Naomi Diaz – Friday, November 18th, 2022
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into Epic Systems over a policy that allegedly prevents parents from accessing their children’s medical records once they become teenagers.
Mr. Paxton sent a civil investigative demand to the EHR vendor after he began an investigation into Houston-based Memorial Hermann regarding an alleged policy that doesn’t allow parents to access their children’s medical records if the child is between 13 and 17 years old.
Mr. Paxton said his investigation into the health system further revealed that Epic “may have additional information regarding these concerns,” according to a Nov. 17 press release from the attorney general.
“Texas law forbids any hospital or corporate entity from denying parents access to their children’s medical records, and we’re going to ensure that the law is followed,” Mr. Paxton wrote in his press release.
Epic declined to comment.
A spokesperson for Memorial Hermann told Becker’s that it was not aware of any specific patient complaints about access to records and first learned about the complaint in question via the attorney general’s press release.
Memorial Hermann still operates on an Oracle Cerner EHR system and will transition to Epic beginning in 2023. The health system said its implementation of Epic will take “multiple years.”