Medical Power of Attorney Tool Kit

July 12, 2016

Medical Power of Attorney Tool Kit

I am not a fan of do-it-yourself planning, but the ABA has a good resources called the Consumer’s Tool Kit for Health Care Advance Planning that might be worth a look.

According to the ABA site, studies have show that standard advanced directive forms do little to influence end-of-life decisions without informed and thoughtful reflection on your wishes and values plus person communication between you and your likely decision makers before a crisis occurs.

That’s where the tool-kit comes in. To try to make those decisions and communication with your named agents, a bit easier.

Why is A Medical Power of Attorney Important?

Good advanced planning for health care is about values, priorities and the qualify of one’s life. A Medical Power of Attorney (Patient Advocate Designation in Michigan) is literally about life and death.

However, just having a Medical Power of Attorney/Patient Advocate Destination isn’t enough. You need to have conversations with the people you’ve appointed to serve as patient advocate or medical power of attorney.

Medical Power of Attorney in Michigan

In Michigan, we have a Medical Power of Attorney law that allows clients to create a Patient Advocate Designation. This is Michigan’s form of living will and medical power of attorney. Michigan does not have a statute defining what a living will is, but we do have case law (Miller) on how an individual needs to make “clear and convincing” evidence of what their end of life decisions are. We include this evidence in a Michigan Medical Power of Attorney, i.e. Patient Advocate Designation.

Health Care Power of Attorney “Tools” for Medical Advanced Planning

Below you’ll see tools listed from the ABA website to assist with the decisions around a medical power of attorney. I am not saying you should utilize or rely on these tools, take them for what they’re worth. But here they are:

Complete Tool Kit

Castle Wealth Group

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July 12, 2016