Critical Health Documents For Parents Of College Kids

Imagine your son or daughter is away at college. You get a frantic phone call from their college roommate that they were in a car accident and your kid was unconscious and at the hospital. You instantly go into protection mode and want to get all the details from the hospital but they refuse to talk to you because your child is a legal adult. Since your child is unconscious they can't sign a release form to authorize you to get the information you want. How can you avoid this type of situation? Get these two forms in place before your child turns 18.

1) Health-Care Power Of Attorney
Despite parents being on the hook for paying for the health care of their kids, privacy laws restrict doctors, nurses and student health staff from sharing information without an adult student's permission. That is where the lawyer comes in. To circumvent this communication problem, have your children designate a health-care power of attorney after they turn 18 to identify who can speak for them if they can't.

One Form Free Quotes Multiple Carriers
There are online services which conveniently link you to major insurance companies like Aetna, BlueCross BlueShield and Assurant with one application. PresidentialHealthInsurance.com is one example of a website to get free and fast health offers from multiple carriers. Fill out one form and an insurance expert will provide competing, no-obligation quotes for you to choose from.

2) Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Release
Complete a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) release form that allows patients to determine who can receive information about their medical care and whether information about treatment for substance abuse, mental health or sexually transmitted diseases can be disclosed.

How To Access These Health Documents And Forms
You do not have to hire a lawyer. Generic health-care power-of-attorney forms can be found online. If the school has a HIPAA release form online, it's best to use their own document since their health staff are used to seeing it already. Parents should keep a copy of these documents on their computer and/or mobile device where it can be easily accessed and emailed or faxed in an emergency. Keeping hard copy back-ups in a fire-proof safe or a bank safe deposit box is recommended too.

Designate A Legal Back-Up
If a student is stuck in the hospital, their mail is going unanswered and bills could pile up which means possible late fees, penalties and negative hits to their credit report. Before departing for college, students should designate a general power of attorney (like a parent) so someone can pay bills or handle other issues (deal with landlords, cell phone contracts, student loan companies, banks, etc.) if they have a prolonged hospital stay. Even when they're healthy and want to go study abroad for a semester or longer, a general power of attorney should be in place ahead of time.