In the midst of a health crisis in America, now is a great time to make sure that if crisis strikes, you can talk to your loved one’s medical team.

Now is a a GREAT time to do a living will (declaration for a natural death) and a health care power of attorney. Parents of 18 year olds- even if they act like kids, they are not in the eyes of the law. If your college freshman gets sick, you need a HIPAA release (at the very least) to get information.

So get some health care power of attorneys, HIPAA Forms, and other documents you need. The NC Secretary of State, Elaine Marshall, has most of the forms for free! They do not have to be formally registered, but you can register them with the Secretary of State for $10 for extra protection. Hospitals can check the registry. The forms do need to be notarized. Check with your bank about notarizing things. During Covid you can do some notary functions by video!

Here is a link to those NC Secretary of State free downloadable forms: https://www.sosnc.gov/divisions/advance_healthcare_directives?fbclid=IwAR0Gs6izQzGZ4mxaTcBVXUs8CqIJg5gCH-7cTejvUiqGPo3Pk5gbuOPPvZ4

A plain old HIPAA (medical release) form will allow doctors to talk and most hospitals won’t require it to be notarized.

Here is a generic HIPAA you can use that is “form fillable” as a PDF or printable. If you have a printer, I would actually print it out and fill it in by hand rather than use the electronic signature. But if you don’t have access to a printer, this should work too.

I’ve always found that the more I prepare for trial, the less likely I am to have a trial. So think of this as the lowest risk preventative medicine ever!

Note: these forms can be little complicated, so if you have questions, look for an estate planning lawyer near you. I don’t do that type of work, so I’m not your go-to person to answer specifics. 🙂

Chris Nichols, Attorney
Nichols Law Firm
From the home office

So as part of the political debate, Obama is talking about changing health insurance, but he is also talking about medical malpractice reform. Some of my fellow trial lawyers are getting stirred up because we don’t think that extending coverage of health care ought to also limit an injured person’s access to justice.

Here are some links which discuss Obama’s comments in the last few days:

Obama Talks Up Liability Reform
Politico
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23783.html
 
In Pitch to AMA, Obama Paints Mixed Picture
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/15/AR2009061501744.html
 
Cost Concerns as Obama Pushes Health Issue
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/health/policy/16obama.html?hpw
 
Obama Calls Cost of Healthcare a Threat to Economy
Chicago Tribune/LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-obama-ama16-2009jun16,0,1354461.story
 
I tend to agree with the gist of the Politico article: Obama has to keep all options on the table and speak in terms that ever player in the debate feels are near and dear to their interests.

I think the debate will be rational, and because of that I think that the data which show that very little of the overall cost of health care has anything to do with malpractice lawsuits will not be ignored. There are things that can be done to decrease the cost of lawsuits. Call it reform or not, that’s up to you.

I commonly request that each side to a malpractice suit be limited in the number of expert witnesses who can be used on a certain subject. Almost universally the lawyers for the Doctors will not voluntarily limit the number of expert witnesses. This increases the costs to defend these suits. There is one liability reform I’m fine with implementing.

Chris Nichols