The federal regulation known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was adopted regarding disclosure of individually identifiable health information. This necessitated the addition of a special release and consent authority to all healthcare providers before medical information will be released to agents and interested persons of the patients.
Any old Powers of Attorney, Living Wills, Revocable Living Trusts, and certainly all Medical Directives now require HIPAA amendments. After you sign the Living Will in your attorney’s office, provide a copy to your doctor and family.
Powers of Attorneys and Living Wills should be updated to reference this Federal reg.
A Living Will is your written expression of how you want to be treated in certain medical conditions. Depending on state law, this document may permit you to express whether or not you wish to be given life-sustaining treatments in the event you are terminally ill or injured, to decide in advance whether you wish to be provided food and water via intravenous devices ("tube feeding"), and to give other medical directions that impact the end of life. "Life-sustaining treatment" means the use of available medical machinery and techniques, such as heart-lung machines, ventilators, and other medical equipment and techniques that will sustain and possibly extend your life, but which will not by themselves cure your condition. In addition to terminal illness or injury situations, most states permit you to express your preferences as to treatment using life-sustaining equipment and/or tube feeding for medical conditions that leave you permanently unconscious and without detectable brain activity.
Example:
A. Fluids and Nutrition.
I request that artificially provided fluids and nutrition, such as by feeding tube or intravenous infusion (initial one, not both)
1. ______ shall be withheld or withdrawn as "Life Sustaining Treatment."
2. ______ shall be provided to the extent medically appropriate even if other "Life Sustaining Treatment" is withheld or withdrawn.
B. Directive as to Medical Treatment.
I request that "Life Sustaining Treatment" be withheld or withdrawn from me in each of the following circumstances: (Initial all that apply. Most people initial 1-4, all of them)
1. ______ If the "life sustaining treatment" is experimental and not a proven therapy, or is likely to be ineffective or futile in prolonging my life, or is likely to merely prolong an imminent dying process;
2. ______ If I am permanently unconscious (total and irreversible loss of consciousness and capacity for interaction with the environment);
3. ______ If I am in a terminal condition (terminal stage of an irreversibly fatal illness, disease, or condition); or
4. ______ If I have a serious irreversible illness or condition, and the likely risks and burdens associated with the medical intervention to be withheld or withdrawn outweigh the likely benefits to me from such intervention.
______ None of the above. I direct that all medically appropriate measures be provided to sustain my life, regardless of my physical or mental condition. I want to be kept alive for as long as possible.
___ None of the above. I direct that all medically appropriate measures be provided to sustain my life, regardless of my physical or mental condition. [This means you want to be kept alive with tubes]
If you or anyone you know needs an updated Will, Power of Attorney or Living Will, please have them fill out our confidential interview from and schedule a consult. Call the Law Office of Kenneth Vercammen at 732-572-0500 to schedule an in-office consultation.
Kenneth Vercammen & Associates
Attorney at Law
2053 Woodbridge Ave
Edison, NJ 08817
