Existing law authorizes an adult to give an individual health care instruction and to appoint a person to make health care decisions for that individual in the event of his or her incapacity pursuant to an advance health care directive.
Existing law requires the Secretary of State to establish a registry system through which a person who has executed a written advance health care directive may register in a central information center, information regarding the advance directive, making that information available upon request to any health care provider.
This bill would enact the Advance Directives and Terminal Illness Decisions Program, which would require the Secretary of State to work with the State Department of Health Services and the office of the Attorney General to develop information about end of life care, advance health care directives, and
registering the advance health care directives at the registry. It would also require that links to this information and the registry be available on the Internet Web sites of the Secretary of State, the State Department of Health Services, the office of the Attorney General, the Department of Managed Health Care, the Department of Insurance, the Board of Registered Nursing, and the Medical Board of California.