JEFFERSON CITY—The Senate Veterans’ Affairs and Health Committee today conducted a hearing on legislation filed by Sen. Gina Walsh, D-Bellefontaine Neighbors, to establish a statewide registry to securely store health care directives.

Senate Bill 832 requires the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services to create a health care directives registry for the purpose of providing a place to securely store these directives online and give authorized medical providers immediate access to these important documents.

Health care directives, as defined in the bill, are either power of attorney documents for health care or a declaration signed by an adult containing the person’s direction concerning a health care decision, such as a living will, an intent to donate organs, or a do-not-resuscitate order.

“Health care directives are a way for patients to maintain control of their health decisions, either through documents like do-not-resuscitate orders, or through granting a trusted family member with a power of attorney,” said Sen. Walsh. “The problem, though, is there’s no statewide tool for physicians to easily access these directives. As a result, the authority of patients to decide their health care decisions is sometimes jeopardized. This bill would create a secure registry that gives physicians and medical providers immediate access to extremely important documents that often need to be acquired in a very tight time frame.”

To protect citizens’ privacy, the registry would remain completely confidential and would be exempt from the Missouri Sunshine law.

The bill garnered broad support during committee, with witnesses testifying on the importance of creating an easily accessible, yet secure, tool where physicians, licensed health care providers, the declarant, and his or her legal representative or designee can find health care directives.  

The legislation was also well received by members of the committee, which voted to pass the bill the same day as the hearing. The measure now goes to the Senate calendar for possible future debate.

For more information on Sen. Walsh’s legislative proposals, click here or visit her Missouri Senate website at www.senate.mo.gov/walsh.