Evergreen Health cites Washington state law as the reason for yanking parents off their children’s healthcare records.
Raise your hand if you think thirteen-year-olds are competent to manage their own healthcare.
Everyone with a raised hand is invited to go sign up for the nearest child development class. Do not pass GO, and send PEC $200 to fight hospitals like Evergreen Health, who just told parents they’re not only irrelevant to their own children’s healthcare, they’re evicted from participating in it.
When I shared Evergreen Health’s announcement around the family dinner table tonight, my fifteen-year-old asked, “What’s a patient portal?”
My seventeen-year-old high school senior said, “I have no idea how to deal with doctors and insurance and appointments and records. How is a thirteen-year-old supposed to know how to do it?”
Excellent questions, minors who are demonstrably wiser than the administrators at Evergreen Health.
Does anyone remember being thirteen? I do.
I had a debilitating crush on Harrison Ford and with thirteen-year-old seriousness determined that I would marry him one day because I would literally DIE if I didn’t. (I didn’t marry him. I didn’t die.)
The average age to begin menstruation is around thirteen. So roughly half of girls that age haven’t even gotten their periods yet. Do they know what a pap smear is? Do they know how often a woman should have one? Do they know what normal looks like with respect to women’s reproductive health, and when something that’s happening should concern them?
At thirteen many boys’ voices haven’t dropped yet. They likely don’t outweigh their own mothers. They still play with Beyblades and Hotwheels.
Evergreen Health cites Washington state law as the reason for yanking parents off their children’s healthcare records. It is a fact that the state of Washington has declared that thirteen-year-olds are considered to have reached the age of majority when it comes to managing their healthcare. Thirteen-year-olds can’t
watch TV-14 television shows,
play rated M (for mature) video games,
drive a car or vote,
order a Heineken or a glass of Chablis,
nor even call in sick to school on their own (a parents’ note is non-negotiable!).
But Evergreen Health has decided that eighth graders should perform all of these patient-portal activities without their parents’ knowledge or oversight:
Review recent doctor visits
See discharge summaries
Check medications
Review immunizations
Monitor allergies
Access lab results
Securely message your doctor
Request prescription refills
Schedule non-urgent appointments
Check benefits and coverage
Update contact information
Make payments
Download and complete forms
View educational materials
Sane people of Washington state, the United States, and planet Earth: stand up and take notice. Your children are being preyed upon by profiteering healthcare systems and predatory activists. The ONLY reason to prevent parents having access to their minor children’s records is because the people holding those records intend to exploit the children in question for profit.
If you have minor children in Washington state, it’s time to give serious thought to whether it’s safe to give Washington state doctors access to your kids.
Call Evergreen Health at 425-899-1930 and tell them how you feel about their new policy.
Contact your state legislators and tell them what you think about parents being sidelined from oversight over children’s health and wellbeing.
And if you live outside Washington state, PEC recommends you look into your state’s laws about when children are considered legally competent to manage their own healthcare.
You might be shocked at what you find out.
Maria Keffler is a co-founder of Partners for Ethical Care. Contact Ms Keffler via support@partnersforethicalcare.com.