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Advance directive and healthcare proxy

Who speaks for you when you cannot, and the form that is supposed to travel with you.

Advance directive and healthcare proxyWhat the advance healthcare directive and the healthcare proxy each do, why a DNR and a POLST are different things, and the three ways these documents fail.Five minutesFive Wishes documentWhat the publisher claims about legal validity, the three different versions of that claim on its own websites, and the free state form that does the legal work.Six minutesPOLST formWhy paramedics can act on this and not on your advance directive, who it is actually for, and the reason a healthy adult should not have one.Six minutesHIPAA authorization form: how to let doctors talk to familyThe six elements a valid authorization needs, what HIPAA already allows without one, and which document unlocks which conversation.Seven minutesPalliative care vs hospicePalliative care needs no six-month prognosis and does not require giving up treatment. The difference that gets people help years earlier, and the words to ask for it.Five minutesWhat does hospice actually provide? Is it 24/7?Services are available around the clock. A nurse in the house around the clock is a different thing, paid at a different rate, for a crisis. What a normal week looks like, and who does the rest.Seven minutes

Other topics

Power of attorneyAfter a death checklistCremation costs and planningAging parents and caregivingWills and estate planningFuneral preplanningCemetery plots and burialDigital legacy and emergency planning

Reading is not the work. Writing it down is.

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