Who Speaks for You When You Cannot? The Connecticut Rules Behind Naming a Health Care Representative

Adults in their forties and fifties spend a great deal of time making decisions for children and aging parents. Far fewer have settled who would make medical decisions for them. Connecticut law does not leave that question entirely blank, but its default answer is narrower than many people assume. Under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 19a-570(10), the statute ranks next of kin in order of priority: a spouse, then an adult child, a parent, an adult sibling, and a grandparent. Under § 19a-571, however, those relatives are primarily people a physician consults about the patient’s wishes. That is a different role from holding authority granted in a signed appointment.

What the Statute Requires

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 19a-576(a) allows any person eighteen or older to appoint a health care representative. The document must be signed and dated in the presence of two adult witnesses, who also sign it. The person being appointed may not serve as one of those witnesses. The model form in § 19a-577 is optional, and it contemplates naming an alternate in case the first choice is unwilling or unable to serve.

Who May Not Serve

To limit conflicts of interest in care settings, § 19a-576(d) and (e) impose the following restrictions:

• An operator, administrator, or employee of a hospital, residential care home, rest home with nursing supervision, or chronic and convalescent nursing home generally may not be appointed by a patient, resident, or applicant of that type of facility.
• An administrator or employee of a government agency that is financially responsible for a person’s medical care generally may not be appointed for that person.
• The two restrictions above do not apply when the individual is related to the person by blood, marriage, or adoption.
• A physician or advanced practice registered nurse may not serve as both the representative and the attending clinician.

When Authority Begins, and When It Ends

A signed appointment does not take effect on its own. Under § 19a-579, it becomes operative only after the document is furnished to the attending physician or advanced practice registered nurse and that clinician determines the person is incapacitated. A document that no one can locate may accomplish very little.

The rules for ending an appointment are equally deliberate. Section 19a-575a(b) generally requires that a revocation be in writing and signed by the declarant and two witnesses, while § 19a-579a permits a living will to be revoked at any time and in any manner. Section 19a-579b automatically revokes the appointment of a spouse upon divorce or legal separation unless the document specifies otherwise, a detail of particular significance for those who have remarried. Finally, § 19a-580e provides that, absent a court order or certain statutory exceptions, a health care representative’s decisions take precedence over those of a conservator.

Reviewing Your Appointment with Canton Attorneys

Many people sign this document once and never revisit it, even as marriages and family circumstances change. The Law Office of Brian S. Karpe works with individuals and families throughout the Canton area on appointments of health care representatives, living wills, and related advance directives. If you would like to discuss how these documents fit within your broader plan, we invite you to contact our Canton health care power of attorney attorneys to arrange a time to talk.

Source:

cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_368w.htm