Is a health care provider permitted to discuss an adult patient’s mental health information with the patient’s parents or other family members?Explain

This unit’s assignment focuses on a particularly sensitive aspect of healthcare, mental health. Given the sensitive nature of mental health and substance use disorder treatment information, understanding HIPAA protections as a healthcare professional is particularly important.

Using the document, Office for Civil Rights Headquarters. (2020, June 4). HIPAA Privacy and Sharing Information Related to Mental Health (Links to an external site.). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Does HIPAA provide extra protections for mental health information compared with other health information?

Is a health care provider permitted to discuss an adult patient’s mental health information with the patient’s parents or other family members?

Can a minor child’s doctors talk to the child’s parent about the patient’s mental health status and needs?

Does a parent have a right to receive a copy of psychotherapy notes about a child’s mental health treatment?

When does HIPAA allow a doctor to notify an individual’s family, friends, or caregivers that a patient has overdosed, e.g., because of opioid abuse?

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