Know Your Rights!
 Quiz Questions & Answers

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1. A minor is any person who is under 21 years old.
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FALSE: A minor is a person 17 years or younger. On someone’s 18th birthday, she or he is an adult.
 
2. Confidentiality means that a doctor may not tell anyone about a person’s medical information except the patient and the patient’s parents, if the patient is a minor.

 

  
FALSE: Confidentiality means that the information about a person’s health care remains between the health care provider and the person who consented to - or had the right to consent to - the care. Usually, minors must get their parents’ permission (consent) to go to the doctor and receive treatment. However there are many exceptions that allow minors to consent to certain types of medical care on their own, without parental involvement. Therefore, when a minor consents to a health treatment on her own, that treatment is confidential and the provider may not tell anyone, including her parents, about the treatment or other information without her permission unless otherwise required by law.
 
3. A teenager can go to a doctor and be treated for any health problems without his parent’s knowledge or permission.
   
FALSE: While a minor can access certain kinds of medical treatment - mostly relating to reproductive and mental health care - a minor cannot access all medical care on his own. For example, a minor would usually need a parent’s permission to get medical treatment for the chicken pox, unless it was an emergency.
 
4. A teenager can get an abortion without having to notify her parents or get consent from her parents.
   
TRUE: Teenagers in New York who can give informed consent may receive abortion services without parental involvement of any sort. The United States Supreme Court has extended the constitutional privacy right that underlies a woman’s right to an abortion to include minors. Although it has ruled that states may require parental involvement, New York State has not imposed a parental consent or notification rule.
 
5. Pregnant students must transfer to special high schools for pregnant teens and cannot remain in their regular high schools.
   
FALSE: Federal law, known as Title IX, forbids schools that receive federal funds (which include all public schools and some private schools) from discriminating against students because they are pregnant or parents. Therefore, a student may not be pressured into or even asked to leave school solely because she is pregnant. Further, New York City Catholic schools also have written policy that prohibits dismissals based on a student’s pregnancy. The decision whether and when to take a medical leave from school or to transfer to a special school is between the student and her doctor.
 
6. A 15-year-old girl can go to a gynecologist and get a prescription for the Pill without having to tell her parents.
   
TRUE: Minors can access and consent on their own to most forms of family planning, including The Pill, Norplant and condoms. The one exception to this rule is sterilization. Because of its permanent nature, no one under the age of 21 in New York State, and in New York City, no one under the age of 18 may be sterilized.
 
7. A minor can get tested for HIV without a parent’s consent, but she may have to involve her parents to receive treatment.
   
TRUE: Minors can get either anonymous or confidential HIV tests on their own, but the law is less clear about minors receiving treatment without a parent’s involvement. However, health providers may treat HIV+ minors without parental involvement if the provider determines that the minor is mature enough to give informed consent and adhere to the particular treatment and where parental involvement is impossible or could cause harm.
 
8. Teen parents can consent to all of their own health care and all of their children’s health care under all circumstances.
   
TRUE: A minor who is a parent can also make all of his or her own health care decisions as well as all health care decisions for his or her child.
 
9. A minor always can receive mental health counseling without parental consent or notification.
   
FALSE. Generally, parents must consent for a child’s mental health care. However, if the minor knowingly and voluntarily seeks counseling, she may receive it without parental involvement if such involvement would be detrimental to the course of treatment or his parents have refused to consent and the provider determines that treatment is medically necessary and in the minor’s best interests. Further, anyone who is 16 year old or older may voluntarily check herself into a mental health care facility.
 
10. A teenager whose friend brings him to the emergency room after he breaks his arm riding his bike can receive medical care even if his parents are unavailable to give consent to the care.
   
TRUE. If waiting for a parent’s consent would increase the risk to a teen patient’s health or prolong his pain and suffering, he may receive emergency treatment without parental consent. However, treatment provided under this "emergency care doctrine" may not be confidential.
 
11. A person under the age of 18 can declare herself an emancipated minor if she wants to move out of her house because she doesn’t get along with her family.
   
