Looking for help with your Massachusetts estate planning? One of the most commonly-used documents include a healthcare proxy.
Healthcare Proxy Basics
Your healthcare proxy agent is the person you enable to make decisions on your behalf related to healthcare if you become unable to do so. Remember that you maintain the right to make your own healthcare decision unless you become incapacitated.
If you don’t lay out a person to step into this role, critical questions about your care might be left up in the air if you were to become suddenly disabled or unable to make these decisions on your own.
A healthcare proxy is a legally recognized agent in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts so long as your healthcare proxy document is valid. Once you create a healthcare proxy with the help of your estate planning attorney, it’s a good idea to provide copies to a few key people: any hospitals that might treat you as a patient, your primary care physician, and to the agent you name on that document.
A conversation with a healthcare proxy agent helps to determine whether or not the person you choose is comfortable serving in this position. Since this role can include making medical decisions on your behalf, this agent should be familiar with your opinions and feelings regarding your health or medical care.
If you choose a healthcare proxy agent outside of your family, be prepared that this could cause possible tension with your relatives. However, you always maintain the right to enable the person that you want in the role of healthcare proxy.
