Healthcare Power of Attorney in New Union

Choose an agent and a workable alternate

Start by identifying a person you trust to make healthcare decisions in line with your preferences. Then consider an alternate in case your first choice cannot serve when needed. Think practically about whether each person understands your wishes and can be available to communicate with healthcare providers.

Tennessee’s Advance Directive for Health Care form addresses an agent, an alternate, and healthcare preferences. The choice is not simply between naming one person and naming several: consider whether you want a backup and what guidance you want to give either person. A healthcare agent’s role is different from the roles of a financial power-of-attorney agent, trustee, or court-appointed guardian or conservator.

• Who would understand and follow your priorities?
• Who could step in if your first choice is unavailable?
• What preferences should the document communicate?

Separate decision-making authority from information sharing

A HIPAA authorization and a healthcare power of attorney do different jobs. An information-sharing authorization can address access to health information; by itself, it does not appoint someone to make healthcare decisions. State-law authority to make healthcare decisions can make a person a HIPAA personal representative, so a separate authorization is not automatically needed for that purpose.

If you already have healthcare instructions or a HIPAA authorization, compare their purpose and wording with the authority you want an agent to have. Do not assume a document granting information access also grants decision-making authority, or that every power of attorney covers every kind of decision.

Prepare a one-page decision and document checklist

Before discussing a document, write down your proposed primary agent and alternate, the healthcare preferences you want recorded, and any existing advance directive, living will, or HIPAA authorization. For each existing document, note its date, where it is kept, and who has a copy. This gives you a practical comparison: what authority and guidance do you want, and what do your current documents already address?

Tennessee’s state form includes signing and copy-sharing instructions. Review the form’s instructions rather than relying on a general description to decide how to complete or execute it. Consider who should receive copies and how your agent would find the document when needed.

• Proposed agent and alternate, with contact details
• Key healthcare preferences or instructions to discuss
• Existing directives and authorizations, including dates and copy locations

Coordinate the plan and ask focused questions

Dale Law Group, PLLC offers healthcare powers of attorney, advance healthcare directives and living wills, and HIPAA authorizations. A planning discussion can help clarify which document addresses each goal and how the documents should work together. The firm’s office is in Murfreesboro and serves clients across Tennessee; New Union is an unincorporated Census-designated place in Coffee County, not a separate municipality.

Useful questions to bring include: What decisions do I want my agent to make? Should I name an alternate? What preferences belong in the directive? Does an existing authorization address information access, decision-making, or both? Who should keep copies?