On April 15, 2010 the rights of hospital patients to have their wishes respected concerning who may visit them or make medical decisions on their behalf got a boost from President Obama by way of a Presidential Memorandum for the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). While the memo will be of assistance to all persons, it will be especially helpful to LGBT patients and their families.
The memo directs the Secretary of HHS to promulgate rules for all hospital that receive federal funding as follows:
- Develop visitation policies that will ensure that "...individuals designated by a legally valid advance directive (such as durable powers of attorney and health care proxies) should enjoy visitation privileges that are no more restrictive than those that immediate family members enjoy". and that participating hospitals may not deny visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the visitor.
- Guarantee that all patients' advanced directives are respected and that patients' representatives otherwise have the right to make informed decisions.
- Provide additional recommendations to the President within 180 days of the date of the memo, on action s HHS can take to address hospital visitation, medical decision-making, or other health care issues that affect LGBT patients and their families.
North Carolina has already taken steps in this direction and its Patients' Bill of Rights gives each patient "the right to designate visitors who shall receive the same visitation privileges as the patient's immediate family members, regardless of whether the visitors are legally related to the patient".
