Not Your Usual Holiday To Do List

Holidays are often a time when we see family we may not have seen in a while. You may notice physical or cognitive declines in older family members. Be sure to take note of these changes and thoughtfully raise issues of health, safety, and living situation if it’s warranted.
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While we like to think of the holidays as a time to relax and catch up, they also offer an opportunity to take care of important health and financial planning. Here are some things that are important to have put in order before there is a health crisis:

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• Make sure advance directives are in place and up to date
  • It’s not enough to have the forms filled out… if your health care agent doesn’t know what you would want them to do, then your advance care planning isn’t done. It can be a difficult conversation to have, but one that is so important. If you want help facilitating this conversation, please contact me. Five Wishes is also a great resource
  • Make sure everyone who needs to know where the forms are kept, knows this information. The health care agent should have a copy of the form
• Print out release of information forms from the insurance companies; this way, if there’s an emergency situation, you will already be in the system as someone approved to speak with the insurance company. Here is the form for Medicare - or you can add an authorized representative in your medicare.gov portal; for private insurance companies, you can find the form in your member portal or through Google (eg, here is the form for BCBS Illinois)
• Obtain and create a list of important passwords; copies of important documents; names and contact information for doctors, estate planning attorney, accountant, financial planner, etc.
• Create a health information binder 
• Make a plan of action to address any concerns that have come up during the holidays and schedule time for follow up with family members

I know that sounds like a lot to do, But if and when the time comes, you’ll be happy that you’ve done all this prep work!

Please contact me if I can help with anything.