I am new to this. What are my rights as POA, health surrogate?

Do you by chance mean that you wanted a copy of what and they wouldn’t give a copy to you?

Facilities have a process they must follow when an adverse reaction/error/emergency (the facility must document CPR, deaths. That can be called an “Incident Report”.

This Incident Report is an internal document and is not shared outside the company as the information on those reports are often linked to the center’s quality assurance program. So no if it is one of these you won’t be routinely given a copy. Of course it can be probably obtained for a lawsuit, etc but will need to be requested by an attorney representing you to corporate attorneys for the center.

What did you sign? Usually if it’s an Incident Report, there would be no reason or need for you to sign it.

Good good luck to you. All that paperwork can certainly be confusing!

If you don't already have it make sure to get Durable Power of Attorney, this way if your dad is mentally competent now, you can retain your representative authority if he slides into incapacity. Otherwise you will need to go to court to "prove" he is incapacitated. Also get him to sign the HIPAA release from his doctors and Medical Directive for how he wants the remainder of his care to be carried out. But if you have PoA right now, where is the paperwork? You will need to present it to the LTC facility. My MIL is on Medicaid in LTC and we get her billing and all medical info as her DPoA. If you have it, you should be getting it, too.

It sort of sounds as though your actual problem is that you do not have Power of Attorney and you are not your father's health surrogate. The reason I guess this is that I can't see how you would be so completely in the dark if your father had ever drawn up these documents and told you about them.

If that is so, the next question is: is your father capable of creating powers of attorney, appointing you as his surrogate, and informing his SNF and medical team that you are to be given HIPAA authorisation? I appreciate he's had a stroke, but unless that has left him *mentally* incapacitated he should still be assisted by the SNF to make any arrangements that he wishes to make.

It will help you get further with the officials, and this is important anyway, if you stop thinking about this in terms of your rights and concentrate instead on your father's rights. HE has a right to be supported and represented by someone who will enact HIS wishes and safeguard HIS welfare. When you have power of attorney, you have it FOR your father, and not "over" him or his finances or his treatment.

If your father has not given you POA or anything like it, and is not able to do that now, then somebody must be acting for him through some kind of guardianship order. I do not know this for sure, but I would be surprised if you, as your father's next of kin, are not entitled to know whether that is so and what the arrangement is.

What is your relationship with the SNF like in general? Have you been getting on with them okay apart from this lack of billing information?

You may need to do a rewind and a rewrite of the POA if Dad is competent to sign. An attorney told me to make sure when you are given POA, make sure it is both financial and medical. This way, in addition to being on his HIPPA form, you will have access to everything having to do with him.
If the POA was drawn up by an attorney, go back and have it redone. Btw, you should have been given a copy of what you signed. “Inter office” is bs.

If dad is competent and has not signed a HIPPA release they will not, legally cannot give you any information about his health. Similar for bills, unless he is incompetent there is nothing for you to review, it is between facility and dad.