HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, includes protections for privacy regarding your medical information. HIPAA Authorization allows access to specified private information, and this access is generally limited to networks of medical professionals. If you already have a Power of Attorney for Healthcare, you might feel confident that a trusted person is authorized to make medical decisions on your behalf. However, you need to understand HIPAA may prevent the sharing of information that could be vital to decisions affecting the treatment you receive, your recovery, or your survival.
A trusted person you have designated as a proxy (sometimes called agent, surrogate, or representative) to make life-or-death decisions on your behalf may have good intentions, but they are probably not a healthcare professional with access to your medical records. You may therefore consider executing a HIPAA Authorization to give your proxy access to pertinent medical records and your private health information (PHI).
Consult with our Bay Area HIPAA attorney to learn more about the process.
Our Bay Area HIPAA attorney can help you prepare specific HIPAA Authorization to do any of the following:
We can help you take steps to ensure medical decision-makers can have access to your pertinent medical information if you become incapacitated. Contact our HIPAA attorney at Anthoor Law Group today to schedule a consultation.
We respect your privacy. The information you provide will be used to answer your questions or to schedule an appointment if requested.
In the Bay Area, you need a legal team that you can trust to represent your interests and protect your rights. The attorneys at Anthoor Law Group give you the following benefits:
As you may know, medical institutions need to strictly follow the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Patient information and medical history are supposed to be kept private, and only a network of health care institutions are allowed access for treatment and payment purposes. This can be problematic if a person becomes incapacitated and the person who is authorized to make healthcare decisions for that person does not have access to the pertinent Private Health Information (PHI).
With a HIPAA Authorization, however, you can authorize a specific person to have access to your health records and medical history so they can make informed decisions on your behalf.
If you have pre-existing conditions and a complicated medical history, it may be wise to grant your health care proxy access to your patient and hospital records through a HIPAA Authorization. That way, your agent can make informed health care decisions in your best interest.
A Power of Attorney for Healthcare and an Advance Directive are similar in that they come into play in medical situations where patient has become incapacitated. An Advance Directive (Living Will) documents the principal’s wishes in a contingency situation where the principal has become incapacitated, and directs a health care representative to take specified medical actions.
In contrast, a Power of Attorney for Healthcare appoints another person as a proxy to make decisions for the incapacitated person. This proxy may not have access to Private Health Information (PHI) that could be pertinent to the medical decisions they are tasked with making. HIPAA Authorization allows access to the principal’s medical records and mental health information so it may be referenced when a proxy makes important health decisions for the incapacitated person.
In California, an Advance Health Care Directive can be used to combine a Living Will (Advance Directive) with a Power of Attorney for Healthcare. Our Bay Area HIPAA attorney can help you consider contingencies and draft a HIPAA Authorization in coordination with a Power of Attorney for Healthcare and/or an Advance Directive (Living Will). Contact us today to schedule a consultation.
Anthoor Law Group, A Professional Corporation greatly appreciates your visiting our website. We hope the warmth, compassion, and competency of our firm has been conveyed to you. We look forward to meeting you and providing you with clarification on any family law or estate planning issues you are experiencing. Please reach out to us by phone at (510) 794-2887 or online form, and someone will be with you very soon!
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