Whether you need to assist an elderly loved one with financial choices or make important health care decisions, the ability to help in this capacity can be limited without proper planning. This becomes especially important when your loved one moves into an assisted living facility or becomes hospitalized.
Participating in conversations with medical providers and accessing medical records requires certain legal documents to be in place. The same goes for accessing financial records. Without these documents, you cannot obtain this critical information. If the documents are not created and signed while the person is of sound mind, then you will have to go through a lengthy and complex process to obtain legal guardianship.
To prevent that scenario, three documents can be created by your senior loved one.
Durable Power of Attorney - This document allows your loved one to convey certain powers to a named agent when he or she becomes incapacitated. Those powers can include accessing financial records, paying bills, paying taxes, filing tax returns, purchasing property, selling property and many more.
Health Care Power of Attorney – This document allows your loved one to convey powers to a named agent as well, but the powers involve making healthcare related decisions. The agent can be authorized to speak with medical personnel, obtain medical records, choose medical providers, move the person into certain facilities, choose medications and more.
Advance Directive – This document allows the person to provide clear instructions to the healthcare agent about his or her wishes for certain types of medical treatment, most often life-saving measures. It aids the healthcare agent named in the healthcare power of attorney to make choices in accordance with what the person would choose for himself or herself if he or she was able to do so.
The advance directive document should also include a HIPAA authorization. This provides the layer of protection needed for medical personnel to freely discuss all of the information needed about a patient without violating any federal laws.
Meet with an estate planning attorney sooner rather than later about getting these documents in place for an aging loved one. When the time comes that you, the caregiver, needs access to information and the ability to make decisions, the process is much easier and more seamless. Not having these in place can cost you time that you may not have in emergency situations.
Contact the experienced estate planning attorneys at Stouffer Legal in the Greater Baltimore area for a consultation on drafting power of attorney documents and advance directives. You can schedule an appointment by calling us at (443) 470-3599 or emailing us at office@stoufferlegal.com.
