If you become unable to make your own health care decisions, your agent will have legal authority to make health care decisions for you. Your agent must make decisions that are consistent with any instructions you have written in the Advance Health Care Directive form or otherwise made known to your agent. Physicians and other health care professionals will look to your agent for decisions rather than your next of kin or any other person.

If you become unable, even temporarily, to make health care decisions, someone else must decide for you. Health care providers often look to family members for guidance. Family members may express what they think your wishes are related to a particular treatment. However, in New York State, only a health care agent you appoint has the legal authority to make treatment decisions if you are unable to decide for yourself.

Anyone 18 years of age or older can be a health care agent. The person you are appointing as your agent or your alternate agent cannot sign as a witness on your Health Care Proxy form.

All competent adults, 18 years of age or older, can appoint a health care agent by signing a form called a Health Care Proxy. You don't need a lawyer or a notary, just two adult witnesses. Your agent cannot sign as a witness. You can use the form printed here, but you don't have to use this form.

Your health care agent would begin to make health care decisions after your doctor decides that you are not able to make your own health care decisions. As long as you are able to make health care decisions for yourself, you will have the right to do so.

Unless you limit your health care agent's authority, your agent will be able to make any health care decision that you could have made if you were able to decide for yourself. Your agent can agree that you should receive treatment, choose among different treatments and decide that treatments should not be provided, in accordance with your wishes and interests.

Your agent must follow your wishes, as well as your moral and religious beliefs. You may write instructions on your Health Care Proxy form or simply discuss them with your agent.

Having an open and frank discussion about your wishes with your health care agent will put him or her in a better position to serve your interests. If your agent does not know your wishes or beliefs, your agent is legally required to act in your best interest.

You may appoint an alternate agent to decide for you if your health care agent is unavailable, unable or unwilling to act when decisions must be made. Otherwise, health care providers will make health care decisions for you that follow instructions you gave while you were still able to do so. Any instructions that you write on your Health Care Proxy form will guide health care providers under these circumstances.

Appointing a health care agent is a good idea even though you are not elderly or terminally ill. A health care agent can act on your behalf if you become even temporarily unable to make your own health care decisions (such as might occur if you are under general anesthesia or have become comatose because of an accident). When you again become able to make your own health care decisions, your health care agent will no longer be authorized to act.

No. Your agent is obligated to make decisions based on your wishes. If you clearly expressed particular wishes, or gave particular treatment instructions, your agent has a duty to follow those wishes or instructions unless he or she has a good faith basis for believing that your wishes changed or do not apply to the circumstances.

No. Your health care agent will not be liable for health care decisions made in good faith on your behalf. Also, he or she cannot be held liable for costs of your care, just because he or she is your agent.

No. The power of a health care agent to make health care decisions on your behalf ends upon your death. Noting your wishes on your Health Care Proxy form allows you to clearly state your wishes about organ and tissue donation.

You can appoint almost any adult to be your agent. You can choose a member of your family such as your spouse or an adult child, a friend, or someone else you trust. You can also appoint one or more "alternate agents" in case the person you select as your health care agent is unavailable or unwilling to make a decision. The law prohibits you from choosing certain people to act as your agent(s).

This is a very important question. Whomever you decide to name as your agent under your durable power of attorney for health care, it should be someone you know very well. It should also be someone you respect and someone who’s judgment you value. Moreover, the person you name as your agent should be somewhat knowledgeable about medical issues, although it’s not necessary that this person have any medical training.

Under HIPAA, a 'Public Health Authority' refers to "an agency or authority of the United States, a State or territory, a political subdivision of a State or territory, or an Indian tribe, or a person or entity acting under a grant of authority from or contract with such public agency, including the employees or agents of such public agency or its contractors or persons or entities to whom it has granted authority, that is responsible for public health matters as part of its official mandate.

Choose someone who knows your values and wishes, and whom you trust to make decisions for you. Do the same for a successor agent. Ask both to be sure they understand and agree to be your agent. You may, but do not have to, choose a family member to be your agent. Regardless of your choice, your agent should be someone who will be available if needed and who will decide matters the way you would decide. Name only one person each as your agent and your successor agent.

You may give very general instructions and preferences, or be quite specific. It would be helpful to your agent to have directions from you about life-prolonging intervention, particularly medically administered food and water (tube feedings), cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), the use of machines to help you breathe, and organ and tissue donation.

You can make your specific wishes known to your health care agent in a conversation or in a separate personal wishes statement. You will not be able to consider every possible situation that might require your agent to act on your behalf, but you should let your agent know how you feel about those conditions, illnesses and treatments that concern you the most.

Advance Care Plan provides directions to your doctor on how you want to be treated if you are terminally ill or permanently unconscious and unable to make decisions for yourself. An Advance Care Plan tells your doctor what you do not want unless you write in other specific instructions. It is a written record of decisions that you have made yourself.

The managing agent has no authority except as conferred by the Board of Directors. The managing agent does not make decisions; it implements the decisions of the Board.

Yes. Generally speaking, a principal can give an agent the authority to do any act that the principal could do on his or her own, unless prohibited by public policy or a contractual obligation. Although the laws governing a power of attorney are still evolving and each state is free to determine its own rules, the following acts are generally not permitted by an agent on behalf of a principal:

The universal health coverage in the UK is known as the National Health Service, or NHS. According to a 1990 source, you are entitled to NHS coverage if: In my case (as an employed person in category 4), monthly payments towards NHS are taken out of my pay like a tax. This amount is $186 a month in my case. So I wouldn't exactly call it free, but it gives me medical coverage (there is no bill to settle when I visit a doctor) and covers drugs (e xcept for a nominal fee of $6.

No. A living will is a document that provides specific instructions about health care decisions. You may put such instructions on your Health Care Proxy form. The Health Care Proxy allows you to choose someone you trust to make health care decisions on your behalf. Unlike a living will, a Health Care Proxy does not require that you know in advance all the decisions that may arise.

CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine. This may include chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, nutrition, yoga, pilates, ect. The list of what is considered to be CAM changes continually, as those therapies that are proven to be safe and effective become adopted into conventional health care and as new approaches to health care emerge.

All U of I and IEI students must have health insurance. You can either purchase the student health insurance offered through the university or arrange health insurance from your home country. If you don't already have private insurance when you register, you will be charged for student insurance. Most students decide to use the student health insurance.

Because he/she is not an employee of insurance company, the independent agent can more objectively recommend the best health insurance company for your situation. In addition, an independent agent will be familiar with insurance company bureaucracies, which can save you a lot of aggravation. Further, if your circumstances change, an independent health insurance agent can recommend a more appropriate health insurance plan for you. Each health insurance company has its own specific wording.