The Importance of Assigning a Personal Representative

What Is a Personal Representative and Why Are They Important?

Say you’ve been diagnosed with a behavioral health disorder or a substance use disorder (SUD). It can be hard to manage your health care. The same is true if you have a chronic illness that causes constant pain or fatigue. You may not feel well enough to manage things.

A personal representative is someone you choose to represent you if you’re not well enough to take care of your benefits on your own. They’ll work with Braven Health to:

• Manage your:
  • Enrollment
  • Claims
  • Appeals
  • Anything else about your benefits
• Stand in for you if you don’t feel well enough to manage your insurance benefits
• Handle all phone conversations or letters about your benefits with Braven Health

If you have a personal representative, you don’t lose any of your rights to your own information. You can always choose to handle your own benefits or appoint another personal representative if you aren’t happy with the one you have.

Who Is Your Personal Rep?

The person representing you can be:

• Your spouse or domestic partner
• Your child
• A relative
• A friend
• Your lawyer
• Someone chosen by a court

Two Types of Personal Reps

You can ask Braven about appointing either a limited personal representative or a legal personal representative to help you. These are the differences:

Limited Personal Representative

A limited personal representative is allowed to have access to some of your personal health information from Braven. They’ll have access to your information, but they won’t be able to make changes to your health care coverage.

You can let them have information like:

• The name of your condition
• The type of treatment you’re getting
• Your doctor’s name
• Financial statements

You can also choose to give your limited personal representative access to more sensitive information about you, like whether you have:

• HIV or AIDS
• A sexually transmitted disease
• A mental health condition or SUD

You can choose to share your genetic information and general sexual health information, too.

Legal Personal Representative

A legal personal representative is someone you agree to give full access to all of your health information, including your sensitive information. This person can also make changes to your health care coverage and get your health-care-related mail.

Assigning Your Representative

Fill out the correct form for a Limited Personal Representative or a Legal Personal Representative and mail or fax it back to us at the address or number on the form. Both forms are found in the Manage Private Information (HIPAA) section of BravenHealth.com.