Be Wary of Generic Health Care Proxy Forms

Hospitals often give patients a health care proxy form to sign on being admitted. While it might seem easy to sign a generic health care proxy form, having a document that is specifically tailored to your needs is very important.

A health care proxy allows you to appoint someone else to act as your agent for medical decisions. In general, a health care proxy takes effect only when you require medical treatment and a physician determines that you are unable to communicate your own wishes concerning what that treatment should be. Appointing someone to serve as your agent helps to ensure that your medical treatment instructions will be carried out exactly as you wish them to be.

While a health care proxy serves to appoint an agent to speak for you, you can also use it to give the agent guidance about your medical wishes. The following are some issues that can be addressed in a health care proxy:

* The name of the person authorized to act for you. It is important to appoint an alternate as well.
* If you are terminally ill, in a coma, or have brain damage with no hope of recovery, you can explain the kind of treatment you do NOT want. For example, do you want feeding tubes, resuscitation, dialysis, or blood transfusions?
* Whether or not you want to be kept alive by machines if you are in a persistent vegetative state.
* Under what circumstances would you want pain medication to be administered.
* Whether or not you want to donate your organs.
* Whether you want to be cremated or buried . . . where and how your remains should be disposed of.
* HIPAA designation so your physician can speak to your Agent(s).
* Guardianship and Conservatorship nominations to eliminate time in Probate Court.

Whatever choices you make, it is important that you take time to consider your health care wishes before putting your signature on a health care proxy. For this reason, signing a generic hospital form is not a good idea, because such a form may not take your individual wishes into account. Additionally, and very importantly, if you already have a health care proxy as a part of your estate plan, the generic form will revoke your more personal health care proxy that you gives you more protections.

A qualified attorney can help you create a document that addresses your situation.

MASSACHUSETTS HEALTH CARE PROXY

The Massachusetts Health Care Proxy is a basic and essential legal document that allows you to name someone you know and trust to make health care decisions for you if, for any reason and at any time, you become unable to make or communicate those decisions for yourself. Under the Health Care Proxy Law, M.G.L. Chapter 201D, a person must be a competent adult 18 years of age or older before he can appoint a Health Care Agent, and that Agent must also be a competent adult who is at least 18 years of age at the time he or she is appointed.

An Agent will make decisions about your health care only when you are, for some reason, unable to do that yourself. This means that your Agent can act for you if you are temporarily unconscious, in a coma, or have some other condition in which you cannot make or communicate health care decisions. Your Agent cannot act for you until your doctor determines in writing, that you lack the ability to make health care decisions for yourself.

Acting under the authority of the Health Care Proxy document, your appointed Agent can make any health care decision for you that you would make if you were able to communicate. If you give your Agent full authority to act for you, he or she can consent to or refuse any medical treatment, including treatment that could keep you alive.

Your Agent will make decisions for you only after talking with your doctor or health care provider, and after fully considering all the options regarding diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of your illness or condition. If the document is properly constructed and it includes language established in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), your Agent will have the legal right to obtain any information, including confidential medical information, necessary to make informed decisions for you. Your Agent will make health care decisions for you in accordance with your wishes or according to his/his assessment of your wishes, including your religious or moral beliefs.

It is recommended that you talk with your doctor(s), religious advisor, and other members of your family before giving instructions to your Agent. It is very important that you talk with your Agent and other members of your family, so that they all know what is important to you. If your Agent does not know what your wishes would be in a particular situation, your Agent will need to decide based on what he or she thinks would be in your best interests. If your family does not know what your wishes would be in a particular situation then they may object to a decision made by your Health Care Agent which could not only trigger a Court intervention but also cause a possible delay in your medical treatment.

Your Agent’s decisions will have the same authority as you would have if you were able to communicate, and he or she will be honored over those of any other person, except for a Court Order specifically overriding the Proxy.