Feature article: Wealth and Wills
Too Young for a Durable Power of Attorney?
Cynthia E. Crawford, Ph.D., Consumer & Family Economics Specialist, University of Missouri Extension
Edited by Rob Weagley, Ph.D., FFE Department Chair, University of Missouri
My niece is a student at the University of Missouri. Her
roommate this past year was a very likable young woman.
I found her to be brilliant, beautiful and just plain
comfortable to be with. Toward the end of the Fall 2007
semester, Patti (not her real name) started sleeping
late and complained that she just didn’t feel well.
She walked out of her last final of the semester on a
Wednesday morning and headed to student health with the
worst headache she’d had in her 19 years. Within hours,
she was in the hospital and diagnosed with a
life-threatening illness.
By Thursday evening, she was transferred to a health
center in one of our larger cities and diagnosed with an
aggressive health condition, requiring very specific,
swift treatment. Every hour counted. Unfortunately, her
medical records weren’t transferred with her and the
hospital required the original medical records - faxed
records were not acceptable.
Patti’s mother called my niece early Friday morning and
desperately asked her to drive the medical records three
hours to the health center. The trouble was, however,
that the first hospital would not release the medical
records to my niece. She did not have durable power of
attorney for health care for Patti and the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
prevented them from releasing the medical records, even
in this life and death circumstance.
Next, Patti’s mother called the hospital with her “Plan
B”. She would get in her car and make the six-hour
round-trip drive to pick up the critical medical
records. Unfortunately, before long, she learned that
the hospital would not release the medical records to
her, as she did not have durable power of attorney for
health care for Patti. HIPAA’s privacy standards
prevented the hospital from releasing her medical
records even to her mother, since Patti is a legal adult
(age 18 or more).
Unfortunately, you and I can’t change what happened to
Patti and her family. What we can do is learn from this
family’s nightmarish ordeal.
Anyone age 18 or older needs to execute two legal
documents – a durable power of attorney for health care
and an advanced directive for health care choices. Don’t
wait until you are old. Don’t wait until there is a need
for them. Then, it will be too late. And, while you can
use a family lawyer to draft these documents for you,
you can get these documents in place with little
out-of-pocket cost.
An advanced directive for health care choices allows you
to express in writing what your health care wishes are
if you become physically or mentally unable to
communicate your desires for medical care. Advanced
directives allow you to state what treatments you do or
do not want, if you are unable to communicate your
wishes.
A durable power of attorney for health care allows you
to appoint another person to make health care decisions
for you, if you cannot and you have not specified your
wishes in your advanced directive for health care
choices. The person you designate with the power of
attorney on your behalf should be someone who
understands your goals and values and that you can trust
to carry out your wishes. Specifically, ensure that the
document allows the person to request, receive and
review your medical and hospital records.
While I would never suggest to a person how to fill out
these two forms – these are very personal decisions – I
urge every adult to carefully fill out both forms and
then sign and have them notarized. I also encourage you
to seek the advice and counsel of an attorney, should
you feel uncomfortable doing this without one. (Peace of
mind is worth a couple of hundred dollars.)
Admittedly, if these become necessary to use with
respect to your care, your Financial Success is
relatively meaningless, compared to your health. For
most, however, making things easier for those your love
and cherish is what Financial Success is all about.
Here are two sources for more information and legal
forms:
The Missouri Attorney General:
http://ago.mo.gov/publications/lifechoices/resources3.htm
The Center for Practical Bioethics:
http://caringcommunity.org/links/midbiolinks
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Last update: Tuesday, May 05, 2009
