Name a Health Care Agent
Appoint a Medical Decision-Maker in an Advance Directive
Definition: Your health care agent is the person you choose to make your medical decisions if you are not able to do so. Your health care agent is appointed in your advance directive. You can also appoint an alternate agent in your advance directive in case your primary agent is not available.
A health care agent is:
- Someone you trust.
- Chosen in advance to make decisions on your behalf.
- Willing to ask questions of the health care team and advocate for your wishes.
Health care agents are also sometimes called the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (DPOA for Health Care), or the Health Care Proxy.
All advance directive forms allow for the appointment of a health care agent and have some amount of space for treatment preferences/comments. If you want to only appoint an agent without giving additional instructions about your treatment preferences, use the Appointment of a Health Care Agent form. This is still considered an advance directive form.
Benefits of Having an Agent
- Removes any possible doubt or disagreement about who you trust to make decisions for you.
- Ensures the people you choose will have access to the medical information necessary to make informed decisions.
- Allows your health care team to share information about your medical condition with the person(s) who are authorized to make treatment decisions consistent with your wishes and values.
- Authorizes your designated person to work with the health care team to figure out what to do when a specific situation arises that you did not foresee.
- If health care providers resist following your instructions, your agent will work to see that your values are honored.
You can appoint your agent in any advance directive form that you choose.
Authorities of the Health Care Agent
- Your health care agent will have the authority to make any medical decision that you would be able to make if you were able to speak for yourself. This includes:
- Consent or refuse treatments
- Consent for hospice admissions or transfer to other facilities
- Consent for a DNR/COLST Order
- Access your medical information (HIPAA release is automatically applied to health care agents)
- Request additional consultations, care-planning meetings, and file complaints on your behalf if needed.
- In the VT AD Statute: 18 V.S.A. § 9711
Obligations of the Health Care Agent
- Health care agents must use their knowledge of your goals and values to make decisions. Their decisions cannot be based on their own preferences.
- Health care agents cannot:
- Override the decisions you have made for your health care (verbally or in your advance directive)
- Change your advance directive
- Consent for you to be treated over your objection (unless you specifically give them this power in a Ulysses Clause provision)
- Make financial decisions for you
- Make medical decisions for you while you still have decision-making capacity
- In the VT AD Statute: 18 V.S.A. § 9711
More Resources & FAQs:
- Your health care agent should be someone you trust who is willing to ask questions of your health care team to get the information they need to make an informed decision.
- Your agent will need to advocate on your behalf and may need to be assertive to ensure that your preferences for medical treatment are respected and honored.
- Your agent will need to know as much as possible about your goals, wishes and values concerning medical care and treatment so that they can make decisions in situations you might not have anticipated. Select someone who knows you well or someone who understands your goals, wishes and values. Even if you aren’t sure what kinds of care and treatment you would want, it’s important to have someone you trust making decisions for you.
- Usually, people name a close friend or family member as their agent. But don’t assume that the people closest to you will “just know” what you want. The best way to spare an agent from later guilt or uncertainty about a decision they may need to make on your behalf is to talk with the agent in advance about your views on quality of life and about treatments that you know you do and do not want in various medical situations.
- Take special care to discuss with your agent your wishes regarding end-of-life medical treatment.
- Not everyone is comfortable with the responsibility of being a health care agent; therefore, it is very important to have an honest discussion with the person you want to appoint before you do so.
- Your health care agent must be 18 years of age or older.
- Your agent should be readily accessible to talk with your health care providers, either in person or by phone.
No, a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care and a health care agent are both terms to describe an individual who has been appointed by a person who has capacity to make health care decisions on their behalf in the event that they are not able.
Vermont’s Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care statute was repealed in 2005. If a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care document was executed prior to 2005 and was in accordance with the law at that time, it is still valid.
In Vermont, there is no law that outlines who will make decisions for you if you lack capacity, do not have an advance directive, and do not have a medical guardian appointed through the courts.
Health care providers will seek out people with a known close relationship to you to try to determine what you would want in the situation. If no one knows what you would want, care will be provided that is in your best interest.
You make your own medical decisions as long as you are able to do so. In general, your agent’s authority begins when you lack the capacity to make your own decisions, as determined by a clinician.
If you want your health care agent to have decision-making authority before you lose capacity, you can indicate that in your advance directive. Even then, you will always be able to make your own decisions if you choose to and have capacity. You also have the right to refuse treatment even if you lose capacity.
A health care agent is obligated to make decisions by attempting to determine what the person would have wanted in that situation. To do this, they must consider the previously stated wishes, per their advance directive (to the degree that those apply), verbal statements (to the extent that they apply), and knowledge of their goals, values, religious and moral beliefs. They are not allowed to consider their own interests, values, wishes or beliefs when making decisions for someone else.
