What is Health Care Proxy?

What is Health Care Proxy?

In helping you decide what health care options to choose, you need the best agent. That agent will help you understand everything and will inform you about the things that you should know. It is usually the insurance provider who will designate the agent that will listen and help you, but because of an instrument known as health care proxy, it became possible for you to assign a specific agent who will be your agent for a long time.

A health care proxy is basically a formal document signed by you stating your final appointment of a healthcare agent, who will be your agent for your health care decisions.

Who could be the healthcare agent?

Not all people can act as agents, since some institutions do not even allow physicians to be agents. If this would be the case, it is safer to choose an agent that is close to you already.

What can the agent/proxy do?

The primary reason why agents are being assigned into, is because of the inability of the individual to make proper assessments and decide things for his or her own health care. The agent even has the right to decide whether to remove or sustain the machines that keeps the individual alive. But this is of course based on what the agent believed as the “want” of the individual. The agent will not be held as liable if in case something wrong happens, since he or she is making decisions on behalf of the individual, provided that he is in good faith and the decisions are approved by the individual.

In cases wherein the individual no longer wants to have a proxy, he or she can immediately cancel its powers and the agent can do nothing on it even if he or she objects to the decision.

The Healthcare Proxy Form

In the United States, most states allow the application of proxies for health care services. Some require the individual to answer a form, but some may also not. The form usually requires the following information.

  • Complete name of the agent
  • Complete address of the agent
  • Duration of the time the proxy can take actions (you may not fill this up if you do not want to fix a particular date)
  • Special instructions (limitations can be stated here)
  • Witnesses (at least 2)
  • A lawyer must be present, that executes a durable power of attorney for health care and medical power of attorney
  • A copy should be kept by the individual and copies must be given to the agent, the spouse, some close friends, and the health care provider.

 How to Apply For Proxy?

If you have determined that you truly need an agent, you can start your search for proxy health care who accepts proxies. If you already found the right provider, you can then use the internet to find online forms for proxy application. Plenty of online form automatically creates a health care proxy so for sure you will not find it hard to finish your application.

See Also Universal Health Care in Different Countries:


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