Defense Department Is Boxing Parents Out Of Their Children’s Medical Care And Records

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Defense Department Is Boxing Parents Out Of Their Children’s Medical Care And Records

It’s more important than ever for parents to push back on DOD policies, check in with their kids, and resolve to stay in the exam room with their children.

BY: AMY HAYWOOD
JULY 26, 2023

The Department of Defense (DOD) has quietly implemented controversial adolescent health policies throughout the military health system (MHS) that kick in when children turn 12 years old.

Because the official policies are hard to find and are not posted publicly at base clinics, most parents are shocked to find out that doctors prefer to treat their adolescent children in a completely parent-free setting. Parents are outraged to be treated as if they cannot be trusted to guide their own children. Here is my story detailing a quest for answers on why online medical record access is limited and why I was being asked to leave the room.

Two years ago, my family made a military move overseas. At our very first well-child visit to the base medical clinic, my child’s doctor, a complete stranger to us — as are most doctors in this transient lifestyle — said I would be required to leave the exam room at the next year’s exam so she could ask my child more “invasive” questions now that she was an adolescent. The next year, I was surprised to learn via the Tricare online portal (TOL) that I was barred from accessing my child’s online medical record from 12 years of age onward (for the new MHS Genesis system, it’s 13). Additionally, as I came to learn, my child was not allowed to have her own password or create her own account until she turns 18.

When I asked the doctor for the reason why, she said it was “above her paygrade.”

Wanting a more precise answer, I submitted an Interactive Customer Evaluation (ICE) comment to the clinic asking for the DOD policy and underlying law that allow for parents to be barred from online medical records. In the end, it took months for DOD to find the policy, and it also involved submitting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Defense Health Agency (DHA) as well as my U.S. senator opening up casework into the matter.

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Source:  https://thefederalist.com/2023/07/26/defense-department-is-boxing-parents-out-of-their-childrens-medical-care-and-records/