High School Graduates Heading To College Need These Forms

When our children turn 18, it changes everything – except for the fact that many of our teens are still widely dependent on us – so what could we do to guarantee our continual capability to look out for them? It might seem dreadful preparing health care documentation for healthy young individuals, but accidents and illnesses do happen, and don’t you want to be the person making decisions for your children after they leave home?

The following are the forms that parents should know about prior to their teen leaving for college.

There are 3 forms that assist in the participation of a parent (or whoever is designated) in emergencies or other situations:

Forms Required in a Medical Emergency

1. Healthcare Representative (also known as healthcare agents or medical/healthcare POV, or durable POV for health care)

This authorizes an individual in making medical decisions for you and it enables your authorized agent accessibility to your medical records and the capability to speak with your medical health care provider. When signing a health care proxy, you are appointing an individual to act for you in making medical decisions in the case you can’t make those decisions on your own.

Every state has various laws that govern the carrying out of a healthcare proxy (state laws vary on whether a medical proxy needs to be notarized or simply witnessed). Thus, the legal form you sign will be particular to the state where it will be executed. In a lot of states, the HIPAA authorization is added into the conventional medical proxy form. Additionally, a healthcare proxy may comprise of a Living Will or you can execute separate documentation declaring your wishes for end of life medical treatments.

2. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) authorization(also known as a HIPAA release)

This is a narrower document in that it allows healthcare providers to for the full disclosure of your health information to anyone you designate. An unincorporated HIPAA authorization (in the sense that it isn’t incorporated into a wider legal document such as a healthcare proxy) is not required to be notarized or witnessed.

This document by itself will often be enough for you to get information from the health care institution that is treating your child. In HIPAA authorizations a juvenile adult can specify that they don’t want to disclosure of information involving sex, drugs, mental health, or other details that they wish to keep private. As with the widespread healthcare proxy a HIPAA release may also comprise of a Living Will.

3. Durable Power of Attorney (Durable POA)

This allows a designated agent, in this case one of the parents, in making financial decisions for the student. The POA may provide that power gives you authority immediately after signing the document or that it gives you authorization only if your child comes to be incapacitated.

The POA allows the designated agent to, including, signing tax returns, access to financial institution accounts, pay bills, alter the child’s financial aid plan or to work out tuition issues. Durable POA forms differ state to state. In many states the medical POA (know as the healthcare proxy) may be included in the Durable POA.

Every state has its own differences on these forms and the way in which they may be combined so you MUST refer to your individual state’s laws or talk to a local attorney that practices in this field.

You can continually hope you’ll never need these forms, but it’s always wise to be prepared in case you do.

Source:

1. 2, H., 24, W., 20, H., Grown and Flown | September 5, 31, K., 25, S., . . . Grown and Flown | August 8. (2020, September 15). When Your College Kid is Sick or Has an Emergency: These are the Documents You May Need. Retrieved. October 27, 2020, from https://grownandflown.com/18-college-kid-emergency-legal-forms-porms-parents/

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