Health Care Law
Healthcare law pertains to who can receive healthcare, and who should pay for it. Given how expensive healthcare can be in the US, this is a surprisingly complicated area of law.
Additionally, the laws pertaining to who medical insurance companies can and must cover are constantly changing as policymakers attempt to identify a way to offer health care to the most number of people at the least cost.
Attorneys at SBEMP (Slovak, Baron, Empey, Murphy & Pinkney) law firm provides professional legal advice and services to clients in Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, Inland Empire, Orange County, Coachella Valley, Costa Mesa, San Diego, New Jersey, New York, and surrounding locations.
Role of a Healthcare Lawyer
As healthcare is so expensive, there are various government programs to help people in the United States for medical services, such as Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security Disability Insurance. Attorneys help patients apply for benefits and make sure that they receive the payments that they are entitled to.
Healthcare lawyers also assist families in planning for long-term care and elder care. People are living longer now, and this means that medical care usually becomes more and more costly. Additionally, these elderly patients usually lose their physical or mental abilities to care for themselves.
Families can plan for the future by setting aside funds for medical costs, creating a living will, and choosing the type of long-term care services to use beforehand.
Lastly, healthcare lawyers work with medical care providers and patients to make sure that the rights of the patients are upheld, including the right to informed consent. This right requires physicians to educate patients about their medical options before they make a decision and respect their right to privacy in their medical records.
In addition, healthcare law controls what procedures doctors may or may not undertake, especially controversial procedures such as abortion and assisted suicide.
Terms to Know
- Estate Plan: This is a collection of documents which establishes what happens to a person’s assets after they pass away and creates a plan if that individual becomes incapacitated in the future.
- Trust: A trust is a legal arrangement in which a person’s assets are put in another individual’s care for the benefit of a third person. It can be a beneficial approach to plan for future medical costs.
- Living Will: A legal document that lays out a patient’s medical preferences. This is useful when that patient is not able to manage their own medical care.
- Power of Attorney: A legal documents which designates an individual to make financial or medical decisions on behalf of another person.
- HIPPA: The law requires health care providers to keep the patient’s medical information private.
- The Affordable Care Act: This law requires employers to offer medical insurance for their employees and requires people who are not covered by employers to acquire their own insurance.
- Managed Care: A Medicare plan which endeavors to coordinate the care of a patient to a single network of providers.
Related Practice Areas
- Estate Planning: This involves creating trusts, wills, and other estate planning documentation.
- Elder Law: This practice area pertains to all the legal facets of aging including health care law and estate planning.
- Insurance Law: Insurance lawyers assist insurance companies in establishing how much to pay their clients as well as advocate for clients to ensure that they receive all benefits.
- Medical Malpractice: This area of law establishes the standards that health care providers must follow when treating patients.
Lawyers at the SBEMP law firm serve clients from Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, Inland Empire, Orange County, Coachella Valley, Costa Mesa, San Diego, New Jersey, New York, and nearby locations for a range of legal practice areas.
For more information or to request a consultation please contact the law offices of SBEMP (Slovak, Baron, Empey, Murphy & Pinkney) by clicking here.
SBEMP LLP is a full service law firm with attorney offices in Palm Springs (Palm Desert, Inland Empire, Rancho Mirage), CA; Costa Mesa (Orange County), CA; San Diego, CA; New Jersey, NJ; and New York, NY.
DISCLAIMER: This blog post does not constitute legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is formed by reading it. This blog post may be considered ATTORNEY ADVERTISING in some states. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Additional facts or future developments may affect subjects contained within this blog post. Before acting or relying upon any information within this newsletter, seek the advice of an attorney.
