How can you assign a health care proxy in Estate planning?

Share This Post

How can you assign a health care proxy in Estate planning?

A Health care proxy or healthcare surrogate makes medical decisions on your behalf. A healthcare proxy will make sure the doctors follow your wishes. It is part of your Advanced Healthcare Directive and is considered an essential part of estate planning. So, how can you assign a healthcare proxy in Estate planning? 

Why should you assign a healthcare proxy in estate planning? 

Life is unpredictable and unexpected, and one can suffer a fatal accident or illness at any time. It could also make you incapacitated. To ensure you get the best treatment and your wishes are followed in such a case, one should name and designate a Health care proxy that gives someone the health power of attorney. 

The healthcare proxy will make medical decisions for you. This ensures that you get your preferred treatment from the doctor as you wish. When choosing a healthcare proxy, one should consider someone who is close to you and is a person who shares the same medical views as you.

Furthermore, you should also choose someone who can make his own decisions and is in good health. Finally, you can also name a secondary proxy who can act when the primary representative is unavailable or unable to work.

Living will

A living will express your wishes regarding medical treatment in certain medical circumstances. Depending on the state laws, one can use this document to express his desire on whether he wants to be given life-sustaining treatment in case of life-threatening illness or injury.

One can use this document to express in advance how and which treatments he wishes to get. You can mention the treatments you don’t want your physicians or doctors to give you in your living will. A living will apply when receiving the treatment would prolong your life, even for a fixed and short period.

How to name a healthcare proxy legally 

To name a health care proxy as part of your estate planning, you can do so through a legal document called a durable power of attorney. In this, you have to fill out a legal form with the help of an attorney.

These documents require you to provide two or more adult witnesses as stated by state laws. The witnesses should not include people who have an inheritance or are related to you in some way.

Some states even want to avoid witnesses responsible for your medical payments. For example, they are the staff of a medical treatment Centre or hospital. It would be best if you also made sure these documents are notarized.

You must follow your state’s rules to fill out the form. The completed forms must be shared with your health care proxy or alternate health care proxy as they are completed. You also need to share these with your doctor, who will include them in your medical records. Make sure that the hospital should place a copy of your form in your medical history.

Discuss these things with your family, so they know your wishes and intentions beforehand. Make sure you keep a list of everyone who has a copy so you can inform them of any changes you make to these forms.

Work as a health care proxy in estate planning

Healthcare proxies often decide when treatment should be started or stopped and what medical interventions are needed. In addition, a healthcare proxy decides what kind of treatment can be used for your treatment.

Suppose you need long-term or permanent care in case of incapacitation. Then your healthcare proxy is the one who is responsible for finding the appropriate place for you to go. Finally, the most critical and challenging part of being a healthcare proxy is deciding whether to continue or end life support for you.

You would’ve most likely added provisions on how much intervention you want before ending life support. The clear you are, the better it is for you.

Conclusion 

A healthcare proxy is an essential part of estate planning, and one should make sure that they have decided on a healthcare proxy during the planning of his estate.

The health care proxy has a vital role; thus, it is essential to make sure you choose it wisely. In this article, you learn about health care proxy and how one can appoint a health care proxy during his estate planning.

More To Explore

Subscribe to our Newsletter

legal will Long Island lega lwill New York legal will NYC legal will Queens legal will Staten Island living trust Brooklyn living trust Long Island living trust New York living trust NYC living trust Queens living trust Staten Island medicaid trust Brooklyn medicaid trust Long Island medicaid trust New York medicaid trust NYC medicaid trust Queens medicaid trust Staten Island New York estate planning legal New York probate lawyers NYC guardianship lawyer probate attorney Dutches county probate attorney Kings county probate attorney Nassau NY probate attorney Orange county probate attorney Putnam county probate attorney Queens probate attorney Rockland probate attorney Suffolk probate attorney Sullivan county probate attorney Ulster county probate Brooklyn lawyer probate lawyer Kings county probate lawyer Long Island probate lawyer Nassau probate lawyer Queens probate lawyers New York probate lawyers NYC probate lawyer Staten Island probate lawyer Suffolk probate lawyers Ullivan county probate New York attorneys probate New York lawyer probate NYC lawyer probate NYC lawyers probate property attorney probate property lawyer revocable trust Brooklyn revocable trust Long Island lawyers directory NY revocable trust New York revocable trust NYC revocable trust Queens revocable trust trust Bronx will attorney Brooklyn will attorney Long Island will attorney New York will attorney NYC will attorney Queens will attorney Staten Island will lawyer Brooklyn will lawyer Long Island guardianship lawyer Brooklyn guardianship lawyer Long Island guardianship lawyer New York Estate Planning Lawyer NYC guardianship lawyer Queens guardianship lawyer Staten Island near me dental Near Me Lawyers will lawyer New York will lawyer NYC will lawyer Queens will lawyer Staten Island wills and trusts Bronx Wills and trusts Brooklyn wills and trusts Long Island wills and trusts New York wills and trusts NYC wills and trusts Queens wills and trusts Staten Island wills Brooklyn wills Long Island wills New York wills Staten Island estate planning lawyers NYC probate New York lawyers trust and estate law firms estate planning attorneys Brooklyn estate planning lawyers Brooklyn estate planning Brooklyn estate planning New York attorney estate planning New York attorneys estate planning attorney Brooklyn estate planning New York lawyer estate planning New York lawyers guardianship attorney Brooklyn guardianship attorney Long Island guardianship attorney New York guardianship attorney NYC guardianship attorney Queens guardianship attorney Staten Island