Pediatric Practices and HIPAA-Compliant Digital Parent Consents, Medical History, and Other Forms

Moving your pediatric clinic’s patient intake process online can seem complicated, especially with the considerations involving minors and their legal representatives under the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

At first glance, patient intake for pediatric practices might be similar to other specialties. But it’s important to remember that HIPAA has additional provisions, such as:

• personal representatives of unemancipated minors and
• the data sharing requirements of the 21st Century Cures Act and Cures Act Final Rule.

Practically speaking, this means that Legal representatives, usually parents or legal guardians, can have access to a minor’s Protected Health Information (PHI), provide consent for a medical procedure and have access to EHI (Electronic Health Information). It can include access to pediatric medical history forms, test results and other related documents.

Pediatric practices have to ensure that legal guardians can easily and securely provide consent and sign other documents. See the regulation details in HIPAA Journal article.

HIPAAtizer forms simplify this process by allowing minors, parents, and guardians to fill out the required information—including Protected Health Information (PHI)—on any device, whether it’s a phone, tablet, or computer. Our platform is designed to address the specific needs related to the Privacy Rule and the signatures of a child’s personal representative (legal guardian).

A Practical checklist to move your Pediatric Forms Online

1. Review your current paper forms, such as intake forms, medical history forms, consent forms, and any other documents used in your practice.
2. Determine the necessary information you need to collect to ensure that nothing important is missing in the digital versions. Remember, the less fields, the better.
3. Verify that the platform you select for your digital forms is fully HIPAA Compliant and provides a Business Associate Agreement (BAA).
4. Check for Security Features: Look for features like encryption, secure data storage, and user authentication to protect PHI.
5. Branding: Customize forms with your practice’s logo and colors for a professional look.
6. Review that your forms are easy to navigate, with clear instructions and a logical flow.
7. Implement Electronic Signatures to allow parents and guardians to sign consent forms digitally.
8. Create form packets to combine intake, consent and milestone forms that allow you to customize the forms based on the patient’s age.
9. Configure forms so that a guardian can or cannot see a child’s responses, depending on your policy or the form.
10. Ensure Mobile Accessibility
11. Train Your Staff
12. Before full implementation, test the forms with a small group to identify any issues.
13. Restrict access to patient information to only those staff members who need it for their role.

Learn more about HIPAAtizer Pediatric forms and see our Pediatric consent in action.

Have PDF or MS Word forms, such as a pediatric medical history form or parental consent form, and want to convert it to a HIPAA-Compliant online form? Upload it here, and the HIPAAtizer team will convert your first form for free.