One reader raised a really interesting point for providers licensed as adult care homes. The Division of Health Service Regulation has a Resident Register form that adult care homes are required to use. Item 10 on that form has a line for "Responsible Person." So the reader asked if this needed to be changed. The answer, thankfully, is "no." That form is not a contract under which a third party is undertaking legal responsibilities for a resident, so it’s different than a resident admission agreement signed by a third party. Instead, the form is simply a data collection form. More important, Item 10 on the form expressly defines what it means by "responsible person" by asking the provider to indicate if this individual is a guardian, power of attorney, or payee of funds assigned to a resident. This is entirely consistent with our April article in which we recommended that if you plan to keep using the term "responsible person" in your admission agreements, define precisely what you mean by it AND ensure that the obligations you are imposing on a third-party responsible person are actually permitted by applicable state or federal law. We’ve discussed this issue with officials at the Division of Health Service Regulation and they concur with our reading of the Resident Register form. Thanks to our reader for that great question.