned with national medical practice and recommended maintaining carve-outs that allow confidential care conversations between adolescents and providers, which can encourage care-seeking for sensitive issues such as sexual health and substance use. “I think…this bill should not be coming out of committee because I think it’s in search of a problem that doesn’t exist,” Frona told the committee and said changing the law “really disrupts the care that we provide.”
Committee action and amendment: During deliberations senators discussed the balance between parental access to records for routine care (fractures, infections, etc.) and the need for confidentiality in sensitive clinical circumstances. One senator proposed an amendment to permit physicians to withhold records when, in their professional judgment, disclosure would endanger a child or otherwise harm the child’s health; the committee rejected that proposed amendment in a recorded voice vote in which the chair announced the noes prevailed. The committee had earlier adopted a prior clarifying amendment (from hospital association input) that narrowed a ‘mature minor’ provision so parents must be notified, per the transcript.
Outcome: The committee voted to report H.B. 2402 as amended to the full Senate with a recommendation to pass. The transcript records voice votes and committee discussion; the committee declined to adopt the broader withholding amendment offered during floor debate.
What to watch: The bill narrows certain confidentiality protections for minors and will raise questions during full-Senate consideration about how clinical confidentiality exceptions should be preserved for public-health and therapeutic reasons; pediatric testimony urged caution and recommended retaining protections that encourage adolescents seeking sensitive care to speak with clinicians.
