How Do I Revoke a Living Will?
Full Question:
Answer:
I'm assuming by DPA, you're referring to an advance medical directive, not just a general durable power of attorney. Please see the statutes below for procedures on how to revoke the directive. Please feel free to consult our attorney directory at the following link:
http://lawyers.uslegal.com/health-care/texas/
Please see the following TX statutes:
§ 166.155 HEALTH & SAFETY. Revocation
(a) A medical power of attorney is revoked by:
(1) oral or written notification at any time by the principal to the
agent or a licensed or certified health or residential care provider or
by any other act evidencing a specific intent to revoke the power,
without regard to whether the principal is competent or the principal's
mental state;
(2) execution by the principal of a subsequent medical power of
attorney; or
(3) the divorce of the principal and spouse, if the spouse is the
principal's agent, unless the medical power of attorney provides
otherwise.
(b) A principal's licensed or certified health or residential care
provider who is informed of or provided with a revocation of a medical
power of attorney shall immediately record the revocation in the
principal's medical record and give notice of the revocation to the agent
and any known health and residential care providers currently responsible
for the principal's care.
§ 166.042 HEALTH & SAFETY. Revocation of Directive
(a) A declarant may revoke a directive at any time without regard to
the declarant's mental state or competency. A directive may be revoked
by:
(1) the declarant or someone in the declarant's presence and at the
declarant's direction canceling, defacing, obliterating, burning,
tearing, or otherwise destroying the directive;
(2) the declarant signing and dating a written revocation that
expresses the declarant's intent to revoke the directive; or
(3) the declarant orally stating the declarant's intent to revoke the
directive.
(b) A written revocation executed as prescribed by Subsection (a)(2)
takes effect only when the declarant or a person acting on behalf of the
declarant notifies the attending physician of its existence or mails the
revocation to the attending physician. The attending physician or the
physician's designee shall record in the patient's medical record the time
and date when the physician received notice of the written revocation and
shall enter the word "VOID" on each page of the copy of the directive in
the patient's medical record.
(c) An oral revocation issued as prescribed by Subsection (a)(3) takes
effect only when the declarant or a person acting on behalf of the
declarant notifies the attending physician of the revocation. The
attending physician or the physician's designee shall record in the
patient's medical record the time, date, and place of the revocation,
and, if different, the time, date, and place that the physician received
notice of the revocation. The attending physician or the physician's
designees shall also enter the word "VOID" on each page of the copy of
the directive in the patient's medical record.
(d) Except as otherwise provided by this subchapter, a person is not
civilly or criminally liable for failure to act on a revocation made
under this section unless the person has actual knowledge of the
revocation.
§ 166.046 HEALTH & SAFETY. Procedure if Not Effectuating a Directive or
Treatment Decision
(a) If an attending physician refuses to honor a patient's advance
directive or a health care or treatment decision made by or on behalf of
a patient, the physician's refusal shall be reviewed by an ethics or
medical committee. The attending physician may not be a member of that
committee. The patient shall be given life-sustaining treatment during
the review.
(b) The patient or the person responsible for the health care decisions
of the individual who has made the decision regarding the directive or
treatment decision:
(1) may be given a written description of the ethics or medical
committee review process and any other policies and procedures related to
this section adopted by the health care facility;
(2) shall be informed of the committee review process not less than 48
hours before the meeting called to discuss the patient's directive,
unless the time period is waived by mutual agreement;
(3) at the time of being so informed, shall be provided:
(A) a copy of the appropriate statement set forth in Section 166.052;
and
(B) a copy of the registry list of health care providers and referral
groups that have volunteered their readiness to consider accepting
transfer or to assist in locating a provider willing to accept transfer
that is posted on the website maintained by the Texas Health Care
Information Council under Section 166.053; and
(4) is entitled to:
(A) attend the meeting; and
(B) receive a written explanation of the decision reached during the
review process.
(c) The written explanation required by Subsection (b)(2)(B) must be
included in the patient's medical record.
(d) If the attending physician, the patient, or the person responsible
for the health care decisions of the individual does not agree with the
decision reached during the review process under Subsection (b), the
physician shall make a reasonable effort to transfer the patient to a
physician who is willing to comply with the directive. If the patient is a
patient in a health care facility, the facility's personnel shall assist
the physician in arranging the patient's transfer to:
(1) another physician;
(2) an alternative care setting within that facility; or
(3) another facility.
(e) If the patient or the person responsible for the health care
decisions of the patient is requesting life-sustaining treatment that the
attending physician has decided and the review process has affirmed is
inappropriate treatment, the patient shall be given available
life-sustaining treatment pending transfer under Subsection (d). The
patient is responsible for any costs incurred in transferring the patient
to another facility. The physician and the health care facility are not
obligated to provide life-sustaining treatment after the 10th day after
the written decision required under Subsection (b) is provided to the
patient or the person responsible for the health care decisions of the
patient unless ordered to do so under Subsection (g).
(e-1) If during a previous admission to a facility a patient's
attending physician and the review process under Subsection (b) have
determined that life-sustaining treatment is inappropriate, and the
patient is readmitted to the same facility within six months from the date
of the decision reached during the review process conducted upon the
previous admission, Subsections (b) through (e) need not be followed if
the patient's attending physician and a consulting physician who is a
member of the ethics or medical committee of the facility document on the
patient's readmission that the patient's condition either has not improved
or has deteriorated since the review process was conducted.
(f) Life-sustaining treatment under this section may not be entered in
the patient's medical record as medically unnecessary treatment until the
time period provided under Subsection
(e) has expired.
(g) At the request of the patient or the person responsible for the
health care decisions of the patient, the appropriate district or county
court shall extend the time period provided under Subsection (e) only if
the court finds, by a preponderance of the evidence, that there is a
reasonable expectation that a physician or health care facility that will
honor the patient's directive will be found if the time extension is
granted.
(h) This section may not be construed to impose an obligation on a
facility or a home and community support services agency licensed under
Chapter 142 or similar organization that is beyond the scope of the
services or resources of the facility or agency. This section does not
apply to hospice services provided by a home and community support
services agency licensed under Chapter 142.