Planning in Advance for Your Medical Treatment
Ensure that your wishes about treatment will be followed by planning in advance.
Know your rights! In New York State, appointing someone you can trust to make health care decisions on your behalf is the best way to protect your wishes.
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Advance Directives ensure that your wishes about treatment will be followed if you become unable to decide for yourself. Learn about the different types of directives you can sign to secure your health care wishes are followed.
By appointing a health care agent, you can make sure that health care providers follow your wishes. Your agent can also decide how your wishes apply as your medical condition changes.
The Family Health Care Decisions Act was adopted in New York State in 2010 to provide for the appointment of a “surrogate” or decision-maker in the case where a patient lacks the capacity to make his or her own decisions and does not have a health care proxy.