Yesterday I testified before the House Appropriations Committee in support of HB-1800. This bill would increase the access for parents to the behavioral health care and records of their minor children.
Watch my 1 minute testimony below:
Perhaps you received this email from your child’s medical provider on April 5, 2021:
This law, allowing minors to have complete confidentiality in their medical/mental health records, is not new. It’s been on the books for a few years now, but many providers just started enforcing it in 2021. Parents across Washington woke up last spring when they received this email. Parents have been cut out of their children’s healthcare and yet are still expected to pay for everything.
HB-1800 is an opportunity to restore parental access to behavioral health records, by creating a parent portal and giving parents and caregivers access to behavioral health services and education.
We received the email above last spring while our daughter was in Idaho receiving mental healthcare. We had to move her out of the state of Washington because the laws here would not allow for us to be participants in her care and help get her the care she needed. Many parents have experienced this and have not been able to remove their child from this state where they could get them the care they need.
We believe that this is a bill parents in Washington should strongly support. It certainly doesn’t fix all our problems in regards to minor children and healthcare, but it’s a good step in the right direction and we are asking everyone to provide feedback in support of this bill.
You can submit written testimony with your PRO to the House Appropriations Committee by 2:30PM 2/2/22.
You can provide comment to your representatives at any time by clicking the COMMENT button below. You can also use this link to “follow” the bill and receive email updates.
*By Julie Barrett, Founder, Conservative Ladies of Washington
