By Riana King

Magen, a young woman on her parent’s insurance, visited her doctor to get vaccinated for HPV. Magen was relieved; getting the vaccine meant lowering her risk  of becoming one of 20 million Americans who are infected with the virus. Unfortunately, Megan’s peace of mind was short lived — she worried that her parents might find out she had been vaccinated and wouldn’t agree with her decision.

Magen isn’t alone. Millions of dependents on health insurance plans held in another person’s name, such as young adults on their parent’s plan or a partner or spouse’s plan, do not have the same level of privacy as individuals on their own insurance plan.

Policyholders often get notice after anyone on their insurance plan accesses health services, such as STD screenings or mental health care.

Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, an estimated 15 million young adults have become dependents on a parent’s health insurance plan and even more have joined a spouse or partner’s health plans. This represents a huge leap forward in closing the health coverage gap, but many of these new dependents don’t know of a little loophole that is exposing their private health information.

Under consumer protection law, many health insurance companies are required to send confidential health information –such as services you received, with a notice about when –to the policyholder, as part of regular health insurance communications.

This means that as a dependent, your private health information is not really private.

Currently there are only 10 states that have provisions to protect the confidentiality of individuals insured as dependents. California recently passed the Confidential Health Information Act, allowing dependents to submit a request to have their health information sent directly to them instead of the policyholder.

Colorado, Maryland and Washington state also allow dependents to request confidential communications. New York and Wisconsin dependents don’t have to worry about information about any free services they use being shared, and can have information about other serves they use sent directly to them instead of the policyholder. And in Connecticut, Delaware and Florida, dependent’s STI testing can be kept confidential.

While the remaining 40 states delay making moves to keep dependent’s health information confidential, there are millions of people across the U.S. who are afraid to seek screenings, testing, prescriptions and other sensitive health treatments.

In order to prioritize the health and safety of millions of Americans, states should seriously prioritize the confidentiality of individuals insured as dependents. To find out more about the confidentiality laws in your state, click here.