In many cases, you can send a private email message to your provider by unselecting your proxy as a recipient. Once you unselect your proxy, the message you send through your MyChart account will be confidential and private between you and your health care provider. Your proxy can receive your communications if you choose by keeping their name selected. 

Depending on the laws in your area, your health care provider may be able to keep some of your information confidential even if your parent/guardian asks for it.

Your parents/guardians will not be able to see your sexual orientation, gender identity, pronouns or chosen name. Only your health care providers and you can see this information in your medical record.

In limited cases, such as after-visit notes from your provider, your chosen name or pronouns could be used, making them visible to your parents/guardians.

It is important that you speak with your provider regarding medications you want to take so that you can understand important information about side effects, possible allergic reactions and more. In many cases, you can send a private message to your provider or schedule an appointment to talk about your options. Only appointments made by you in the following areas are not automatically visible to your proxy: general pediatrics, adolescent medicine, mental health and Gyn/Ob.

Using a proxy account, your parents/guardians can see all providers you are currently seeing, including specialists such as dermatologists and therapists. They can also pay medical bills from your providers.

Your parents/guardians will not be able to see medications you have been prescribed or notes from visits that you scheduled yourself with health care providers in the following areas: general pediatrics, mental health, Gyn/Ob or the emergency room. But remember, notes and visit information will be visible from appointments scheduled by your parents.

No, they will not be able to see this information.

Log into your account, then:

• Under Sharing select Proxy Requests.

• Select Request Family Access from the drop-down menu.

• Click on Adult.

• Complete the form and upload necessary documentation.

• You can designate the amount of information your parents/guardians can see. Your options include:

  • Full Access, which allows your parents/guardians to use all MyChart features including the ability to message your doctors, view immunization records and laboratory results, schedule appointments and pay bills.

  • Scheduling Only, which only allows your parents/guardians to view and schedule your appointments

Only you should access your MyChart account. Your parent/guardian can request a proxy access account to help manage some aspects of your care.

Yes. We always encourage patients to be open and honest with their parents/guardians and to talk about their health. It is up to you how much information to verbally share from your medical record.

No. For privacy reasons, you should not allow anyone to log into your MyChart account using your username and password. Your parents/guardian can request a proxy access account to help manage some aspects of your care.

If your parents have access to your account through your account’s username and password, you can change your password by logging into MyChart, using the top menu to select the Account Settings section, and then select Security Settings. 

We always encourage patients to be open and honest with their parents/guardians and to talk about their health. It is up to you how much information to verbally share from your medical record.

If you are age 13–17, your parents/guardians can request proxy access to your account. They will only have limited access to your information. This means your parent/guardian cannot see all of the information you can see in your MyChart account. It does, however, allow your parent/guardian to pay your medical bills, send a message to your provider, view some of your vaccination records and see some notes regarding visits. Notes will not be available to them for visits you scheduled yourself in one of the following sensitive areas: primary care, mental health or substance abuse, Gyn/Ob and emergency medicine.

If you are age 18 or older, you can give your parent/guardian access your account. You can also decide whether your parent/guardian will receive scheduling-only access or full access to your medical record. Full access means your parent/guardian can see everything that you can see.

No. When you become age 18, your entire medical record is protected by law. Your parents/guardians will lose their proxy access account, and you will have the option to grant them permission to have full access to your MyChart account. You can choose to give your parents/guardians no access, scheduling-only access or full access to your medical record when you turn 18.

Until you are age 18, your parents/guardians have the right to access some information in your MyChart account, and therefore, you cannot revoke parent/guardian access. When you become age 18, proxy access for your parents/guardians automatically terminates, and you can choose whether to authorize your parent/legal guardian to have access to your MyChart account.

No, proxy access cannot be granted in cases of temporary custody. In cases of guardianship (which is different than foster parents’ status), documentation demonstrating the length and scope of guardianship must be submitted. 

While we encourage all of our patients to discuss their health care conditions with their parents/guardians, in all of the areas in which Johns Hopkins Medicine operates, teens are given the right to consent to some medical treatment without involvement of their parents/guardians. When teens consent to medical treatment on their own, they have the right under state law to control who can access the information and are permitted to keep the information confidential from their parents/guardians.

Also, if a provider believes, in their professional judgment, that disclosure of information to the parent/guardian may not be in the child’s best interest, laws permit the provider to withhold that information from the parent/guardian. As a result of these laws, some information in MyChart is kept confidential and cannot be viewed by a teen’s parent/guardian proxy.

These laws typically apply to treatment for:

• Physical examination and treatment related to a sexual assault
• Outpatient and inpatient mental health treatment
• Consultation, diagnosis and treatment for mental or emotional disorders
• Treatment for substance use disorder
• HIV testing and treatment
• Treatment or advice about sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
• Pregnancy-related care
• Family planning and contraception
• Emergency room care
• Blood donation

Teens may fear a parent’s/guardian’s reaction, and they may not be honest with their doctors and may be discouraged from seeking very important care. These fears can result in patients not receiving the medical care they need, and these laws protect teens’ privacy to encourage them to obtain necessary care. When appropriate, we encourage teens to talk with their parents/guardians about important topics.

While we do our best to honor teens’ confidentiality rights, there are circumstances in which our providers are obligated under other laws to report issues to parents/guardians or other officials. For example, reporting is mandated when abuse or neglect is suspected, or when it might otherwise be in the teen’s best interest. 

Also, if a teen uses his or her parents’/guardians’ health insurance to pay for a visit, the parent/guardian may receive information from the health insurance company that discloses the reason for the visit. 

A parent/guardian can ask for medical records from the Johns Hopkins health information management department at the facility where the teen was treated. The parent/guardian will receive everything except items marked with an Adolescent Privacy flag, which are limited to services for which the teen consented to care without the parent’s/guardian’s involvement and when the provider believes disclosure of the information may result in substantial harm to the teen.