Preparing for Future Health Care Needs

Many people assume that their family members would automatically be able to make decisions about medical treatments if they were to become incapacitated. However, rules vary greatly from state to state:

• Your family may have to go through a costly and time-consuming court process to get the legal right to make medical decisions for you.
• Your family members may disagree on who should make medical decisions on your behalf, which could lead to legal disputes.
• Someone unfamiliar with your preferences may be placed in charge of your treatment choices.
• It’s important to have a plan ahead of time to avoid disagreements around treatment issues and to ensure your wishes are honored if you are incapacitated. Advance directives, living wills, health care proxies, and powers of attorney can help ensure that decisions made on your behalf meet your needs and preferences.

Here are some tips for preparing these documents:

• In most cases, you do not need a specific form to create an advance directive, living will, or health care proxy. However, you may want legal assistance if you have uncommon wishes, or if you anticipate disagreements among family members.
• If you don’t get legal assistance, remember that your documents should comply with any rules in your state and cover all the issues that are important to you.
• You should consult a lawyer if you want to create a power of attorney.

Discuss the contents of any future care documents with family members, health care providers, and anyone else you feel should know. You should give your providers a copy and may want to provide copies to others. You should also bring a copy of these documents to the hospital each time you are admitted, if possible.

For help creating these documents or information on how to comply with your state’s rules, you can contact:

• Your state’s attorney general office or department of health
• The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
• The American Bar Association Commission on Legal Problems of the Elderly
• Your state bar association, or your local hospital

FOR OTHER QUESTIONS, CONTACT AMERICAN SENIOR RESOURCES at 1-800-386-6160 TTY 711 M-F or SCHEDULE AN CONSULTATION ONLINE WITH AN ASR LICENSED AGENT.