Act 169 at PBI's POA & HCD Course

Act 169 of 2006, regarding health care directives & surrogate decision-making, will be the focus of a portion of the "Power of Attorney and Health Care Directives - 2007" course offered by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, at three locations in March, 2007. But this course is much broader than just Act 169. The course will also address general (durable) powers of attorney, mental health declarations & powers of attorney, and out-of-hospital "do-not-resuscitate" orders.

This POA/HCD Course (the "3-hour live course in March" referenced below) is one of the "Act 169 Practice Resources" presently offered by PBI on its home page:

Act 169 Practice Resources
	New law on health care powers of attorney (living wills and more), effective Jan. 29, 2007
PBI helps you get up to speed: From our popular Jan. 16 call-in CLE program Online course (includes "e-pub") "E-Pub" with form (available for immediate download at the 20% e-pub discount), or Hard copy of the materials, and the program on CD-ROM 3-hour live course in March Health Law Institute March 13-14 in Philadelphia

This course -- although a bit longer than three hours long, and with only about two months in the planning -- traces its PBI lineage, through its substantive materials, back to 1999.

This course will integrate, consolidate, update, & expand four past PBI presentations into one. Within the 418 pages of the completed course manual, there is much content.

Location -- This course will be held at the following three locations from 9:00 am to 12:15 pm:

• Monday, March 5, 2007 -- CLE Conference Center, Wanamaker Building, 10th Floor, Suite 1010, Philadelphia, PA
• Tuesday, March 13, 2007 -- PBI Conference Center, 5080 Ritter Road, Rossmoyne Exit, Rt. 15, Mechanicsburg, PA
• Thursday, March 29, 2007 -- [Change] Omni William Penn Hotel, 530 William Penn Place, Pittsburgh, PA

The course will be videotaped in Mechanicsburg for later online replay or individual video sale by PBI.

Speakers -- These are the presenters:

Aubrey H. Glover, Esq., Cohen & Grigsby, PC, Pittsburgh (Speaking in Mechanicsburg & Pittsburgh on POAs)

Mary Jo Baum, Esq., Brian R. Price & Associates, Chalfont (Speaking in Philadelphia on POAs)

Neil E. Hendershot, Esq.,, Goldberg Katzman, P.C., Harrisburg (Speaking in Philadelphia & Mechanicsburg on HCDs)

Barbara J. Holland, Esq., Governor's Office--Healthcare Reform, Harrisburg (Speaking in Pittsburgh on HCDs)

Dianne C. Magee, Esq., Grim, Biehn & Thatcher, P.C., Quakertown (Speaking in Philadelphia on POAs)

Harriet F. Withstandley, Esq., Chief Counsel, Pennsylvania Department of Aging, Harrisburg (Speaking in Mechanicsburg & Pittsburgh on HCDs)
Robert B. Wolf, Esq., Tener, Van Kirk, Wolf & Moore, Pittsburgh (Speaking in Pittsburgh on HCDs)

Materials -- The materials focus on three subject areas.

• General (durable) powers of attorney :
  
• "The materials of this topic are a combination of written materials originally provided by Neil E. Hendershot, Esquire, of Goldberg, Katzman, P.C., Harrisburg, for PBI’s 2000 publication, The Prudent Investor Act & Power of Attorney Act (Act 39,) and Mario Santilli, Jr., Esquire, of Cohen & Grigsby, P.C., Pittsburgh, for PBI’s 2001 publication, Drafting Powers of Attorney & Healthcare Directives. These materials were reviewed, consolidated, updated and supplemented for the Power of Attorney and Healthcare Directives 2007 edition by Aubrey H. Glover, Esquire, of Cohen & Grigsby, P.C., Pittsburgh, with the assistance of Nicole L. Phatak, Esquire, also of Cohen & Grigsby, P.C., Pittsburgh."
• An annotated general power of attorney model document is included.
  

• Health care directives & health care surrogate decision-making:
• Bob Wolf's Act 169 outline is reproduced from the January 16, 2007, "call-in" course.
• Additionally, I submitted a detailed Case Outline (18 pages) reviewing the key decisions in Quinlan, Cruzan, Fiore, Duran, & Schiavo. These cases established essential common law & constitutional law principles, which now frame Act 169. These principles remain crucial to an understanding of Act 169, because the new statute specifically did not alter the holding of Fiore.
• I also submitted "Questions & Answers on Act 169" (28 pages), based on many of the practical, insightful questions submitted during the Act 169 Call-In Course or on PBA listservs.
• We reproduced the fine "Guide to Act 169", published by the Pennsylvania Medical Society.
• We included the recently-updated, newly-posted PA Department of Health DNR explanations.

• Mental health Declarations & Powers of Attorney:
• We reproduced my annotation (June, 2005) of Chapter 58 (Act 194 of 2004) regarding stand-alone "Mental Health Declarations" and "Mental Health Powers of Attorney", which now can (& should) be compared with the more refined provisions (& protections) in Act 169 of 2006.

More information about the course and online registration are available from PBI here.

I predict that the course manual will become the definitive reference on the subject matter for the next few years.

* * *

Update: 03/06/07:

The course in Philadelphia was attended by 280 people, of whom approximately 90% were attorneys. Feedback from PBI and attendees was positive. Many noted the book as a comprehensive & current reference.

I spoke for a total of two hours on the Mental Health Power of Attorney and on Act 169 (regarding Health Care Directives in all their forms).

I continued to refer to the website, PA HealthCare DecisionMaking, urging continued learning about Health Care Directives in Pennsylvania beyond the end of the half-day course. That site is available for browsing by anyone.

Various questions were submitted by participants as to Act 169. I agreed to post answers to those questions on that website in the near future. When I do, I'll note it on this blog.

Update: 03/13/07:

The course in Harrisburg was attended by 204 people.

Harriett Withstandley (Chief Counsel, PA Department of Aging) & I navigated through the Health Care Directive portion of the material using PowerPoint slides for two hours before an attentive audience.

A printed copy of those slides will be distributed with the audio (CD) and video (DVD) packaging of this presentation (which will include the 418-page book & all handouts), to be offered after production by PBI on its website.

Any attendee at the Philadelphia or Mechanicsburg sessions is entitled to receive a copy too. Just send a request to me or to Sabina McCarthy at PBI (SMcCarthy@pbi.org), and we would reply with an email attachment (in PDF format) of the handouts.

We also distributed Bob Wolf's Commentary on Act 169, entitled "Be An Agent". That article is now posted in full on this blog. See: Bob Wolf: "Be An Agent" (Part I) (03/14/07), and Bob Wolf: "Be An Agent" (Part II) (03/14/07).

The final live presentation of this course will be held on Thursday, March 29, 2007, in Pittsburgh. Due to overwhelming pre-registration, the location was moved to accommodate attendance in excess of 200. So you can still register, or even "drop in" on the day of the presentation. Just go to the right place: the Omni William Penn Hotel, 530 William Penn Place, Pittsburgh, PA.