Confidentiality and My Healthcare Provider

 

Intro	Check-Ups
Why do I need a PCP?	Confidentiality
How to Find a PCP	Reproductive Health
Health Plans	I Don't Like My PCP
Qualifications of PCPs	When to Visit?
Deciding on a PCP

 

How do I ask about confidentiality?

Before or at your first visit with your PCP, ask about confidentiality. This is very important and can be hard to bring up. Ask if your health care provider will keep information private about your sexual history, contraception, and other worries. Discuss what your healthcare provider and you will do when there is something important, like a serious illness, depression, or life-threatening condition, which should be shared with your parents or someone else. Start the discussion when you are 12 or 13 years old, or at the first visit.

 

Practice some questions to ask your provider, such as:

• What happens to the bills from my visits here or to a gynecologist in the community?
• If I'm covered by my parents' insurance, will they find out about examinations and tests that are done on me?
• What if I need birth control?
• Can you tell me what happens to my lab test results? Who do you call?
• What if I want to be tested for STDs or HIV?
• What if you find out that I have a STD?
• What if you find out that I am pregnant?
• Is there any information that you are obligated to tell my parents?
• What happens if I have a big problem and need help telling my parents?

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Written by the CYWH Staff at Children's Hospital Boston

 

Updated 11/20/2008

 

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