The reference would be under state laws pertaining to divorce. Although family law is not my specialty, I seem to recall that most states may have adopted the Uniform Child Custody Act.
In Wisconsin, both parents would have legal custody of the child(ren) unless they were divested of legal custody by a court. Grounds for divesting a parent of legal custody would include child abuse. So our presumption is that a parent in a divorce situation has legal custody unless we are notified to the contrary. Our view is that if one parent has been stripped of legal custody, no doubt the other parent will take great pains to let everyone know about it. Distinction must be made between legal custody (i.e., the legal right to make decisions about children) and physical custody or placement (i.e., where the child lives). Physical custody/placement is irrelevant in determining whether a parent can access his/her child's PHI. I hope this is helpful. Judi Judith A. Langer, Attorney Privacy Official Cobalt Corporation Legal Department 401 W. Michigan Street, C-10 Milwaukee, WI 53203 Phone (414)-226-6062 Fax (414)-226-6229 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This electronic message is intended only for the use of the addressee(s) named above and may contain legally privileged and/or confidential information that may be protected by the attorney-client and attorney-work product doctrines. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you are notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you received this message in error, please immediately notify the sender by telephone and delete the original message. Thank you for your cooperation. -----Original Message----- From: Giesecke, Steve [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, February 28, 2003 2:14 PM To: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup List Subject: Custodial parent rights to minor's PHI I have a question regarding PHI disclosure with respect to minors when there has been a divorce and one parent has been assigned custody. My understanding is that only the parent with legal custody can (legally) access the children's PHI but I can't put my finger on the reference for this practice. Payers, for example, may have no way of knowing who has custody, let alone the marital status of a parent calling in concerning the PHI of a child. If I am reading this correctly, they will need to develop a system which allows their claims rep's and call centers to know who the custodial parent is. Does HIPAA defer to state law or is there a common law precedent or something specific I have missed in the Privacy Rule which addresses this situation? Thanks for any information, Steve Giesecke Sierra Systems N24Ŋlzbr 䠨ryجfjםN.売Ȩ'᭶+- y+z穭 az൦ دۚ'"í±©v嬉wᦜz鳮)rkz^᭾'ͅ hjh|8yh驮 a!#H<¢"h ᴊ߉Țb*'-ʋ笶*'aya!#H<,jⅤjǚm*pyبí§$x?NzXǫ!ౢ]힋[z u敷+rz"jYGx)h(䭭r,銉 ~䴠^r'rⴭv鮇nr嬝 嫮z敄{&ॲzz-{^םǝjƟ~z(ᬝ]Ơz{l荢 z"醢vrxjبZ+b(r″z{e䵁˛ mm⽧2jv)Zrږ(íµ®(:.˛ mkab蠲(í¬¶ay+ m˛ mfi猠.n湯+yب + iZGj)mW v*kí£Š^=⁴]{)bᨲ0y潳 ʋymᩢ칻 &n䠠r ޞצj)ZuȬm驙u.nⱹ+azX^jǮay+雱 m˛ mfi杧.n慨+yب --- The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. These listservs should not be used for commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific vendor products and services. They also are not intended to be used as a forum for personal disagreements or unprofessional communication at any time. You are currently subscribed to wedi-privacy as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this list, go to the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org or send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you need to unsubscribe but your current email address is not the same as the address subscribed to the list, please use the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org
