Healthcare Power of Attorney in Sequatchie

Choose for availability as well as trust

A healthcare power of attorney designates someone to act on your behalf in healthcare matters, subject to the document’s scope and limits. Start by asking whether your preferred person is willing and likely to be reachable when a decision is needed. A trusted person who is often unavailable may not be the only choice worth considering.

Compare naming one agent with naming an alternate. An alternate can provide another person to consider if your first choice cannot serve, but you should think through whether each person understands your wishes and can communicate with the people involved in your care. Do not assume that a financial power of attorney, trustee, or family relationship automatically gives someone the same healthcare role.

• Who would you want approached first, and who could serve as an alternate?
• Can each person discuss your preferences and make decisions within the authority you intend to grant?
• Are there people you want to inform about your wishes who should not be appointed to make decisions?

Separate decision authority from information sharing

A healthcare decision-maker and a person permitted to receive medical information are not necessarily the same role. A HIPAA authorization can address information sharing; by itself, it does not appoint a healthcare decision-maker. Conversely, state-law authority to make healthcare decisions can make someone a HIPAA personal representative. Whether a separate authorization is needed depends on the circumstances, so do not treat it as an automatic requirement for every agent.

Make a short list of the people you want involved and the role you intend each to have. This can help identify a mismatch—for example, someone you want kept informed may not be the person you want making decisions.

• Decision-maker: who may act under the healthcare document?
• Alternate: who should be considered if your first choice cannot serve?
• Information recipient: who should be able to receive information, if you choose to authorize that?

Prepare a one-page decision worksheet

Before discussing documents, write down your proposed agent and alternate, their contact details, and the reasons you selected them. Add a brief, plain-language summary of healthcare preferences or concerns you want reflected in your planning. The Tennessee Advance Directive for Health Care covers an agent or alternate as well as healthcare preferences, and includes instructions concerning signing and sharing copies. Review the form’s instructions rather than relying on a generic signing checklist.

Gather any existing healthcare directives, living will, HIPAA authorization, and other documents that may express preferences or affect information sharing. Note when each was made and who has a copy. This gives you a practical way to spot documents that may need to be coordinated; it does not determine whether an older document remains effective.

• Proposed agent and alternate, with current contact information
• Preferences or concerns you want discussed
• Existing healthcare documents and known copy locations
• People to notify, and whether you intend to authorize information sharing

Questions to resolve before preparing documents

Ask whether the people you are considering understand the role and are willing to serve. Discuss how you want them to approach decisions when your preferences do not address a particular situation, and whether your alternate choice is practical. Also ask how the healthcare document should fit with existing directives and any separate information-sharing authorization.

Dale Law Group, PLLC, offers healthcare powers of attorney, advance healthcare directives and living wills, and HIPAA authorizations as part of its Tennessee estate-planning services. Sequatchie is an unincorporated Census-designated place in Marion County; the firm’s listed office is in Murfreesboro, not Sequatchie.