December Open House: Florida Health Care Surrogate and HIPAA Release Updates Needed

You are invited to an informal OPEN HOUSE at our office at 1543 Kingsley Ave., Ste. 5, in Orange Park on the morning of Friday, December 11, 2015, from 8:00 a.m. through noon.

The purpose:

First, we would enjoy getting to see you and members of your family during the holidays. This event creates an opportunity for our Managing Attorney, Grady H. Williams, Jr., LL.M. and Associate Attorney, Alison E. Hickman, J.D., as well as members of our staff, to get to spend some informal time with you. There is no charge to attend this event, and you should feel free to come and go as your schedule permits.
Second, we want to ensure that you are taking advantage of new Florida Health Care Surrogate statutory changes, and that you have an up to date corresponding HIPAA (i.e., General Medical) Release. We are offering our existing clients the opportunity to update their Health Care Surrogate and HIPAA Release to current 2015 standards free of charge at this event. If you are not yet a client of our law firm, you may sign up for your initial planning conference with one of our attorneys at a reduced cost by attending this event. In that case, we will provide you with the initial intake packet outlining the information that we will need to accept you as our client, and build an estate or elder law plan specifically designed for you and your needs.
Things change quickly, and many of our existing clients do not have the most current Florida Health Care Surrogate and corresponding HIPAA Release planning documents. The Florida Legislature just made statutory changes to the Florida Health Care Surrogate Act effective October 1, 2015. Under the new statute, you may now authorize your Florida Heath Care Surrogate to act immediately on your behalf at the time of need, without the requirement of a determination of your incapacity to act for yourself. Use of this option helps avoid delay and inconsistency in your treatment during a health care crisis. An up to date HIPAA Release compliments the newly revised Florida Health Care Surrogate protocol, and further ensures that all desired members of your next of kin and inner circle are able to obtain information regarding your status and your privacy protected individually identifiable health information. That can go a long way towards providing comfort and shared knowledge to those who love you and who really care, while you are under active treatment for a serious or even a final illness or traumatic injury. The important thing is that you decide who will act for you and when, and who will have access to your protected health care information. Properly drafted 2015 compliant Florida Health Care Surrogate and HIPAA Release planning documents will do just that.

We strongly encourage our current estate planning and elder law planning clients to have the fully updated Florida Health Care Surrogate and corresponding HIPAA Release for their own future lifetime planning benefit.

If you want to update to the most current 2015 Florida Health Care Surrogate and corresponding HIPAA Release protocol used by our office,please contact us in advance of this event by phone, 904-264-8800, or by email to renee@floridaelder.com, so we can have your updated documents ready to sign while you visit us during this event.
We look forward to seeing you during our OPEN HOUSE event on Friday, December 11th from 8:00 a.m. through noon, even if you just want to drop by to say hello!
Sincerely,

Grady H. Williams, Jr., LL.M.
Alison E. Hickman, J.D.