The Case for a Healthcare Advocate, Part II: The Documents You’ll Need

In  my previous blog on the need that often arises for a family member to be named a healthcare advocate for your client, I described how securing Healthcare Advocate status is essential for anyone with elderly parents or grandparents since such advocates have the legal authorization to act on seniors’ behalf to help resolve medical situations in a timely and effective way.

Having copies of the proper paperwork is also very important if you are caring for a senior, or for yourself if you have a medical condition. It's easy to do with any word processing program, such as Microsoft Word. Create a document and save it as “Medical and Emergency Data.” The document should contain information such as the names of the seniors, addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, Social Security and Medicare numbers, secondary insurance carrier number, doctors' names and contact information, prescriptions currently being taken, dosages and the name of the pharmacy. It is also important to list all allergies to medications or food and any known health problems. As medications or conditions change over time, simply update the form.