Revamped Health Care Power of Attorney in Illinois
On August 26, 2014 Governor Quinn of Illinois signed Senate Bill 3228, which amended the Illinois Power of Attorney for Health Care statute.
The form has been renamed “My Power of Attorney for Health Care” and reformatted in a Q&A style to look less like a legal document. This change came from the urge of the Illinois State Medical Society (ISMS), arguing the existing for “is confusing and uses too much technical language and requires college-level English proficiency to understand.” The new form is written at 8th and 10th grade levels. Below are some of the key provisions in the new law:
- Existing Power of Attorney for Health Care’s (PAH) are grandfathered as valid. The statute includes a savings clause, provided that the changes do not invalidate any PAH created prior to 2015.
- Statutory Form Qualification. The revised law says that “no specific format is required for the statutory health care power of attorney other than the notice must precede the form.” This is to ensure that PAH’s are not rejected due to for errors or minor edits.
- Witness Restrictions. The existing PAH requires one witness signature, but no notary. The amended statute expands the categories of persons prohibited from signing as witness to include certain licensed professionals from providing services to the principal.
- Who Can(not) Act as “Health Care Agent.” The Health Care Agent must be at least 18 years old and cannot be a health care provider or any “health care professional” who is administering health care to the patient.
- Life Sustaining Treatment. The existing law includes references and definitions for “incurable or irreversible condition,” “permanent unconsciousness” and “terminal condition.” The new law deletes these three definitions. Instead, the agent is instructed to weigh the burdens versus benefits of proposed treatments.
See Jeffrey R. Gottileb, Illinois Power of Attorney for Health Care Gets Makeover in 2015, Law Offices of Robert H. Glorch, Dec. 2, 2014.