The practice of medicine involves a lot of paperwork, and not just for doctors. Even if they’re already stacking piles of co-pay bills, benefits estimate statements and reminder cards for long-past ...

States generally allow a person (principal) to appoint another person (agent) to make health care decisions, receive protected health information, or both on the principal’s behalf. In many states, ...

Christy Bieber has a JD from UCLA School of Law and began her career as a college instructor and textbook author. She has been writing full time for over a decade with a focus on making financial and ...

Learn how a psychiatric advance directive empowers you to dictate your treatment preferences and medication history before a crisis occurs.

More and more Americans say they want a “good” death, which usually means dying peacefully at home, surrounded by loved ones. Documents called advance directives can help them achieve that goal by ...

An advance directive gives instructions on the kind of medical care you would like to receive should you become unable to express your wishes yourself, and it often designates someone to make medical ...

Two main types of advance directives are living wills and healthcare power of attorney. These are legal documents that outline a person’s preferences regarding major medical decisions. An advance ...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people unexpectedly needed critical care such as ventilators but were unable to communicate their end-of-life wishes to their loved ones. Researchers like me, who ...

When Terri Schiavo died in the national spotlight in 2005, after lingering in a vegetative state for 15 years, interest in living wills -- one form of advance medical directives that allow people to ...

In our last article, we shared about a friend’s court battle to become the legal medical decision-maker for her father who was suffering from cognitive decline. Although it was a necessary step to ...

CNN — Dr. Ami Mac was hospitalized in March with symptoms identical to Covid-19. The 44-year-old doctor in Palo Alto, California, has an underlying immune deficiency, but has "never had shortness of ...