We Support Health by Providing Free Legal Forms Online

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In a world where everything is closely intertwined, our environment has a direct effect on our wellbeing and quality of life in more than one way. The more resources we use, the more strain we put on the planet. The more strained our planet, the worse our health gets. Ironically, one of the biggest offenders when it comes to paper waste is the printing of health documents and forms.

According to statistics, paper makes for 26% of the overall waste found in landfills. That number only keeps ballooning year after year, which is incredibly unsustainable. Printing out school registration forms, filing our taxes, registering vehicles — it all adds up, leading to a looming catastrophe.

This is why groups of environmentally conscious individuals and businesses have been pushing for a change in the way we utilize our natural resources, emphasizing the need to cut fewer trees. Going digital and switching to online documents and forms offers much-needed hope in the effort to combat climate change.

The new movement of environmental consciousness and sustainable use is striving to ensure better health for us as well as the next generations to come.

A few established ways to decrease your impact include:

recycling
minimizing the use of plastic
especially bottles and straws
reducing paper consumption.

That’s where going for online documents and forms can help you greatly decrease your paper usage and support the environment which in its turn ensures prolonged health and wellness on a societal and individual level.

What can you use online documents and forms for when it comes to health care?

Online documents and forms are extremely versatile. You can use them:

to settle your will and inheritance
to buy and sell vehicles
and of course, for medical purposes.

Some of the most widely used online forms and documents include a medical power of attorney (POA), living will, do-not-resuscitate orders (DNR), and health care proxy. Each of these is crucial and an absolute must at various stages throughout life.

Health care POA

The power of attorney form allows someone else to make decisions on your behalf.

In case you suffer an accident or are unconscious, having this documentation in place will allow a trusted advisor of yours to manage your finances, home, and, essentially, represent you.

There’s nothing worse than being unable to carry out your legal errands and not having help from anybody. By putting a POA in place, you ensure that no matter what happens, somebody will be there for you.

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Living will

A living will form conveys your wishes in case you need end-of-life medical care.

This is not to be confused with the documents people put in place to allocate their assets to their heirs posthumously.

A living will serves as a direction for doctors on how you want doctors to treat you in case you’re unable to communicate your wishes. This form varies by state, which is why someone living in Maine will need a different document than someone from California.

If you’re somebody who moves around a lot or simply prefers convenience, you can use online documents to create various versions for different states without having to pay attorney fees each time and unnecessarily waste paper.

DNR Order

Having a DNR order form in place is imperative, especially for any individual with an existing medical condition or who feels strongly about their treatment in the case of an emergency.

DNR orders are instructions written out by a physician directing health care providers not to perform Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) on you. CPR includes life-saving techniques such as mouth-to-mouth breathing and chest compressions.

In case you don’t have DNR orders in place, medical professionals are obliged to perform these procedures on you.

People who wish for DNR orders to be followed are typically those who are terminally ill, and CPR has little to no chance of actually delivering results.

In some cases, CPR is only partly successful and can cause trauma on the body, which is a reason why some choose to avoid the emergency technique at all costs. Finally, people with advanced health conditions who are in pain often prefer for their condition to run its course without any aggressive medical interventions.

Health care proxy

A health care proxy is a legal document similar to the medical power of attorney form. Often referred to as HCP, this form appoints another individual to make decisions on your behalf in case you are unable to. People over the age of 18 are allowed to have an HCP in place, while for those who are underage, the parents or guardians serve as such.

The HCP will act on your behalf in case you’re under anesthesia or unconscious. The HCP form includes providing data such as:

your name and address
duration of the proxy
any special instructions.

The form can be easily prepared online for optimal convenience.

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Use online health care paperwork forms

Having your medical paperwork in order is absolutely necessary because life is unpredictable. DNR orders, for example, can be as applicable to an 18-year-old as they would be to an 80-year-old. You can have peace of mind once you’ve appointed someone as your medical healthcare proxy or assigned a power of attorney. Unfortunately, creating these documents for millions of people every year puts a massive strain on our resources.

By using online documents, you save a great deal of paper. Not only that, but you eliminate the extra time, money, and effort that the traditional process requires.

Before the widespread use of online services, legally binding forms such as the medical POA, for example, needed to be prepared exclusively at a law firm. With high attorney fees and long waiting times, this was a dreaded chore for many people, especially the elderly who don’t have that much time on their hands by default.

Now, with the help of online forms and documents, the process has become exponentially simpler and cheaper, not to mention the stacks of paper preserved.

Some of the commonly used healthcare forms include:

Medical Release: A medical release is a document that gives healthcare providers permission to share a patient’s medical information with third parties. The release may be limited in scope, or it may give the provider blanket permission to share all of the patient’s records.
Parental Medical Consent: A medical consent form for a minor is a document that gives a parent or guardian permission to allow their child to receive medical treatment. The form will list the specific treatments that are authorized, as well as any risks and side effects associated with them.
Resignation Letter for Health Reasons: A resignation letter for health reasons is a letter written by an employee to their employer to inform them that they are resigning from their job due to health problems. The letter should state the reason for the resignation and the date that the resignation will take effect.
Refusal of Medical Treatment: A refusal of medical treatment is a document in which a person states that they do not want to receive certain types of medical care. The refusal may be made for religious or personal reasons, and it should be signed by the person making the refusal.
Doctors Excuse Note for Work: A doctor’s excuse note is a document that Excuse from work is a written notice from a medical doctor that states an employee was seen and provides details about the illness or injury. The note should include the employee’s name, the date of the visit, and the doctor’s signature.

Using online documents has a major advantage over their paper version

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The biggest advantage of online documents is that you can find them all in one place. You no longer have to drive around town and go to various institutions. More often than not, people living in the countryside or smaller areas needed to travel for miles in order to get to the capital of their region and take care of their documentation.

At only a few clicks away, now you can find a large database of legal documents that can help you resolve almost any issue and prepare for the future. Anyone can access these free forms. All you need is a computer or a phone and an Internet connection.

Another major plus of using online documents is that you can find most of them absolutely free. Large databases like FP offer thousands of forms and documents at zero cost.

This way, you can use your legal fee budget on other, more enjoyable life experiences or daily necessities.

What’s more, online documents and forms are just as legally binding as their paper counterpart.

You can create an online signature backed up by your ID and apply it to each form you’d like to sign. You’ll help the environment immensely by no longer printing piles of paper anytime you need to make legal arrangements.

Thanks to the ESIGN Act, electronic signatures in the United States carry the same legal status as the handwritten alternative, so you don’t have to worry about the legality of your documents. Queuing at law firms and feeling like you’re being pulled in a million different directions can also become a relic of the past.

Online forms come with detailed instructions explaining how they should be filled out, so you don’t have to guess or feel frustrated.

Virtually anyone could use online forms to settle their medical needs. What’s more, you can help your elderly parents or grandparents take care of their important documentation right from home by guiding them along the online process.

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Published: Jul 18, 2022