Healthcare Directives in Minnesota
Serving Clients Throughout The Twin Cities and the State of Minneapolis
By having a health care directive, your family can avoid spending thousands of dollars on a costly guardianship proceeding if you become incapacitated and cannot make medical decisions for yourself.
A Minnesota health care directive is a legal document that allows you to name someone else to make health care decisions for you if you are incapacitated and unable to do so yourself. A health care directive is only valid while you are living. In Minnesota, health care directives were formerly known as living wills, durable powers of attorney for health care, or health care powers of attorney. Some states still refer to health care directives by those names. In Minnesota, we now just call them health care directives.
Who should you name as your health care agent?
You may have multiple health care agents listed in succession. You may list joint agents, but that is generally not advisable. You don’t want to put your family in a situation where a judge serves as the tiebreaker. All of your agents must be 18 years of age or older. Your attending physician may not be your health care agent unless that physician is related by blood, marriage, adoption, domestic partnership or unless you specify in your health care directive that you want your attending health care provider to act as agent and your reasons for doing so. Lastly, an individual who has been appointed to determine whether you are incapacitated may not serve as your health care agent.
Duties of a health care agent in Minnesota
Your health care agent has a duty to “act in good faith.” Your agent must act consistent with any directions found in your health care directive. If the information contained in your health care directive is insufficient, the agent must act in your best interests. “Best interests” means a consideration of your overall health condition, your prognosis, and your personal values to the extent they are known by the agent.
