HEALTH CARE UPDATES
For those of you that have a "Designation of Patient Advocate and Living Will" (also referred to by many as a Health Care Power of Attorney) signed and dated before May of 2003, please pay careful attention to the information below: In April 2003, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) took effect. The law was designed to protect the privacy of your medical records. Unless the patient provides express authorization, the new rules restrict access to protected health information. The restricted information includes such things as the patientís name, social security number, address, date of birth and condition of the patient. In fact, medical records cannot be obtained without the patient's consent. As a result of HIPAA, previously signed Designations of Patient Advocates and Living Wills are not sufficient enough to give the "Advocate" authority to act on the patient's behalf or obtain information on the patientís condition. This office has prepared an amendment that will allow your agent to access your medical information and continue to make medical decisions for you. To simplify the update of your document we have provided the necessary language below. Please print off the language below and sign as indicated in the presence of two witnesses. Once signed, attach this amendment to your original Health Care Power of Attorney or Patient Advocate Document and provide a copy of the amendment (or the entire document) to your physician. If a copy of this document was also provided to your Advocate, make sure a copy of the signed amendment is provided as well. Please click on the links below and print these pages to keep with your records. Terry Shaivo Many of you are familiar with the Terry Shaivo case. This case clearly showed us what can happen when a family does not put his or her wishes in writing. Terry Shaivo did not have a designation of Patient Advocate or Living Will to identify who was in charge of making her medical decisions or what her wishes were with regard to life support. Although many of you have set up a "Designation of Patient Advocate and Living Will", there are some issues that cannot be covered in this legal document. Therefore, I have created a short questionnaire that you can print off and review with each of your patient advocates. It is my hope that this questionnaire will help you address some of the tougher questions now that we or our family may face in the future. |
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Redmond, Redmond & Yokom |
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