Veterans Administration Amends Regs Re Health Planning Procedures

eterans will soon have more tools to plan their future health care.

The Department of Veterans Affairs published regulations in the Federal Registerlast week allowing veterans to insert living wills, healthcare-basedpower of attorney statements and state-authorized advance directivesinto their health records.

VA had previouslyproposed these regulations — a 60-day comment period closed Jan. 4,1999 — before finalizing the rules last week.

Along with insertingthese documents into a patient’s file, the regulations allow a “patientwho has decision-making capacity” to revoke any advance directive “in acritical situation at any time by using any means expressing the intentto revoke.”

The regulations can be found at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/05-23505.htm.