Medical release, how long are they good for?

[W W Meixner]

I was solo. They did not ask. It is not mentioned in the policy.
I realize the availability of policies, etc. can vary by the diver's home area. I will respond assuming your options are like mine.

DAN has 3 choices here: Standard ($30), Master ($40), and Preferred ($75). The Standard plan has a limit of 130 feet. The other two do not. If those were your choices, then you decided to accept the 130 foot limit in order to save $10 per year. That was your choice.

John...

Nothing to do with DAN...my dive policy is through a life insurance carrier...

My current policy expires on my 70th birthday...which is rapidly approaching...I'm already looking for a replacement...if I stay with the current carrier...my rates will quadruple because of my age...

I inquired with DAN last year and was advised by them that DAN coverage was not available for Ontario residents...

I don't know if that's changed...I'll look again...

Best...

Warren

 

[grf88]

John...

Nothing to do with DAN...my dive policy is through a life insurance carrier...

My current policy expires on my 70th birthday...which is rapidly approaching...I'm already looking for a replacement...if I stay with the current carrier...my rates will quadruple because of my age...

I inquired with DAN last year and was advised by them that DAN coverage was not available for Ontario residents...

I don't know if that's changed...I'll look again...

Best...

Warren

DAN was temporarily unavailable for Canadians, or maybe it was just Ontarians, that were not already insured by them for a short period last year but my understanding is that the issue is now resolved.

 

[sea_ledford]

After having looked at a couple hundred medicals over the last year, I can tell you most doctors have no idea about the specific issues related to diving. I have had divers cleared for diving by their physicians with the following conditions:
On consciousness altering medication
hole in the ear drum
asthma (controlled by dailly and prophylactic pre-dive inhaler use)
complicated heart issues

That's in one year dealing with relatively healthy college aged people. If you have access to a diving doc, I highly recommend taking advantage of them, even at the greater expense. General population physicians probably aren't going to know much about, or remember how to apply, air trapping issues with ascents. Very few of them will know anything about how much physical stress blood shunting related to just being underwater puts on the cardiovascular system. There is a lot to know about the human body and the variety of ways we mistreat them, we can't expect any doctor to be an expert on all of it.

The RSTC physical is little more than a standard "turn your head and cough" physical. They also have to be signed (according to RSTC) by an MD or DO, but I bet most of them are turned in signed by a PA or NP.

Back to the OP, if your condition is not chronic, and you have been cleared for diving for that condition, you don't need to keep checking "yes" on the form for that thing for the rest of your life. Chronic conditions or changing medication is a different situation though.

 

[markmud]

Here is the money quote:

Back to the OP, if your condition is not chronic, and you have been cleared for diving for that condition, you don't need to keep checking "yes" on the form for that thing for the rest of your life. Chronic conditions or changing medication is a different situation though.

Nuff said, IMHO.
m

 

[boulderjohn]

John...

Nothing to do with DAN...my dive policy is through a life insurance carrier...

My current policy expires on my 70th birthday...which is rapidly approaching...I'm already looking for a replacement...if I stay with the current carrier...my rates will quadruple because of my age...

I inquired with DAN last year and was advised by them that DAN coverage was not available for Ontario residents...

I don't know if that's changed...I'll look again...

Best...

Warren

I just went to the DAN insurance site and clicked on the Canada button. It did not ask to specify a province, so I assume it covers the entire country. Canadians have access to coverage with no depth limits in the same price range I have.

 

[W W Meixner]

I just went to the DAN insurance site and clicked on the Canada button. It did not ask to specify a province, so I assume it covers the entire country. Canadians have access to coverage with no depth limits in the same price range I have.

Thanks John...

I'm communicating with DAN now...

Best...

Warren

 

[purbeast]

As someone who just got OW and AOW certified and answered YES to two questions (Asthma and on prescription meds), I really shouldn't even need to sign one of those forms again unless I am advancing my training, correct?

I plan to keep a copy on my phone and a physical one will be taken with me on vacations, but I wasn't planning on it being something I get a new one signed every year.

 

[markmud]

I just went to the DAN insurance site and clicked on the Canada button. It did not ask to specify a province, so I assume it covers the entire country. Canadians have access to coverage with no depth limits in the same price range I have.

Hi boulderjohn,

Because of your post, I pulled up the plan for Ohio. No depth limit or restriction re certification levels. I may have missed a small caveat, but I think I read it thoroughly.

It was a good exercise, thanks,
m

 

[boulderjohn]

As someone who just got OW and AOW certified and answered YES to two questions (Asthma and on prescription meds), I really shouldn't even need to sign one of those forms again unless I am advancing my training, correct?

I plan to keep a copy on my phone and a physical one will be taken with me on vacations, but I wasn't planning on it being something I get a new one signed every year.

Well, the question is more complicated in this era. It used to be that the form was pretty much only needed for instruction, but now, who knows?

• Some friends, my wife, and I planned a trip to Australia. Travel experts, including Australians on ScubaBoard, advised us that a doctor's statement was absolutely needed for diving on the Great Barrier Reef. It is a law, they said. We all got the forms filled out and signed. Our first trip was on a huge day boat. We were assigned to a group, and we had a crew member go over our paperwork while the boat set out. None of the people before us had medical forms, and all they did was initial the sentence on the waiver that said they did not have any medical problems. When it was our turn, we produced our medical forms, but the crew member did not know what to do with them, never having seen one before. A supervisor told him to ignore the forms and just have us initial the same sentence. We encountered the exact same thing on the liveaboard we used--just sign off that you don't have a problem.
• Our same group was together in Mexico, and my friends wanted to do a cavern dive. When we got to the guide's office, she asked us for our signed medical forms. There was nothing on her website that said they were needed. She said she needed them, and she said it was soon going to be standard in the Yucatan area. She would make an exception for me because she knew me as a certified cave diver. She finally relented on my friends when I promised her that I was the instructor for their last class and had seen their medical forms very recently and knew they were OK.

So, to repeat, the answer to your question is, "Who knows?"

 

[jlcnuke]

As someone who just got OW and AOW certified and answered YES to two questions (Asthma and on prescription meds), I really shouldn't even need to sign one of those forms again unless I am advancing my training, correct?

I plan to keep a copy on my phone and a physical one will be taken with me on vacations, but I wasn't planning on it being something I get a new one signed every year.

Depends on where you dive and who you dive with. Some will require it just to do a dive with their company or on their site, others won't. As I stated earlier, I needed to fill out a medical form to dive with one of the companies in Antigua just earlier this year (and like boulderjohn's experience in the Yucatan, there was nothing letting me know that before I showed up to dive). I highly advise having your doctor fill one out each year so you always have a "current" one, and keeping an electronic copy of that somewhere you can access (I have mine stored on Google Drive and on my phone).