What is a living will’s purpose, and does it serve that purpose well? In this article, we’ll explain living wills and why the reasons behind our healthcare advance directives preference.

Isolation among aging retirees can harm their social, cognitive, and physical well-being. However, seniors can improve their health and overall life experience through community involvement. Let’s explore the downside of isolation on aging retirees and the benefits of community life for seniors through social and civic engagement.

Indiana General Assembly gave us health care advance directives in 2021 legislation that was the first overhaul of Indiana’s health care consent laws in over 28 years. This article reviews some of the health care consent law’s features. One Advance Directive For All Health Care Decisions The Advance Directive law offers simplicity and flexibility in […]

This article describes the problems and solutions that healthcare providers, government officials, and lawyers are pursuing to overcome Coronavirus challenges.

“Fancy estate plan binders hide weak contents” should be a mantra for estate planning lawyers and their clients. We have heard clients praise the appearance of leather estate plan binders; especially binders embossed with gold lettering, Unfortunately, most of those clients pay dearly for weak estate plan is that did not address their issues adequately, […]

Governor Holcomb invited Hawkins Elder Law attorney Jeff R Hawkins and other stakeholder representatives to witness the Governor’s July 8 ceremonial signing of Senate Enrolled Act 112 (SEA 112) and Senate Enrolled Act 380 (SEA 380) at the Governor’s Residence. During the ceremony, the Governor recognized key legislators and advocates that had supported the pair […]

Indiana health care advance directive options may improve in 2019. If Indiana passes 2019 House Bill 1516 (HB 1516), then the law will upgrade how Hoosiers plan for future health care decisions. This article describes current health care advance directive laws and how the new law may help Indiana health care patients plan for emergency health care and end-of-life decisions.

Employees of many Hoosier hospitals ask patients the same question during the admission process every day, “Do you have a living will?” This may surprise people, but a patient’s answer to that question does not matter because when a living will arrives at the hospital, it is “dead on arrival.” This article explains why Indiana’s […]

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] The Indiana State Department of health (ISDH) updated and improved the Indiana Physicians Orders for Scope of Treatment (POST) form in December 2016. The new form is available for download in PDF and Microsoft Word formats at http://www.in.gov/isdh/25880.htm,  and it should be available in the […]

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] In our most recent blog, “Plans for Final Illness, Death, and Human Remains Disposition,” we mentioned issues that affect people’s choices about health care in final illness, death, and disposition of their bodies, including a few brief references to spiritual issues. We are expanding that […]