New Developments in California's Advance Health Care Directives

Advance Health Care Directives, or Powers of Attorney for Health Care, changed significantly in California in 2003.

In that year, privacy regulations for HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, were announced. These regulations include stiff penalties for doctors or hospitals who reveal medical information to unauthorized parties.

Many of you have told us that even with a Health Care Directive it has been difficult to get information about loved ones under these new regulations.

We have revised our Health Care Directive to reference HIPAA, making the availability of medical information more accessible to named health care agents.

If your trust and powers of attorney were done before 2003, you may want to consider having those documents revised.