Medical & Financial Powers of Attorney – GLAD
With the current COVID-19 situation, we have received several phone calls asking about medical and financial powers of attorney. In the context of young adults, we call these documents Gap Legal Authority Documents (GLAD). GLAD is (1) a HIPPA release form, (2) a medical power of attorney and (3) a financial power of attorney. Not only are these documents necessary for young adults, everybody should probably have the GLAD package. Otherwise, a guardianship or conservatorship proceeding may be necessary.
Under Colorado law, an individual is typically considered an adult at age eighteen. Parents have no legal authority to act on behalf of their adult child or to access the adult child’s personal or financial information. Contrary to popular belief, a spouse does not automatically have the right to act on behalf of the other spouse, and an adult child of an elderly parent cannot act on behalf of the elderly parent. Authority must be given by the adult child, spouse, or elderly parent (the “principal”) for the other person to act as the “agent”.
GLAD allows access to the principal’s healthcare information and provides the agent the ability to make medical decisions for the principal. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), health care professionals cannot share a person’s medical information with others unless that person has given permission. However, if the person pre-emptively completes a HIPAA release form for the agent, the medical records can be released to the agent. With a HIPAA release, a healthcare professional can share all the released information with the agent, even if the principal is not, at that time, able to give a release.
A healthcare power of attorney is indispensable for virtually anybody and especially a young adult off at school, an aging parent, or a spouse. If the principal is incapacitated, the healthcare power of attorney allows the agent to make healthcare decisions for the principal. Hospitals will not and cannot follow a parent’s decision regarding their adult child unless that parent has some source of authority. The same is true for an adult child trying to act on behalf of an elderly parent. A healthcare power of attorney can be completed in conjunction with a living will to express any wishes the principal may have regarding life-sustaining treatment should an injury or disease be severe enough for that issue to arise.
The third helpful document is a financial power of attorney. A financial power of attorney gives the agent the authority to act of the behalf of the signer/principal regarding financial matters. The agent is given broad powers to make most decisions and take most actions that the signer could in regards to the signer’s financial matters.
GLAD documents are easily drafted and executed remotely; which is on everybody’s mind these days. If you or someone you know needs a financial and/or medical power of attorney, or needs the right to access medical information, give us a call or ask for a video conference.
