North Dakota 2017 State Law
Changes in Health Care Directive Law
The 2017 North Dakota Legislative Assembly amended the
optional form slightly in SB 2151.
By Courtney Koebele
Section 23-06.5-17, N.D.C.C., provides North Dakotans with
an optional health care directive form they can use to help start
conversations and clearly set forth their wishes for the health care
they want to receive if they are unable to make their own decisions
or are not able to communicate them. A person can use a health care
directive to:
4 Choose a person to make health care decisions for you.
4 Give instructions about any aspect of your health care.
4 Give instructions about specific medical treatments you do or do
not want.
4 Give other instructions, including where you wish to live until
you die.
4 Make an organ or tissue donation.
Social Security Disability
Claims and Appeals
1. The law substituted “health care provider” for “doctor.”
2. The law clarified the organ donation part of the optional form.
Instead of only choosing to be an organ donor, the optional form
allows you to choose not to be an organ donor as well.
If you signed a valid health care directive, living will, or durable
power of attorney prior to the law changing, that document
remains in effect.
Pursuant to the Patient Self-Determination Act, hospitals and long-term
care facilities must provide information about health care directives. It is
highly likely these changes do not affect the information you are providing
now. However, it is advisable to review the documentation given to
patients and make sure these amendments don’t affect that information.
To be legal in North Dakota, a health care directive must:
4 Be in writing;
4 Be dated;
4 State the name of the person to whom it applies;
4 Be executed by a person with the capacity to understand, make,
and communicate decisions;
4 Be signed by the person to whom it applies or by another person
authorized to sign on behalf of the person to whom it applies;
4 Contain verification of the required signature, e ither by a notary
public or by qualified witnesses; and
4 Include a health care instruction or a power of attorney for health
care, or both. It is not necessary to have an attorney provide or fill
out the form. Nor is it necessary to use a pre-printed form at all.
Any written statement that meets the requirements stated above
can serve as a legal health care directive.
Ficek Law Office, P.C.
Courtney Koebele is executive director
of the North Dakota Medical Association
and a founding board member of Honoring
Choices, North Dakota (HCND). HCND
is a collaborative group of state wide
community partners that promotes advance
care planning through community and
professional outreach and education.
www.honoringchoicesnd.org
4650 Amber Valley Parkway Fargo, ND 58104
1-800-786-8525 701-241-8525
FALL 2017
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