Health Care Directives

Everyone Needs Advanced Health Care Directives

No one knows what can happen in the future. While many people consider health care directives when they become ill, healthy adults can suffer from unforeseeable events at any time. Should this happen to you and, you are unable to make decisions regarding your health care, then it is vital that you have an established plan that outlines your wishes and appoints a health care surrogate to make decisions on your behalf.

At Marshall Law, I assist clients in creating advance health care directives as part of my estate planning services. My name is John Marshall, and I understand how difficult it is to consider a time when someone else may be making decisions for you. Nonetheless, I will provide compassionate guidance to help you make difficult decisions today that could protect you in the future.

A Health Care Directive Can Help You Protect Yourself And Your Loved Ones

In Florida, you can appoint a Health Care Surrogate to make medical decisions on your behalf as well as provide detailed instructions on certain aspects of your medical care.

Advance health care directive collectively refers to the following documents:

• Living will: A living will allows you to decide whether you want life support removed if you are permanently mentally incapacitated and suffer from a terminal or end-stage condition or are in a permanent vegetative state. This takes the burden of having to decide for you off your health care surrogates, assuming you want life support removed (otherwise, you would indicate in the designation of health care surrogate that life support is to be ongoing).
• HIPAA waiver: This authorizes disclosure of your confidential medical information to the people named in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) waiver. This document complies with federal law and must be accepted by every medical provider.
• Designation of health care surrogate: This allows you to appoint health care surrogates you trust to make decisions regarding your personal health care if you are unable to do so yourself; your inability to make health care decisions may be temporary or permanent. You can also dictate any specific courses of treatment you do – or do not – desire.