Indiana Hospital Advance Directive Forms: IU Health, Community Health, and What to Know

If you've been admitted to an Indiana hospital — or helped a parent through admission — you've probably been handed a stack of forms and asked whether you have an advance directive. Federal law requires hospitals to ask. But the forms they hand you aren't always the best option for your situation.

Here's what you need to know about hospital-provided advance directive forms in Indiana, where they fall short, and what actually protects your wishes.

What Hospitals Are Required to Do

Under the federal Patient Self-Determination Act, every hospital in Indiana must ask patients at admission whether they have an advance directive. If you don't have one, they're required to provide information about your right to create one and offer you the forms to do so.

Major Indiana hospital systems — IU Health, Community Health Network, Deaconess Health System, Franciscan Health — all provide their own advance directive templates. These are typically free PDF downloads available on their websites or handed out during admission.

The Problem with Hospital Forms

Hospital-provided templates serve a clinical purpose: they document your basic treatment preferences and name a healthcare decision-maker. But they have significant limitations.

Many are still fragmented. Before Senate Enrolled Act 204 took full effect on January 1, 2023, Indiana used separate documents for the healthcare power of attorney, healthcare representative appointment, and living will declaration. Some hospital templates still distribute these as separate forms rather than the unified advance directive that current law allows. Using outdated split forms doesn't necessarily void your wishes, but it creates confusion — especially when different documents name different decision-makers or contain contradictory instructions.

They lack execution guidance. A hospital PDF tells you what to fill in but rarely explains the witness requirements that can invalidate the entire document. Indiana law has strict exclusion rules: your designated Healthcare Representative cannot serve as a witness, at least one witness must be unrelated to you, and the living will section has even stricter requirements — neither witness can be a spouse, parent, child, heir, or anyone financially responsible for your care.

They don't address your financial estate. Hospital forms are purely clinical. They won't help you coordinate your advance directive with probate-avoidance tools like Transfer-on-Death deeds, the $100,000 small-estate affidavit threshold, or Medicaid estate recovery protections. For most Indiana families, medical planning and asset preservation need to work together.

What "Hospital-Approved" Actually Means

There's no official state certification for advance directive forms. Under Indiana Code Section 16-36-7, there is no mandatory statutory form language. Any written document is legally binding as long as it meets the state's execution requirements — signed by a competent adult, dated, and properly witnessed or notarized.

This means you don't need to use the form your hospital provides. You can bring your own advance directive, executed correctly at home, and the hospital must honor it. What matters isn't which template you used — it's whether the document was properly executed under current Indiana law.

When you present your advance directive at a hospital, staff will typically scan it into your electronic health record. Having a clean, well-organized document that clearly identifies your Healthcare Representative, outlines your treatment preferences, and includes proper witness attestations makes this process smoother for everyone.

Remote Execution: You Don't Need to Be at the Hospital

Senate Enrolled Act 204 introduced electronic signatures and remote video validation for advance directives. You can legally execute your advance directive during a live audio-visual call with witnesses or a notary. If you sign paper copies during the video call, someone must compile all separately signed pages into a single composite document within ten business days.

If video isn't possible, Indiana even allows telephonic execution — you can complete the process over a phone call with two witnesses who verify your identity and capacity. The final document must state that telephonic interaction was used.

This means there's no reason to wait until a hospital admission to complete your advance directive. Doing it proactively, at home, with the right witnesses gives you time to make careful decisions instead of rushing through forms while you're stressed or unwell.

What to Do If You Already Have a Hospital Form

If you completed a hospital-provided advance directive before January 1, 2023, it's worth reviewing. Documents executed under the old statutory framework remain valid, but they may not reflect the broader authority that current law gives to Healthcare Representatives.

If your existing document is a general durable power of attorney that includes healthcare clauses — rather than a standalone advance directive — be aware that healthcare clauses inside general POAs signed after December 31, 2022 are void under current Indiana law. You'll need a separate, dedicated advance directive.

The Indiana Advance Directive & Living Will Kit provides a unified template that's fully compliant with current Senate Enrolled Act 204 standards, includes step-by-step witness eligibility guidance, and coordinates your medical wishes with financial estate planning tools that hospital forms simply don't cover.

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