FALSE: A minor is considered emancipated if he is not receiving any financial assistance from his parents (i.e. he’s paying all of his own bills and rent), and his parents say they are willing to let go of their parental rights, concerning their child. There is no official procedure by which a minor can become emancipated, although often, a minor who is financially independent and living in his or her own residence will be considered emancipated, and will be able to consent to his or her own health care.
 
12. When a teenager receives health care under his parents’ insurance, the bills may go home, so his parents may find out about the treatment.
   
TRUE: Generally, bills and other insurance documents are sent home to the policy holder (i.e., the teen’s parents). However, health practitioners can work with their facilities’ billing departments and their patients to provide for alternative means of patient communication, among other options to reduce the likelihood of the minor’s parents’ finding out about his treatment.
 
13. A minor, even one who is mature and capable of giving informed consent, will never be able to consent on her own to non-emergency medical care such as getting a flu shot, having a tooth pulled or other care not related to her reproductive or mental health.
   
FALSE: Generally, a minor must have parental consent to access these types of services. However, if a provider determines that the minor is "mature" enough - meaning that he is emotionally and intellectually mature enough to give informed consent - she may provide treatment without requiring parental involvement. Although New York laws are unclear regarding this "mature minor" doctrine, there are no reported cases in which a provider has been held liable for treating a mature minor without parental consent.
 
14. When a teenager gets tested for an STI, no information related to that test may be released to anyone else without the teenager’s consent.
   
FALSE. Even if a teenager gives informed consent for a confidential STI test, health care providers must comply with laws that require reporting suspected and confirmed cases of syphilis, Chlamydia and gonorrhea to state health officials. This reporting is for statistical purposes only and and the teenager’s personal information will not be revealed.
 
15. Before allowing a minor to check into a substance abuse program, the program must get the parents’ permission.
   
FALSE. Minors in New York can always receive non-medical alcohol or substance abuse services (such as counseling) on their own. They can access medical treatment for alcohol or substance abuse without parental involvement where such involvement would be detrimental to the course of treatment or his parents have refused to consent and the provider determines that treatment is medically necessary and in the minor’s best interests.
 
16. Minors who cannot afford to pay for their own medical care will have to involve their parents in order to access care.
   
FALSE: Many public health insurance programs are available to minors. Because they often have complex eligibility requirements, agencies are available to help minors determine whether they are eligible for such programs. Even when a minor is not eligible for public insurance, she may seek care at one of many clinics that offer free or low-cost health care.
Check out a list of teen-friendly clinics on the Other Resources and Links page!
 
17. Teenagers can sometimes check themselves into a mental health facility without parental consent.
   
TRUE: Teenagers aged 16 and older may voluntarily check themselves into a mental health facility without parental involvement.
 
18. Health care providers are obligated to report cases of statutory rape, and must do so when a minor patient reveals that he or she is sexually active.
   
FALSE. Health providers may not report cases of statutory rape - sex involving a minor 16 years old or younger, even if it is consensual - to the police. Although health care providers are required to report cases of child abuse by a caregiver to child protective services, statutory rape cases involving consensual sexual relationships usually do not implicate child abuse. This means that statutory rape reports to child protective services should not be made unless there is some indication of child abuse.
 
19. A teenager who is sexually assaulted on a date and goes to the hospital to receive medical treatment is the only person who can decide whether or not to contact the police.
   
TRUE. New York regulations put the decision whether to file a police report in the hands of the sexual assault survivor, even when the survivor is a minor. The only exception to this rule is when the assault involved a gunshot or serious stab wound, in which case the injury must be reported to the police, but not the circumstances surrounding how the injury was sustained.
 
20. New HIV "partner notification" laws require a minor (or any) newly diagnosed HIV patient to tell his doctor and public health officials the names of any sexual and/or needle-sharing partners.
   
FALSE. Although health care providers are required by law to ask a patient to name his sexual and/or needle-sharing partners, patients are under no obligation to answer such questions, and cannot be denied treatment or otherwise punished for refusing to cooperate.
 

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