Provides relative to minor's consent for medical procedures and treatments

House Bill 775 fundamentally restructures Louisiana's law regarding parental consent for medical treatment of minors by repealing provisions that permitted minors to independently consent to medical care and establishing instead a requirement that parents or persons lawfully exercising parental authority provide informed written consent for all medical and mental health services provided to minors under age seventeen. The bill amends R.S. 40:1079.1 and 1165.1(A)(1) and repeals R.S. 40:1079.2, 1079.3, and 1079.13 entirely, which together had established various circumstances under which minors could self-consent to medical treatment, including for illness and disease, narcotic or drug addiction, and blood donation. The core mechanism replaces this framework with mandatory parental consent as the default rule, with eight narrowly defined exceptions: military service members, emancipated minors, pregnant minors consenting to pregnancy-related care, minors seeking treatment for alcohol or substance misuse, minors seeking treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, minors donating blood, minors exhibiting signs of abuse or neglect as determined by a healthcare provider, and minors voluntarily admitted to treatment facilities under the Children's Code. The bill preserves minor consent authority for pain management during labor and childbirth and maintains the doctrine of implied consent in emergency situations.

Healthcare providers, hospitals, and licensed healthcare facilities that comply with the bill's requirements are granted immunity from civil and criminal liability except in cases of negligence, ensuring that good faith compliance with the new parental consent framework does not expose medical professionals to legal jeopardy. Parents, tutors, and legal guardians of minors now gain mandatory access to patient records that healthcare providers transmit to third parties, companies, or agencies, a requirement the bill imposes on all healthcare providers through amendment to the medical records statute. The practical effect is that minors between thirteen and sixteen years old who previously could seek medical care independently, particularly for sensitive issues like sexually transmitted infections or substance abuse treatment, will now generally require parental involvement and knowledge, except in those enumerated circumstances. Schools and facilities lose their previous statutory authority to provide preventive counseling or treatment to children without parental consent through repeal of R.S. 40:1079.13, substantially narrowing access to confidential health services for minors in educational settings.

The bill operates within the existing Louisiana statutory structure governing medical consent and the healthcare delivery system codified primarily in Title 40 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes. It interacts with the Children's Code, particularly Article 603 concerning abuse and neglect definitions and Article 1464 governing voluntary admission to treatment facilities, by incorporating these provisions into the exceptions to parental consent requirements. The legislation also references R.S. 40:1159.5 regarding the definition of medical emergencies to determine when parental consent may be waived through implied consent doctrine. The changes represent a significant shift in Louisiana's approach to minor medical autonomy, which had previously recognized certain domains of medical decision-making as appropriate for older minors to control independently. The bill's constitutionality may face scrutiny regarding whether it adequately protects minors' fundamental interests in confidential access to healthcare for sensitive conditions, though such challenges would necessarily invoke evolving jurisprudence regarding parental rights and minors' autonomy interests under both Louisiana and federal constitutional law.