Press Releases: Northwest
August 8 , 2006
Parents Can Now View Some of Their Children’s Health Records Online
PORTLAND, Ore. – Starting today, Kaiser Permanente members with children 12 and younger can go to kaiserpermanente.org and access their child’s immunization and allergy records. Members can already e-mail their doctors, request and cancel appointments, and order prescription refills for themselves online. Now, those with children can send a secure e-mail to their child’s pediatrician and receive health reminders for their child.
“We are very pleased and proud to be the only health care company in Oregon or southwest Washington to offer this important tool to our members,” said Kumar Chatani, regional information officer for Kaiser Permanente.
Group Health Cooperative in Seattle is the only other health care company in the Northwest to offer the service, which Kaiser Permanente calls “Act for a Family Member.”
“Instead of searching though files or making a phone call, our members are now able to access their children’s immunization records at the touch of a button,” said Assistant Medical Director Homer Chin, MD. “It will make filling out all those back-to-school forms much easier.”
Act for a Family Member allows a member to act as a proxy, which means they can act on behalf of a family member on selected secure features. To use Act for a Family Member, the member must first register by going to kp.org/register. Within a week, a password will be mailed to their home address. Once a member has logged in to the site, they can click on the “Members” section and then on either “Your Health Record” or “Your Plan“ to find the new service.
Act for a Family Member was developed following federal and state laws governing personal health information. Security was built in to keep private health information from unauthorized users. On-screen affidavits and the fact that a parent’s authorization must be renewed every two years protect the privacy rights of the children.
“We are very excited that we can now allow parents to view important aspects of their child’s electronic health record online,” said Adam Nemer, Director of Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect. “The project team was very thorough, and we are confident that privacy rights are protected and that the site is both secure and beneficial to our members.”
