Making a doctor's appointment for someone else

The short answer

Yes. Booking an appointment mostly runs one way: you are giving the office information, not asking it for any. HIPAA limits what a practice can tell people about a patient. It doesn't stop a family member or friend from calling to set up a visit, and nothing in it requires you to be "on the form" to do that.

Where callers get stuck is the other direction. "When is her next appointment?", "Did he go?", "What were the results?" are all requests for the office to share something, and that is where practices get careful. The rest of this guide is about that line.

What to have ready before you call

The office will ask for most of this whether it's you or the patient on the phone. Having it in front of you is the difference between a five-minute call and a call back.

• Their full legal name and date of birth, exactly as they appear on the insurance card.
• The insurance card, front and back. The member ID and group number are on the front; the phone numbers the office may need to verify coverage are usually on the back.
• A referral, if the plan needs one. Many HMO plans won't pay for a specialist without one from the primary care doctor. Ask the plan or the specialist's office before you book, not after.
• The reason for the visit, in a sentence. It decides how long a slot they offer, and whether it should be a new-patient visit.
• Their primary care doctor's name, so results and notes go back to the right place.
• Times that work for both of you, if you are the one driving or sitting in.
• Anything the visit needs to go well: an interpreter, wheelchair access, extra time, help with hearing or vision. Booking is the time to ask. Many practices are required to provide a qualified interpreter at no charge, but they need notice to arrange one.

For a first visit with a new practice, expect them to want a medication list and a short medical history too. Those can usually be filled in later, through the portal or at check-in.

When the office wants to hear from the patient

Some things the patient has to do themselves, however helpful you are:

• Registration and consent forms. A new practice will want the patient's own signature on intake, consent to treatment and financial responsibility. That usually happens at check-in or in the portal, not on your call.
• A quick confirmation. Some offices, especially for an adult who has never been seen there, will ask to speak to the patient for a moment. It's a check that they actually want the appointment.
• Mental health and addiction treatment. Expect these to be stricter. Federally assisted substance use programs operate under their own rule, 42 CFR Part 2, which generally bars them from even confirming someone is a patient without written consent.

Confirming, rescheduling and asking questions

Once you are asking the office to tell you things, HIPAA is in play. It is more permissive than front desks tend to think. A provider may share information with a family member or friend who is involved in someone's care, limited to what is relevant to that involvement 45 CFR 164.510(b). When the patient isn't on the line, the provider uses professional judgment about whether sharing is in the patient's interest.

In practice that means a scheduler may well confirm a time or move an appointment for the person who drives Mom to every visit, and may decline to discuss test results with the same person. Both are allowed. A practice is permitted to share, never required to, and policies vary from office to office.

If the answer is no, it is worth knowing what changes it. A signed HIPAA authorization naming you, kept on file at that practice, makes you someone they can talk to by phone. If you will be making decisions rather than just scheduling, that is a different document again. Both are explained in what lets you speak for someone else at their appointment.

Do it online, under your own login

Most patient portals let a patient give someone else proxy access, sometimes called caregiver or shared access. You log in as yourself and can see their upcoming appointments, book or cancel, message the office and get reminders, without anyone asking who you are.

It usually has to start from the patient's side: an invitation sent from inside their account, or a form they sign at the office. Set it up while it's easy. Logging in with their password instead tends to go wrong at the worst time, and every message you send looks like it came from them.

Getting the reminders yourself

Appointment reminders go to the phone number and email on the patient's record. If you are the one keeping track, ask the office whether they can add you as a contact for reminders. Most will want the patient's agreement first, so this is another thing to settle on that first call with them beside you.

The low-tech alternative works well: as soon as the appointment is booked, put it on a calendar you both see, with the address, the time to leave, and anything to bring.

A few situations that work differently

• They can no longer decide for themselves. Scheduling still works the same way, but consenting to treatment at the visit needs someone with legal authority, usually a health care power of attorney. Put that in place before you need it.
• Your child. Parents book for minors as a matter of course. Teenagers can consent to some kinds of care on their own in many states, and those visits may be confidential from you. At 18 they are an adult, and the rules in this guide apply to them.
• They live in another state. For a video visit, the clinician generally has to be licensed in the state where the patient is sitting during the call, not where you are. Book with someone licensed there.
• Calling the insurer instead. Health plans run their own permission process. To talk to Medicare on someone's behalf, they can give permission on the call, or sign Medicare's authorization form CMS-10106 so you don't need them on the line each time. Private plans have their own versions.
• Veterans. VA appointments and VA-authorized community care have their own scheduling rules, and records from outside visits don't always make it back. See why your community care records don't reach the VA.

If you'll be doing this regularly

• A photo of both sides of their insurance card on your phone.
• A current medication list and their doctors' names and numbers, in one place.
• A note in each practice's record that you can discuss scheduling, made with the patient on the line.
• Proxy access set up on each patient portal.
• A HIPAA authorization on file wherever you will need to ask questions by phone.
• A shared calendar for every appointment, with what was decided at the last one.