Healthcare Directives

Ohio Healthcare Power of Attorney (HCPOA) – a document wherein, the “principal” (the person creating the document) authorizes another, the “healthcare representative” to make healthcare and medical decisions should the principal be unable to do so. Healthcare and medical decisions include, among other things, routine medical treatment, surgeries, rehabilitative treatment, long-term care nursing home admission and treatment and life-sustaining treatment. The healthcare representative can also be given authority to make end-of life decisions, consistent with the instructions in the principal’s Living Will.  

• It is very important to have a HCPOA in place while you are healthy and of sound mind.  
• Failing to have a HCPOA will necessitate the filing of a Guardianship proceeding at probate court – an expensive and time-consuming endeavor.   
• There is a misconception that a spouses already have the requisite authority to make all healthcare decisions on behalf of one another. Having a HCPOA ensures your spouse will have the necessary authority. 

Ohio Living Will – a legal document where a competent adult specifies what health care he or she wants or does not want when he or she becomes terminally ill or permanently unconscious and can no longer make decisions for himself or herself.  Your Living Will authorizes your Healthcare Represented in your HCPOA s the individual authorized to carry-out your wishes set-forth in your living will. Having a Living Will ensures that your final wishes will be carried-out while also relieving your family members from having to make the difficult decision.  

Winkler Legal, LLC is Columbus, Ohio’s Healthcare Power of Attorney and Living Will law firm.  

Winkler Legal, LLC – Where Families Come for PEACE OF MIND.