Attention Parents: Make Sure You Can Be a Parent to Your College-Aged Child in an Emergency!

With the new school year rapidly approaching and every parent knows that preparing to send their son or daughter to college is one of the most exciting and nerve-wrecking period in raising a child! You’ll worry whether they will eat properly, study enough, get good grades, or get enough sleep. While we can’t help with these everyday concerns, McDonald Law Firm’s College Protection Plan can help with one of the big ones: making sure that parents are prepared if their son or daughter has a medical emergency while away at school.

A College Protection Plan includes:

1. The documents your family needs now that your child is an adult.
2. Easy access to those documents so doctors have that information instantly.
3. An alert to you when that information is accessed so you know right away.

1. The College Protection Plan Documents.

Now that your child is an adult, the rules have change. This means that even though you may pay their medical expenses, for room and board, and their college tuition, 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 or sharing their medical conditions or information with you—even during a life-threatening emergency.

Some parents 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 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 their Attorney-in Fact and Patient Advocate respectively, which means the doctor will be able to discuss or share with you if something happens to your child their medical information. At McDonald Law Firm, 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 while their away at college.

2. Access to those Documents:

Once your child has these documents drafted, 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 at McDonald Law Firm, our College Protection Plan includes a one-year complementary 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.

3. An Alert to you:

DocuBank ICE includes 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 obstacle to you receiving the information you need.

To find out more about, HIPAA, DocuBank ICE or to schedule a consultation to discuss setting up your Child’s College Protection Plan, please call McDonald Law Firm at (443) 741-1088.

DISCLAIMER: THE INFORMATION POSTED ON THIS BLOG IS INTENDED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT INTENDED TO CONVEY LEGAL ADVICE.