HIPAA Authorizations in New Union

Decide what access is meant to accomplish

Start with the task you want another person to handle. You may want someone to receive health information while you are able to make your own decisions, or you may want that person to have information available if you cannot communicate. Those goals can call for different planning documents.

Before preparing an authorization, identify the intended recipient or recipients and the information you want them to be able to receive. Consider whether the access should be broad or limited to a particular purpose, and whether it should last for a defined period or continue longer. The right choices depend on your circumstances and the document’s terms.

Compare information access with healthcare authority

A HIPAA authorization concerns sharing information. A healthcare power of attorney or advance healthcare directive addresses a different question: who may act or communicate your healthcare preferences when you cannot do so yourself. A separate information-sharing authorization alone does not appoint a healthcare decision-maker.

The distinction is not a rule that an agent always needs a separate HIPAA authorization. Under federal guidance, state-law authority can make someone a HIPAA personal representative. The documents and authority involved matter, so avoid assuming that one document automatically supplies every kind of access or decision-making power.

Tennessee’s Advance Directive for Health Care form includes an agent and alternate as well as healthcare preferences. It also includes instructions about signing the document and sharing copies. An authorization and a directive can address related planning concerns while serving different purposes.

Prepare a recipient-and-scope worksheet

Before a planning conversation, make a short list for each person you may want involved. Note the person’s name, the reason you want information shared, the kinds of information you intend to cover, and when you want access to begin or end. Mark any information or period you want to leave outside the authorization.

Then gather existing healthcare directives, healthcare powers of attorney, and any authorizations already in use. Compare the names and roles across them. This simple worksheet can reveal whether your documents are meant to provide information access, healthcare decision-making authority, or both—and where their terms may need attention.

• Who should receive information, and is there an alternate?
• What information should be covered, and for what purpose?
• How long should access last, and what limits do you want to discuss?
• What existing directive or power of attorney should be reviewed alongside it?

Discuss how the documents work together

Dale Law Group, PLLC offers HIPAA authorizations, healthcare powers of attorney, and advance healthcare directives and living wills as estate-planning services. Carolyn D. Dale serves clients in Tennessee from the firm’s office in Murfreesboro; New Union is an unincorporated Census-designated place in Coffee County, not a separate city government.

A planning discussion can focus on whether your intended recipient needs information access, authority to make healthcare decisions, or both; whether an alternate is appropriate; and how the authorization’s scope and duration fit with your other documents. The goal is to make the roles and intended access understandable, rather than treating every document as interchangeable.