Why should one make a Directive health? Making a Directive health ensures that an individual’s right to die with dignity is protected. It saves the patient from going through futile treatments that only prolong life, not save it. It paves the way for a smooth and painless exit from the world with loved ones around.
The Directive health also helps your family make a decision without any guilt, since you would have already made the decision. Moreover, it protects your family from having to pay huge hospital bills on treatments. Thereby, saving them from living under financial burden for years to come.
THE Directive health In March 2018, the Supreme Court of India, passed a law on the right to die with dignity as a fundamental human right. This was materialized by allowing individuals to make their own Directive health.
A Directive health is a legal document that empowers people to express their desire, in advance, on how they want to spend the last days of their life. It is an advanced directive by an individual stating that they not be put on artificial life support, if they slip into an incurable comma in the future.
One of the situations in which the Directive health gets activated is when a patient is no longer in a position to communicate his wish due to being in a vegetative state or a coma and a panel of doctors at the hospital, where the patient is, diagnose the condition as being irreversible.
Consent It should be a Informed one. 1.Informed consent is a process ending with a signed document affirming the process and its elements a. Describe the diagnosis to the patient in language that can be understood by the layperson b. Present the medically reasonable alternatives for managing the disease, impairment, disability or injury, including doing nothing, with all the clinical benefits and risks c. Make sure the patient or surrogate understands each of the alternatives by engaging them in conversation d. Support the patient (surrogate) decision based on their life and moral values and beliefs e. Obtain the authorization or refusal of authorization i. Prior consent is to be honoured for a patient who becomes incapacitated Unless the medical condition and intervention has significantly changed. 2. Informed consent is voluntary and without restrain or undue influence, provides all the information needed to be truly informed, and is based on patient or surrogate mental capacity to understand.
HealthFin and Account Aggregator The Issues Individual’s carry data of their healthcare directives with no framework in place for them to aggregate and share with their benefactors leading to individuals getting unintended care. This causes suffering and financial burden on the individual and their family This aggregated data can provide an individual’s wishes and is essential to provide better care for the individual. An individual or family has to share data themselves either physically or electronically. This is slow and information goes missing compromising appropriate care. No mechanism exists for a benefactor entity to access a user’s data digitally or physically, even after the user’s explicit consent. Also, there is no framework available that can let an entity access users’ data even with users’ permissions. As a result appropriate care is compromised causing unnecessary suffering and financial burden. Healthcare entities have a problem of getting reimbursed for their services once care is provided especially when care doesn’t explicitly show improvement or death occurs. Insecurity exists with healthcare providers providing care for seniors and at individuals home regarding reimbursement.
The Solution The account aggregator are to provide services based on the explicit consent of individuals. This primarily includes transfer, but not storing, of a client’s data providing privacy and confidentiality. Provides a digital platform like Digilocker for easy sharing and consumption of data from various entities with explicit user consent. No health information of the user is retrieved, shared or transferred by the Account Aggregator without the explicit consent of the user. An AA merely acts as a conduit between the Health information user and the individual. The AA framework facilitates consented sharing of information in real-time and eliminates the above issues while ensuring data privacy. In future Healthfin can work on real time payment processes for Tele-health consultations, Home care services ( Nursing, Equipment, Rentals etc) directly with AA or through escrow entities so payment issues can be resolved.