NC Health Care Power of Attorney and Living Will Revised
The North Carolina Legislature has revised (long overdue, in my opinion) the statutory Health Care Power of Attorney (HCPOA) and Declaration of a Desire for a Natural Death forms. The Living Will (LW) is now called "Advanced Directive for a Natural Death." Both forms offer more choices in terms of treatment options, etc., and allow one to designate whether or not the agent under the HCPOA can override the instructions in the LW.
Since these new forms are improvements on the old ones, I recommend that everyone execute a new HCPOA and LW, as well as a separate Authorization for Disclosure of Protected Health Care Information under HIPAA. These are important legal documents, so it's a good idea to consult with your attorney and physician prior to signing them. It is also important to make sure that the strict witnessing and notarization requirements are met.
Thanks again for taking the time to post your blog and all of the informative comments . There was a recent article ,may 4th, in the LA times discussing the problems with durable powers of attorney and fianacial firms. It seems that some financial firms may not accept the durable powers for various reasons. My question is are there any written provisions people should have contained in their powers to help with this problem? I know many have not updated their documents in many years and wanted your thoughts on what language should the power of attorney contain? Also is there any NC law that says if certain language is contained in the durable power a financial firm must accept it? Thanks again Michael.
ANSWER: Many states, including North Carolina, now have laws requiring powers of attorney to be accepted and providing for penalties for unreasonable refusal to do so. However, such laws do not negate the advantage of having updated, comprehensive powers of attorney. I would advise anyone with a POA over five years old to have a new one prepared.