In the event that you become incapacitated due to injury, illness, or disability, your family and healthcare providers may be thrown into confusion or disputes over who should make medical or end-of-life decisions on your behalf. You can prevent this from happening by having a health care proxy with advance directives in your estate plan, which allows you to designate someone to handle your medical affairs if you cannot. Learn more about the benefits and requirements of this estate planning tool when you contact The Law Offices of Patricia Bloom-McDonald and speak with a health care power of attorney lawyer in Massachusetts.
Understanding Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives
An individual may execute a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives to give a trusted family member, friend, or advisor the authority to make healthcare or end-of-life care decisions on the individual’s behalf if the individual becomes incapacitated and unable to make or communicate those decisions. In a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives, an individual called a principal authorizes another individual called an agent to make specific decisions on the principal’s behalf, such as medical treatment decisions. Although a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives terminates upon the principal’s death, a principal can create a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives that continues the agent’s authority even after the principal becomes incapacitated.
Under a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives, a principal can give their agent (also known as a healthcare proxy) the right to make various medical or end-of-life decisions on the principal’s behalf if the principal cannot make those decisions due to physical or cognitive incapacity. A principal can limit the proxy’s authority under a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives or place specific requirements on the proxy’s ability to make various decisions, such as authorizing invasive care or removing life-sustaining treatment.
How Does a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives Work in an Estate Plan?
A Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives can form a critical part of a comprehensive estate plan. Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives frequently work with other estate planning tools, such as medical orders for life-sustaining treatment and do-not-resuscitate orders. An individual who establishes a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives may also include living will language.
Although Massachusetts does not recognize living wills as legally enforceable, individuals can still include this language in their documents to communicate critical information to their healthcare proxy. Living Will language in the estate planning documents can inform the proxy about the principal’s wishes, preferences, and beliefs concerning medical treatment and end-of-life care, including identifying specific treatments that may violate the principal’s moral or religious beliefs or the circumstances under which the principal would like to end life-sustaining treatment in favor of palliative end-of-life care.
A health care power of attorney can also work or combine with other types of power of attorney. An individual can authorize a loved one or advisor to handle other affairs on behalf of the individual if they become incapacitated, such as legal or financial affairs.
Establishing a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives
Under Massachusetts law, a person can create a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives by drafting a written document appointing an individual to serve as their agent/healthcare proxy. The person creating the Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives must sign the document in the presence of two or more adults, who must also sign the document as witnesses to the principal’s signature. The witnesses must also affirm in writing that the principal was or appeared to be at least 18, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence. The person named as the healthcare proxy may not serve as a witness to the principal’s signature. The law imposes a rebuttable presumption regarding a principal’s competency and the proper execution of theHealth Care Proxy with Advance Directives. A party wishing to challenge the validity of a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives must present sufficient evidence in court to rebut this presumption.
A principal can also designate an alternate healthcare proxy in their Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives, who may serve as the healthcare proxy if the first named agent cannot or will not serve or make a timely decision regarding the principal’s medical care.
Who Needs a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives?
Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives can benefit individuals at various stages in their lives. Even when a person enjoys good health, a sudden injury or unexpected illness can quickly cause incapacity. As people age, establishing a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives becomes more critical to ensure that a trusted loved one or advisor has express authority to make medical and end-of-life care decisions on their behalf. Creating a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives has several advantages, including:
- Reducing or eliminating the risk of family disputes: A health care proxy allows you to select a trusted family member or friend to make medical decisions for you if you cannot, which can help avoid family disputes over who should make those decisions or what decisions to make if you become incapacitated.
- Ensuring your healthcare providers know who to turn to for decisions: In some cases, you can forward copies of your Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives to your medical providers so they know who you have authorized to make medical decisions if you become incapacitated. That way, your providers can immediately contact your healthcare proxy in an emergency.
- Allowing you to communicate your wishes and preferences to your designated health-care-proxy: By designating a specific individual to serve as your healthcare proxy, you know who you need to have in-depth and potentially difficult conversations about your preferences or wishes regarding intensive medical care or end-of-life decisions.
How Can a Lawyer Help You Set Up a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives
An experienced estate planning attorney can help you create a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives by:
- Meeting with you to discuss your personal, medical, and estate planning needs and goals to assess the suitability of a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives; and
- Explaining what a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives does and its potential legal restrictions; and
- Assisting you with drafting the terms of your Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives, including choosing a healthcare proxy and determining the scope of their authority; and
- Working with you to revise and update your Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives in response to your changing circumstances and preferences.
Contact The Law Offices of Patricia Bloom-McDonald Today to Discuss Your Options
A Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives gives you and your family peace of mind, knowing that you have a trusted loved one or advisor to handle your medical affairs should you become unable to do so yourself. Contact The Law Offices of Patricia Bloom-McDonald today for an initial consultation with a Westport estate planning attorney to learn more about a Health Care Proxy with Advance Directives and discuss its suitability for your estate planning goals.