Choosing Your Health Care Agent
Will the person also be your financial agent? If you make a durable power of attorney for finances to name someone to manage your finances in case you become incapacitated, it's usually wise to name the same person as both your agent for health care and your agent for finances.
If you feel that you must name different people, be sure you name agents who get along well and will be able to work together. You wouldn't, for example, want your agent for finances to interfere with your health care wishes by stalling or resisting payment of medical or insurance bills, two things over which your agent for finances will most likely have control.
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| Don't Name a Health Care Provider as Your Agent | In almost all cases, your agent should not be your doctor or an employee of a hospital or nursing home where you receive treatment. In fact, the laws in many states prevent you from naming such a person to make decisions for you. If your spouse or partner works as a hospital employee, that alone may bar you from naming that person. If the law in your state bans your first choice of agent, you will have to name another person to serve. However, some states allow you to name a health care provider if that person is related to you, or if you and that person both work at the same health care institution. |
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Naming More Than One Agent
Though you are legally permitted to name more than one person to make health care decisions for you, you should name only one agent when you make your power of attorney for health care. This is true even if you know two or more people who are suitable candidates and who agree to undertake the job together.
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