Federal law requires hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, hospices, home health agencies, and health maintenance organizations (HMOs) serving persons covered by either Medicare of Medicaid to give you information about Advance Directives. The facility must tell you about your legal right to have an Advance Directive and to refuse any medical care you do not want.
Every state, the District of Columbia, and United States Commonwealth or Territory has laws which let people have Advance Directives. However, the laws are not the same in every state. If you spend a great deal of time in a state other than your home state, you may want to have your Advance Directive meet the laws of both states, as much as it can. Or you may wish to have a separate Advance Directive for each state where you think you might go for medical care.
While the laws are not the same in each state, the basic rule of doing what the patient wants is the same. In most cases, both a Living Will and a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care are papers which must be signed by you and by two other adults (witnesses). These two adults must watch you sign the paper, and the paper must be dated at the time you sign it.
Your state may have its own Living Will form which you can get from the Office of your State Attorney General. The office telephone number is in the blue pages of your telephone directory. Community organizations may also have forms which you can fill out and sign.
If you plan to write your own Living Will or Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, find out what the laws are in the state where you may be a patient. After you know what the laws are, you are ready to start writing your Advance Directive. To help you decide what to say in it, you may wish to talk with family members, close friends, your doctor, your lawyer, or another trusted person such as your minister.