Healthcare Power of Attorney in Mercer

Choose for availability as well as trust

Start by identifying the person you would want to make healthcare decisions if you could not make them yourself. Then consider practical availability: can that person be reached, understand your preferences, and communicate with others involved in your care? These are questions to discuss, not guarantees about what an agent will be able to do.

Name an alternate choice for consideration if your first choice is unavailable or unable to serve. Compare each person against the same questions rather than choosing an alternate simply because they are next in a family or social order. Discuss the role with both people so they know you are considering them and understand the preferences you want them to communicate.

• Primary choice: who is the best fit to speak for you?
• Alternate choice: who would you want considered if the primary person cannot serve?
• Availability: how should they be reached, and who else should know where to find your instructions?

Separate decision authority from access to information

A healthcare power of attorney addresses who may act as your healthcare decision-maker under the applicable state law. A HIPAA authorization is an information-sharing document; standing alone, it does not appoint someone to make healthcare decisions. State-law authority can make a person a HIPAA personal representative, so a separate authorization is not something every agent necessarily needs.

Review these documents as related but distinct parts of your plan. Ask whether your intended agent can communicate with the people involved in your care, whether another person should receive information, and whether existing instructions could create confusion about who has which role. A financial power of attorney, trustee role, or court-appointed role is not automatically the same as healthcare authority.

Make your preferences usable

Tennessee’s Advance Directive for Health Care form covers an agent or alternate and healthcare preferences, and includes instructions about signing and sharing copies. Rather than relying on an agent to guess, write down the values and preferences you want them to understand and discuss them together. Consider who should receive a copy and how the people you name can locate the current instructions.

A practical preparation sheet can help: list your proposed agent and alternate, their contact details, the people who should receive copies, and the questions or preferences you want to discuss. Keep it separate from the legal document until you decide what belongs in the directive itself. If you already have a directive or HIPAA authorization, gather it for comparison before changing anything.

Questions to resolve before preparing documents

Consider whether your first choice is willing and reachable, whether your alternate understands the same priorities, and whether the authority you intend to give matches your wishes. Ask how the proposed agent should handle uncertainty, whom they should consult, and how information should be shared with other people you trust. Bring existing instructions so the documents can be considered together.

Dale Law Group, PLLC offers healthcare powers of attorney, advance healthcare directives and living wills, and HIPAA authorizations as part of its Tennessee services. The firm’s office is in Murfreesboro and serves Tennessee, including Mercer, an unincorporated Census-designated place in Madison County—not a separate city government.