Elder Law - Medicaid Planning - Wills - Trusts - Probate - Guardianship
|
|
|
Elder Law - Medicaid Planning - Wills - Trusts - Probate - Guardianship |
New Oklahoma Health Care Legislation On May 17, 2006, new Oklahoma health care legislation became effective. The new law can be downloaded from www.OSCN.net (Legal Research, Oklahoma Session Laws, 2006 (Expand), § 171 [SB 1624]). A copy of the new Oklahoma health care law can be accessed at: http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=446080 The new law does away with the "Oklahoma Rights of the Terminally Ill or Persistently Unconscious Act" now creating the "Oklahoma Advance Directive Act." It also creates a new state form of Advance Directive for Health Care. Therefore, the prior 1992 (amended in 1995) Oklahoma Advance Directive for Health Care statutory form which we have all been using and which is available from caseworkers at most hospitals and nursing homes, online and also at public libraries is now obsolete and ineffective. The new form, in our opinion, is poorly worded. The new law and the statutory form assume that all Oklahomans want to be kept alive indefinitely with a feeding tube. Our experience is that over 99% of our clients (and none of our family members) want to be kept alive indefinitely with a feeding tube unless they will have quality of life. More importantly, we want those people who know us best, our family and friends, to be in control of any medical decisions, particularly involving life support or feeding tubes. However, this new law puts two doctors in control of whether or not your family or friends, or whoever you want to be in control, can make decisions for you in case you are not able to make the decision for yourself. We want our families in full control. Physicians, particularly at the end of life, may be strangers. They may not know you or your desires or wishes. For our clients, we have made appropriate revisions to the state form to counter-act these poorly drafted provisions. If you are a lawyer who has clients signing estate planning documents, you should spend time analyzing how you want to modify this state form to be what your clients want. If you are not a lawyer and need to sign this state form of living will, then you may want to consider the following revisions: Part I. Living Will If you want your proxy to truly
be in control, you may want to cross through the first part of the first
sentence, " There are three options which need to be read carefully and initialed by the option you want. These options are confusing the way they are worded. If you do not want to be kept alive with a feeding tube when you no longer have quality of life, you need to initial the middle option (the second one of the three) on paragraphs 1 through 3. On paragraph 4, write in: "I want my Health Care Proxy to be in charge of all medical decisions, including feeding tube decisions. Do not keep me alive with a feeding tube when death becomes a blessing." Part II. My Appointment of My Health Care Proxy Again, if you want your proxy to
truly be in control, you may want to cross through the first part of the
first sentence, " III. Anatomical Gifts Although many people are not inclined to make declarations regarding anatomical gifts of their organs or body, we believe that you should give your family the complete authority with regard to this issue. Medical technology is changing rapidly. We have no idea what the situation will be if you die next year or five or ten years from now. Although you may be opposed to donating your body for research, if your child is discovered to have a genetic defect which could be benefited by research on your body, you might feel differently. Therefore, let your family be in control of these decisions. You can check the box for "My entire body" and write beside it, "Let my family decide if this would be beneficial to anyone." Part IV. General Provisions Draw a line through paragraph g. You may have really good prior directives you do not want revoked. Final Considerations: In addition to signing this Oklahoma state form of Advanced Directive, carefully revised, you should also sign a very good Durable Health Care Power of Attorney that is currently effective and which has a separate paragraph which "... specifically authorizes the withholding or withdrawal of artificially administered nutrition and/or hydration in the declarant’s own words or by a separate section, separate paragraph, or other separate subdivision that deals only with nutrition and/or hydration and which section, paragraph, or other subdivision is separately initialed, separately signed, or otherwise separately marked by the declarant." 63 O.S. Supp. 2006 §3101.4.B. If you are a lawyer, read and carefully follow 58 O.S. §1071-1077 for preparing a Durable Health Care Power of Attorney for you and your clients. If you are not a lawyer, you should go to an Elder Law Attorney or estate planning attorney who has quality Power of Attorney documents and who will draft documents specifically for you. Every person, regardless of how young or how old, should have an excellent set of enhanced Power of Attorney documents for financial matters and health care. This will save your family a lot of money and frustration in the event of your disability, or if you should ever need Medicaid planning for long-term care. About 85% of us will be disabled for over a month before we die. Lee M. Holmes is available to speak to your group or organization about Powers of Attorney, end of life decision making and Medicaid planning. If you would like to receive this newsletter via fax, please let us know by e-mailing us at info@medicaidoklahoma.com If you would like to view our archive listing of previous Newsletters please click here.
|
||||
|