Hi everybody! It's Andy and welcome to my
office in Los Altos, California. I'm an
attorney licensed to practice law in
California as well as New York. In this
video I'm going to go over California
Advanced Healthcare Directives. Now if
you're like most people, you probably
have no idea what an Advanced Healthcare
Directive is so I'll explain the idea to
you like this. So a while ago I put out a
video that goes over Powers of Attorney.
I'll go ahead and link that video right
over here in case you haven't seen it
already, but that video obviously, I guess,
goes over the California Powers of
Attorney, but if you take the idea of a
power of attorney just kind of generally
kind of, you know, in the abstract, the
basic idea is that a power of attorney
is a document that you sign that gives
decision-making authority that you
normally would exercise over yourself
and gives that authority to somebody else
for some reason. A common reason why you
might do would be let's say that
you're getting older and you find that
you're getting more forgetful so to make
sure that all your bills are paid on
time, that, you know, you don't get in to
trouble with the IRS, for example, you
might give decision-making authority
over finances -- called a Financial Power
of Attorney -- to somebody else to make
sure that, you know, you don't run in to
trouble financially. That idea of giving
over authority from you to somebody else
or, I guess, phrase alternatively the idea
of receiving authority from somebody
else to act on their behalf, that idea in
California applies in two contexts: (1)
there's the financial context where, you
know, you might have decision-making
authority over somebody's bank account,
over somebody's retirement account, over
their business, over, you know, real estate
that they own, things like that, and (2) it
also applies to health. So the thing is, you
know, let's say that it's something where,
you know, you're going in to a hospital
for surgery and the hospital wants to
know 'Okay what do we do, who do you want
to speak for you, who do you want us to take
decision, like directions, I guess, from in
the event that you're in a coma, in the
event that you, you know, can't be, you
know, woken up, I guess, like you know if
you're permanently vegetative, who do you
want us to take instructions from.
Speaking of that actually, the most
common situation, I think, that most
normal people will kind of encounter
this will be if you go into the hospital
for surgery of some kind. Every hospital
that I've ever kind of dealt with, if you
go into hospital at all, they will want a
advanced healthcare directive to
basically prepare themselves if, you know,
something bad happens and you die, you
become comatose, etc. So regardless of the
situation in which you encounter it, the
terminology used - Power of Attorney for
Healthcare, Advanced Healthcare
Directive - I've also heard it called a
Living Will - not sure if that's an
antiquated term now - but Living Will,
Advanced Healthcare Directive, Power of
Attorney for Healthcare, regardless of
what you call it, the authorizing law in
California is the same. So it's
California Probate Code section 4670
which, as always, I will go ahead and
paste and link down below in the
description for you. 4670 authorizes
the idea of a document that you can sign
that gives decision-making authority
over your health to somebody else. What
kind of health decisions can this
document cover? That's going to be in
California Probate Code section 4671(b),
which I will also paste and link down
below, but if you read 4671(b), it's
very general. It basically says decisions
related to "personal care" whatever that,
you know, means in a particular situation,
can be delegated. 4671(b) also includes a
non-inclusive list, for example, you know,
where the person will live - the person
who gives the authority, I mean, the
principal - where the principal will live,
what kind of recreation the principal,
you know, will engage in, what kind of
food the principal wants to eat, things
like that. A better kind of way to look
at this, I think, which is also related to
a common question is, what, you know, is
their sample, I guess, like 'What kind of
stuff can I put in a power of attorney
for health care? Is there a sample that I
can basically look at? And the answer to
that question about the sample, that is,
can be answered yes in two ways. So the
first way to answer the
question yes, basically, is the Veterans
Administration in the United States, the
VA, they put out a template form that
they use if you go into their hospitals.
And if you want to look that up yourself
that's VA form 10-0137, which I'll write
over here as well as paste and link down
below for you. It's a PDF you can go
ahead and download the VA
template form for free. You can use it as
a guide. So if you read over that section
it goes over a lot of stuff about like,
you know, organ donation. I think,
if I remember correctly, it allows
you to specify what you want donated,
what purposes, you know, you want, you know,
your organs donated for. What else? It
goes over, you know, care that you want to
get if you end up in a vegetative state.
It goes over what kind of pain
management care you want. So it's much
more, kind of, real world useful, I guess,
than something where it's like 'Okay well,
you know, personal care decisions can be
delegated.' Nobody knows what that means.
The VA sample, the VA template rather, is
actually much more useful in the real
world, I think. So, if the VA form is not
useful for you for whatever reason, the
California Probate Code actually has a
sample Advanced Healthcare Directive in
it and that's California Probate Code
section 4701 which, as always, over here
and pasted and linked down below. So if the
VA template doesn't work for you, you
can't find another, you know, template or
sample that is to your liking, go ahead
and take a look at the statutory one in
4701 and, you know, if you print it out
and look at it and kind of format it, etc.,
cross things out, you know, add things, etc.,
hopefully you can get a version that is,
you know, useful for you. So, I guess, the
take aways for this video. Number one is
that an Advanced Healthcare Directive
is basically a power of attorney for
health care. You can determine what, you
know, decision-making authority you
want to give to somebody else in the
event that you cannot care for yourself
in terms of health, well-being, etc. If
you want samples which, I think samples,
you know, are probably going to be
the most useful real
world things for the average person, the
Veterans Administration in the United
States has a really great template
sample, I guess, that you can go ahead and
look at. Modify it if you want, you
know, use it as is if you want. California
Probate Code section 4701 also has a
fantastic, you know, sample, I guess, that
you can use. So hopefully all that made
sense. Go ahead and like this
video. Share, comment, subscribe all that
nice stuff and I will talk to you guys
next time. Thanks