President Enforces Rights for Patients.

From fabulous Pam Spaulding at Pam's House Blend:

The President, in an extremely positive development for LGBT families, has directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to ensure that hospitals participating in Medicaid or Medicare will allow patients to designate who may visit them as well as name their primary caretaker and decision maker. Countless tragedies have occurred because of denial of access or ability to decide on the health of a loved one because the hospital would only recognize the rights of a blood relative.

I'm happy to report that my state, North Carolina, recently put this into place on its own, as you'll see in the memo.

According to the White House, these measures could require substantive changes to the visitation policies of hospitals in at least twenty-five states whose laws do not currently require the extension of visitation rights, and will hold hospitals participating in Medicaid or Medicare to the highest care standards nationwide.

The changes in this official memorandum also benefits widows and widowers without children, members of religious orders, and others whom otherwise may not have been able to receive visits from good friends and loved ones who are not immediate relatives, or select them to make decisions on their behalf in case of incapacitation. Full text of the memo below; the PDF can be downloaded by clicking the image.