For all the parents of young adults out there, remember that once your child turns 18, doctors and hospitals no longer have permission to discuss their medical issues with you.  If you have college kids coming home, military kids on leave, high school kids graduating and getting ready for the next phase of life, you should:

1. Have them do a healthcare proxy naming someone who can make medical decisions if they are unable to;
2. Have them execute a HIPPA release which will give the medical professionals permission to share information with family members;
3. Possibly execute a Durable Power of Attorney, which will give permission to someone else to help with legal and financial matters if your child is away or unable to take care of things for some reason.

Sometimes these types of documents are addressed by colleges, but not consistently, so if you have kids around this summer, it is a good time to get this taken care of.  When my son was in the military, he was not asked to take care of these documents, so I think that can also depend on the branch, or perhaps where the processing is happening.  Please call if you need more information!