Healthcare Proxy​
What is a Healthcare Proxy?
The New York Health Care Proxy Law allows you to appoint someone you trust, like a family member or close friend, to make health care decisions for you if you lose the ability to make decisions yourself. By appointing a health care agent, you can make sure that health care providers follow your wishes. Your agent can also decide how your wishes apply as your medical condition changes. Hospitals, doctors and other health care providers must follow your agent’s decisions as if they were your own. The proxy you did that surgery is only good for that facility. It cannot be used anywhere else in the world or with any other provider. You may give the person you select as your health care agent as little or as much authority as you want. You may allow your agent to make all health care decisions or only certain ones. You may also give your agent instructions that he or she has to follow. This form can also be used to document your wishes or instructions with regard to organ and/or tissue donation.
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When is the right time to prepare a Healthcare Proxy document?
The right time ​to prepare a Healthcare Proxy document is when you are still of sound mind and body. Once you are no longer capable of caring for your own affairs, you are also not capable of preparing the Healthcare Proxy document with an attorney. What does this mean? Answer: About $10,000 dollars in cost to have a guardian appointed and a year or more of delay! Accidents and unexpected illness happen to the young, the aged, and those who don't expect it. The time to act is now.
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To protect your interests, and life and death issues, and the interests of your loved ones, you need at least four documents:
* Healthcare Proxy
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LET'S MOVE FORWARD!
Gather up all the documents you can find including bank statements, 401K papers, home and automobile titles, and any other documents you can locate. Then contact Keith Weidman to schedule an appointment.
Let my 35 years of experience put your mind at ease.
Keith Weidman, Esq.