Legal & Financial

An Overview of 'Power of Attorney' Part 2: Health Care

Listen to Ms. Campisi's discussion

In Part 1 of this series, Elder Law attorney Lynn Campisi explained that Powers of Attorney are divided into two types: One type pertains to financial and business decisions, the other type pertains to health care decisions. Here's Campisi's overview of the health care Power of Attorney:

"Health care Power of Attorney may also involve Living Wills and Advance Directives. A Living Will is a document that says, 'I do not want extraordinary treatment in the event there is no hope of recovery and I am terminal, or unless I am in a persistent vegetative state.' That means a coma.

"In addition to the Living Will, you may over other instructions to be exercised in the case of certain illnesses. Or whether or not you want food or water administered. These are all decisions that should be written down in a document that's called the Advance Directives, which also includes the Living Will.

"Sometimes, the individual is not in a terminal situation, and they're not in a coma. They're just not capable. Say they've had a stroke, and they're going through rehab, and they're not capable of making all those health care decisions. And that's where the individual should name a health care power of attorney.

"Now, the state does have a standard Advance Directive that the individual can download. It's administered by the Department of Public Health. The individual can sign the document, name a Health Care Proxy, and if there's a second or successive agent, the first agent cannot act.

"And these are very helpful documents, because the first thing your doctor will ask...and the doctor will want to know...is, 'Who's going to make those decisions for you when you cannot give informed consent? Who are we going to?'

"Do we have a group of six children? Well, that's kind of hard for everyone to get together. Lots of communication. Or do we have a named Proxy, who is the person in charge of helping make those decisions in the event that you cannot?"

A downloadable audio file of Ms. Campisi's article is also available.