Video Summary
Who should I appoint as my healthcare surrogate? First, what is a healthcare surrogate? A healthcare surrogate is someone you appoint to make healthcare decisions for you and usually in the healthcare surrogate form, it’s whenever you’re unable to make healthcare decisions. That person should be someone who is close to you and understands your desires and wishes, certainly your spouse would be, I would think primary. If you don’t have a spouse or significant other, if you have a child that is particularly nurturing or helps you with your medical problems or appointments and is aware of it, I think that they would be a great candidate. Also if you have any one of your children or family or friends who are nurses who are involved in the healthcare profession.
I also put in, whenever I designate or fill out the healthcare surrogate form, what they call a HIPPA waiver, because this person will be the one that will be the point person for your relatives and friends who want to know how you’re doing, because the medical community cannot release information to anyone without a HIPPA waiver. We usually attach a HIPPA waiver to your healthcare surrogate form so that they will release medical information to your healthcare surrogate. Hopefully, that will give you some sort of guidelines. Certainly don’t name the healthcare surrogate as the same person as your Power of Attorney who will handle financial matters and that you would want to designate someone that has a little more business expertise and that may not be the same person.
If you would like to have a healthcare surrogate done or some estate planning, give me a call at 727-847-2288. Thank you.