Revoking or Changing Your Healthcare Proxy: When and How to Do It

What is a Healthcare Proxy?

According to the New York State Assembly, the Health Care Proxy Law “allows you to sign a ‘health care proxy‘ and name your ‘health care agent.’

This law provides the ability to name a person in charge of your healthcare decisions should you not be able to make them yourself. For example, if you have dementia or have serious injuries that don’t allow you to make medical decisions for yourself, your healthcare agent can step in and make them for you.

Benefit of a Healthcare Proxy

This law is essential as it allows you to maintain control of who you wish to have making your medical decisions if you are unable. Ideally you will have communicated with this person regarding what measures you approve of to save your life or preserve functions (and/or have provided direction in a Living Will). A healthcare proxy can also communicate and enact other medical wishes, such as whether or not you choose to be an organ or tissue donor. Generally speaking, you can authorize your healthcare agent to have as much or as little control over your medical care as you wish.

Who Should Be My Healthcare Agent?

There are several aspects to consider when choosing your healthcare agent. They must be competent, of sound mind, and at least 18 years of age. The candidate must also be someone you feel comfortable discussing your wishes and concerns with and be entirely trustworthy to ensure they follow your wishes.

The person you choose must also be able to navigate challenging conversations with family, friends, and medical staff regarding your wishes and choices for medical care. Confusion, conflicting opinions, and distress can quickly occur during a medical emergency, and this person must be able to handle these conversations and focus on the priorities without fail.

Will this person be local to me until I need them? Location is another aspect to consider. If you choose a healthcare agent and they move a significant distance away in the future, it will be difficult for them to handle their responsibilities, or they may no longer want to because of the distance. It is important to understand whether or not the person you choose is willing to travel to maintain their duties as your healthcare agent should they (or you) move in the future.

The weight of some of the decisions that may need to be made may be too much for some. It is essential to consider the stress that this person may endure and be confident they can handle it. It is important that you have communicated your wishes to your health care agent, so that they can be confident that they are making the decisions you would have made. The person should also be someone you trust to make decisions about medical issues that you may not have thought to discuss with them in advance.

Common Reasons to Revoke or Change Your Healthcare Proxy

As life evolves, so do our needs and the people that remain in our lives. You may have significant changes to your family, such as death or divorce, that may prompt you to change your mind about your previously selected healthcare agent.

You may have witnessed a significant emergency or change in the health of someone you love, and this experience may prompt you to rethink who you have designated as your healthcare agent.

You may have moved to another state, or your healthcare agent may have moved away since the proxy was created, making you wish to change the healthcare agent. It is important to note that if you move out of state, you should ensure that your current healthcare proxy is recognized and enforceable in the state that you move to.

How Do I Revoke or Change My Healthcare Proxy?

If you choose to make changes or revoke your healthcare proxy, you can simply fill out a new form and destroy the original. You can notify your current healthcare agent, but it is unnecessary. However, several people choose to inform their preferred healthcare providers to ensure there is no confusion in the future. You can also supply these providers with a revised healthcare proxy to convey the change.

If you are legally separated or divorced, and your spouse was listed as your healthcare agent, their rights will be terminated at the time of the legal separation or divorce. By stipulating this information within the proxy paperwork, you can override this and ensure they remain your healthcare agent even after the divorce.

You may also place an expiration date on your healthcare agent’s duties. If this timeline is expressed within the paperwork and has expired, the healthcare agent will no longer have control of your medical decisions.

Another option that you may wish to consider is naming an alternative healthcare agent. By doing so, if your primary healthcare agent isn’t available or can’t make medical decisions for you, the alternative agent can step in and handle the responsibilities for you.

An Important Step in Estate Planning

Establishing a comprehensive estate plan is one of the most caring and thoughtful processes you can complete. It allows for less confusion and questions when your family needs clarity and peace. Think of it as an extra step that you take to protect and provide for your family, even after you are gone.

Our team has over twenty years of experience dealing exclusively with estate planning and elder law. This experience and focus allow us a unique and capable perspective to ensure our clients receive the best insight and tools available to them.