Inquiry Regarding Power Of Attorney In Ny State And Medical Records

Q: I have a power of attorney for my mom. does that entitle me to view her medical and psychiatric records and/or receive a photocopy of them. all advice will be apprecitaed.

A: -I don't know what state you are in, and therefore don't know your state's laws. Therefore, this is just for discussion purposes. Don't rely on it as legal advice. See a local attorney. Your rights as attorney in fact depend on what kind of power of attorney you have. If it is a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, then no, you can't see any records until she is incompetent to make health care decisions on her own and a decision is needed. If it is a general power of attorney, then you can do anything she could do, and have the same rights to copies as she has, limited only by state law and the terms of the power of attorney. -This is a state law Thing, yet you don't mention place. Nor, for very practical reasons, is yours a question that can be answered on the basis of a generally prevaling rule/practice; although there does seem to be a predominantly prevailing rule -- i.e., that a general, even very broad, power-of-attorney, standing alone (i.e., absent explicitly stated medical treatment proxy language) doesn't "entitle" the agent to act in ways that a particular jurisdiction's law now (even if only generally) addresses via so-called "living will" or, now more commonly, "health care proxy" legislation and related caselaw. In contrast, in many places throughout the country, medical care providers frequently will fully disclose and openly discuss with an adult or near-adult child of a seriously ill patient the available medical/psychiatric options for the parent without requesting any documented written authority for so doing. You're asking (implicitly) what the law is ("does that entitle me...") and for "advice" in the context noted, yet there isn't necessarily (or even probably) a connection between the two. Thus, if a seriously-ill and virtually (or totally) incapacitated parent is in some sort of urgent-medical-need-situation, e.g., hospitalized or in a nursing home seemingly unable coherently to communicate her wishes about whether to receive/reject this-or-that medication or other treatment, and if even the seemingly most articulate/calm holder of a very broad/general power-of-attorney, an adult child of the patient, requests information or makes suggestions about medical care choices for his/her parent yet is rejected by the medical care provider on the asserted ground that the document

in question isn't sufficient to "entitle" that adult child to the requested information or to make the proffered treatment/no-treatment suggestions/requests, it is and will likely remain of little moment to the parent, (claimed)agent/proxy-child, and professional health care folks that litigation, if brought, eventually would result in a judge (or an appellate judge) ruling: Yes, the claim of being "entitled" must be honored -- for (obviously) quite apart from aggravation and expense most aren't in a position to invest, such a ruling may not come (if at all) until long after the issue in question has become moot (e.g., by reason of the patient's intervening death).