Protect Your College-Aged Child in an Emergency

Now that your child is an adult, the rules change. This means that even though you pay the bills, your child's doctor might not be able to talk to you when your child is sick or injured. Once your child turns 18, HIPPA, the medical privacy law, prevents your child's doctor from discussing their medical conditions with you—even during a life-threatening emergency.

You may have read about this issue in Forbes Magazine a few years ago in an article titled, Two Documents Every 18-Year-Old Should Sign

The two critical documents are a Durable Power of Attorney and a Health Care Proxy that contains a HIPAA Release.

These important documents will let your child designate you as a Personal Representative, which means the doctor will be able to talk with you if something happens to your child. We can help draft these documents for you as a part of our special College Protection Plan, so you can be prepared in case something happens to your child at college.

Once your child completes these documents, it's very important that their doctors are able to access them during an emergency so they know they are allowed to talk to you. That's why our College Protection Plan includes a membership in DocuBank ICE. This important service ensures that the hospital can immediately get a copy of their Health Care Proxy and HIPAA Release, so you can rest easier knowing that these important documents will be quickly accessible to hospital staff in an emergency-24/7/365.

DocuBank ICE provides you with an alert when your child's card is used to retrieve their emergency information. The alert contains the phone number of the facility requesting the information so you can immediately call to follow up. And, since the hospital will have the HIPAA release form before you call, there should be no obstacles to you receiving the information you need.