New Florida & Federal Laws Can Benefit You

Florida Designation of Healthcare Surrogate Law

You may know that this document allows you to name a trusted person to make your healthcare decisions if you are temporarily or permanently incapacitated and unable to give informed medical consent. It allows your medical decisions to be made privately without court involvement. Now you have the following choices:

1. The authority of your medical decision-maker can start immediately or
2. The authority of your medical decision-maker becomes effective only when your physician examines you and determines that you cannot give informed consent and
3. The ability of your medical decision-maker to obtain your healthcare information can start immediately or
4. The ability of your medical decision-maker to obtain your healthcare information can start only if you are incapacitated.
5. This new law is effective October 1, 2015. Any Designation of Healthcare Surrogate signed prior to October 1st is still valid. If you would like to take advantage of the new law have your document updated.

Medicare to Pay for End of Life Planning Discussions with Your Physician
Starting Jan. 1, Medicare will reimburse physician discussions with patients about end-of-life treatment options.

• The new regulation requires only that Medicare cover end-of-life consultations for patients who want it.
• The “voluntary advance care planning” as it referred to will take place during annual wellness visits.
• The new Medicare rule will pay for elective annual discussions about end-of-life plans, which can, in turn, be used to prepare an advance directive stating what treatments a patient would want and treatments they would not want.

Maintain privacy, avoid guardianship and probate. Call our office at 954-382-1997 to schedule a consultation to discuss your estate and healthcare planning goals. Properly drafter estate & incapacity documents and advance directives will give you peace of mind.

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