“As a parent, you might not fully appreciate that when your child turns 18 years of age, at least in the eyes of the law, you no longer have certain inherent rights related to medical and financial details about your adult child.”
Without the right documents in place, you do not have the legal right to protect your own children, once they turn 18, says The National Law Review in an unsettling but must-read article titled “Three Critical Legal Documents Every Parent Should Get in Place Now to Safeguard Their Adult Children.”
There are only three documents and they are fairly straightforward. There is no reason not to have them in place. If your adult child was incapacitated by an accident or an illness, you would want to speak with the medical staff to find out how they are and what decisions need to be made. Whether you were making a phone call or arriving at the hospital, a nurse or doctor would not be permitted to speak with you about your own adult child’s condition or be involved with making any medical decisions.
It sounds unreasonable, and perhaps it is, but that is the law. There are steps you can take to ensure that you are not in this situation.
HIPAA Authorization Form gives you the authority to speak with healthcare providers. This is a federal law (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) that safeguards who can access an adult’s private health data. HIPAA prevents healthcare providers from revealing any information to you or anyone else about a patient’s status. The practitioners could face severe penalties for violating HIPAA.
This is why you want to have a HIPAA authorization signed by your adult child and naming you as an authorized recipient. This will give you the ability to ask for and receive information about your child’s health status, progress and treatment. This is especially important, if your child is unconscious or in an unresponsive state. The alternative? Going to court. That’s not what you want to be doing during a health emergency.
A Healthcare Power of Attorney needs to be in place, so you can be named his or her “medical agent” and have the ability to view their medical records and make informed decisions on their behalf. Without this (or a court-appointed guardianship), healthcare decisions will be in the hands of healthcare providers only. That’s not a bad thing, if you implicitly trust your child’s doctor. However, if your child is incapacitated in an out-of-town hospital with healthcare providers you don’t know, you will want to be able to make decisions on his or her behalf.
Note that physicians prefer a single medical agent, not a handful. The concern is that if time is a critical factor and a group of family members do not agree on care, it may compromise the healthcare services that can be provided. You can name multiple agents in priority order. A mother might be listed as the medical agent, and if she is unable or unwilling to serve, the second person would be the father.
The third document is a General Power of Attorney. This would give you the right to make financial decisions on your child’s behalf, if they were to become incapacitated. You would have the legal right to manage bank accounts, pay bills, sign tax returns, apply for government benefits, break or apply a lease and conduct activities on behalf of your child. Without this document, you won’t be able to help your child without a court-appointed conservatorship.
Keep in mind that these documents need to be updated every few years. If you try to use an older document, the bank or hospital may not accept them. Your adult child also has the ability to revoke these documents at any time, just by saying they revoke them or by putting it in writing. If you have an adult child living out of state, you want to have these documents prepared for your home state and their state of residence.
Finally, this is not a time to download forms and hope for the best. An estate planning attorney will know more specifically what forms are used in your state and help you make sure that they are prepared correctly.
Reference: The National Law Review (Feb. 11, 2019) “Three Critical Legal Documents Every Parent Should Get in Place Now to Safeguard Their Adult Children”
“作為父母,您可能不會完全明白,當您的子女年滿18歲時,您不再擁有您的成年子女有關醫療和財務的某些固有權利。但這是法律。”
沒有正確的文件,一旦他們年滿18歲,你就沒有合法權利去保護自己的子女,The National Law Review在一篇令人不安但必讀的文章中寫道:“Three Critical Legal Documents Every Parent Should Get in Place Now to Safeguard Their Adult Children.”
有三份相當簡單的文件你沒有理由不擁有。如果您的成年子女因意外或疾病而喪失能力,您可能希望與醫務人員交談,了解他們的狀況,以及要怎樣作出醫療決定。無論您是打電話還是直接到醫院,你都不被允許護士或醫生與您談論您的成年子女的病情或做出任何醫療決定。
這聽起來很不合理,但這就是法律。您可以採取一些措施來確保您不會遇到這種情況。
HIPAA授權表格授權您與醫療人員交談。這是一項聯邦法律(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996),規定誰可以取得私人醫療記錄。 HIPAA防止提供醫療服務的人向您或其他任何人透露有關患者的情況。違反HIPAA的人可能會面臨嚴厲的處罰。
這就是為什麼您希望獲得您成年子女的HIPAA授權,並將您命名為代理人。這將使您能夠取得有關您子女的健康狀況,進展和治療的信息。如果您的子女失去意識或處於無反應狀態,這一點尤為重要。替代方案?去法院。但這不是在緊急情況下你想做的事情。
醫療授權書需要到位,因此您可以被命名為他們的“醫療代理人”,以便可以查看他們的醫療記錄並且代表他們做出明智的決定。如果沒有這文件(或法院指定的監護權),醫療決定將由提供醫療服務的人負責。如果你信任你子女的醫生,這不是一件壞事。但是,如果您的子女在外地的醫院失去自理能力而那些提供醫療服務的人您並不認識,那您便希望可代表他們做決定。
請注意,醫生較喜歡單一的醫療代理,而不是多個。主要是因為如果時間是一個關鍵因素,而有些家庭成員不同意護理,便可能會影響醫療服務。您可以按優先次序命名多個代理。母親可被列為醫療代理人,如果她不能或不願意,第二個人可以是父親。
第三份文件是財務授權書。這將使您有權代表您的子女做出財務決定,如果他們失去自理能力。您將擁有管理銀行賬戶,支付賬單,簽署納稅申報表,申請政府福利,中斷或申請租賃以及代表您子女行事的合法權利。沒有這份文件,除非有法院指定的監管權,您將無法幫助您的子女。
請記住,這些文件需要每隔幾年更新一次。如果您嘗試使用較舊的文件,銀行或醫院可能不會接受。您的成年子女也可以隨時撤銷這些文件,只需說明他們撤銷這些文件或將其寫下。如果您的成年子女居住在外州,您希望在您的老家及他們所居住的州備好這些文件。
最後,現在不是下載表格和希望好事發生的時候。資產規劃律師將更具體地了解您所在州使用的表格,並幫助您確保這些文件是准確的。
參考: The National Law Review (Feb. 11, 2019) “Three Critical Legal Documents Every Parent Should Get in Place Now to Safeguard Their Adult Children”