[WSBAPT] Quick Question: Can Health Care Powers of Attorney beeffective immediately?

[Jen Doehne]

John-
I’m not sure why virtually all of the HCPOA you have seen take effect upon a Principal’s incapacity….I personally rely heavily on a POA taking effect immediately. There are two big issues to consider when drafting a springing HCPOA: 1) HIPAA: it requires that only the individual’s “Personal Representative” (hopefully their word for “Agent” haha) may obtain records…but if it is a springing POA, then the Agent is not appointed as Agent until after two physicians provide a written report of that Principal’s incapacity…but the Agent can’t obtain documents until after the Principal is declared incapacitated…. You can see the potential issue here. 2) having two physicians independently diagnose a Principal as incapacitated takes time…which may be something that the Principal doesn’t have the luxury of (example: identity being stolen).

A POA that is effective immediately is great for spouses, elderly clients, or clients with special circumstances (such as Deployment). Note that I try to impress on the clients that it is very important to choose an Agent they trust…especially if the POA is effective immediately.

That is not to say that I never use a springing POA…often I discuss this matter heavily with my healthy, younger couples, allowing them to choose with my recommendations in mind.

Good luck! Best wishes,

Jen
Jennifer Doehne, Attorney at Law, LL.M.
BEAN, GENTRY, WHEELER & PETERNELL, PLLC
910 Lakeridge Way SW
Olympia, Washington 98502
Phone: 360.357.2852  |  Fax: 360.786.6943
jdoehne at bgwp.net<mailto:jdoehne at bgwp.net>  | www.bgwp.net<http://www.bgwp.net/>

[cid:image001.jpg at 01CD1C79.4F5DF2B0]

The information contained in this e-mail message is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the recipient(s) named above.  This message may be an attorney-client communication and as such is PRIVILEGED and CONFIDENTIAL.  If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient or an agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, this serves as notice to you that you have received this document in error and that any review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message is strictly prohibited.  If you have received this communication in error, please delete the original message and any attachments, as well as all copies thereof, and notify us immediately.



From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com [mailto:wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com] On Behalf Of John Yip
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2018 10:38 AM
To: wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com
Subject: [WSBAPT] Quick Question: Can Health Care Powers of Attorney beeffective immediately?

RCW 11.125.090 seems to say "yes," but virtually all of the health care powers of attorney I have seen or drafted only take effect upon the person's incapacity.  Is there any law or major practical reason why health care powers of attorney cannot be effective immediately?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20180725/a97c18ce/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 5283 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20180725/a97c18ce/image001.jpg>