Five Wishes

With or without the COVID-19 pandemic, most people should have three key health-related decisions documented: advanced directives, a health care proxy, and the HIPAA privacy authorization.

What are advanced directives?

Advanced directives, also known as a living will allows someone to state their wishes regarding certain kinds of medical treatments, as well as life-prolonging and end-of-life procedures. These directives typically take effect if someone cannot communicate their own health care decisions. The benefit of a living will is that it helps ensure health care wishes are carried out so that family members are not in the position of having to make difficult decisions on their own.

What is a health care proxy?

A health care proxy grants authority to another person to make medical decisions on a person's behalf when that person is not able to communicate decisions on their own. The health care proxy ends when the person granting authority revokes it or dies.

What is HIPPA authorization?

A Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) authorization is a legal document that allows an individual’s health information to be used or disclosed to a third party, typically the individual named as health care POA. This waiver can be customized to some extent, allowing for sharing some information while keeping other information private.

The Five Wishes takes care of all three health related decisions in one document. Five Wishes, America’s most popular living will, is changing the way people talk about, and plan for, care at the end of life. More than 18 million copies of Five Wishes are in circulation across the nation, distributed by more than 35,000 organizations. This document meets the legal requirements in 42 states, including New York, and is useful in all 50 states.

Playfair Planning Services has partnered with Aging with Dignity to provide our clients with complimentary editable versions of the Five Wishes. Written in everyday language, you can make your Five Wishes legally known through an easy-to-use advance directive document. Click here for a sample.

Wish 1: The Person I Want To Make Health Care Decisions For Me When I Can't Make Them For Myself

Wish 2: The Kind Of Medical Treatment I Want Or Don't Want

Wish 3: How Comfortable I Want To Be

Wish 4: How I Want People To Treat Me

Wish 5: What I Want My Loved Ones To Know

Please take the time to share your Five Wishes with the friends and family.

For more information on how a Five Wishes document can complement your financial household, contact us.

Playfair Planning

Call: (718) 629-5898

Email: KBourne@PlayfairPlanning.com

Already have a code to receive your Healthcare Proxy, click here.