Free Maryland Advance Directive Template

Maryland’s Health Care Decisions Act recognizes three ways to make an advance directive: in writing, electronically, or out loud. The Act sits at Health-General Section 5-601 and following, and Section 5-603 offers an optional statutory form.

Maryland’s Department of Health also runs an Advance Directive Program, which encourages every adult over 18 to name a health care agent.

The rules for a Maryland advance directive are short, and they lean toward accessibility rather than formality.

Written and Electronic Directives

Section 5-602 asks for three things. Your directive needs a date, your signature or one made at your express direction, and two witnesses who subscribe it in your physical presence or your electronic presence.

Who Can Witness

Maryland is broad here. Any competent individual may serve, including an employee of a health care facility, a nurse practitioner, a physician assistant, or the physician caring for you, provided they act in good faith.

Two Limits That Still Apply

Your health care agent may not witness the directive. In addition, at least one of your two witnesses must be someone not knowingly entitled to any portion of your estate, and not knowingly entitled to a financial benefit by reason of your death.

Oral Advance Directives

Section 5-602 also recognizes a spoken directive. It carries the same effect as a written one when you make it in front of your attending physician and one witness, and the substance goes into your medical record, dated and signed by the physician and the witness.

Nothing Gets Filed

No agency receives a Maryland advance directive. Instead, the value comes from making sure the right people hold a copy.

Yes, and Maryland has built real infrastructure behind it.

Health-General Section 5-602 puts an electronic advance directive on the same footing as a written one, and your two witnesses can be present electronically rather than in the room with you.

State law then goes a step further. It directs the Maryland Health Care Commission to run a State Recognition Program for electronic advance directive services, with criteria covering privacy, security, independent audits, education, reporting, and technical provisions. Those criteria sit in the Code of Maryland Regulations at 10.25.19.

A recognized service can connect to the Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients, the state-designated health information exchange. All acute care hospitals in Maryland connect to it, along with many long-term care facilities, so a directive lodged there can surface when a clinician needs it.

Tip: Check the Maryland Health Care Commission’s current list of recognized services before you sign up for one. The list changes as vendors join it or drop off.

1. Choose your health care agent, and a back-up if you want one.
2. Talk to them first, so the role does not come as a surprise.
3. Record your treatment preferences, including anything you feel strongly about.
4. Date the document and sign it, or direct someone to sign for you in your presence.
5. Have two witnesses subscribe it, checking that at least one gains nothing from your estate.
6. Confirm your agent is not one of the two witnesses.
7. Give copies to your agent, your physician, and anyone else likely to need one.

Start your Maryland advance directive now and finish it in one sitting.

Because Maryland’s statutory form is optional, you have room to shape the document. Most people cover the same ground.

Name your health care agent, with full contact details and at least one alternate. Set out the treatment you would want, and the treatment you would refuse, in the situations that concern you most. Say what matters to you about comfort care and pain relief.

Add anything personal that would help someone decide on your behalf. Religious commitments, views on tube feeding, and preferences about where you want to be cared for all belong here.

Finally, date it. Maryland asks for the date as a condition of validity, so an undated form is an incomplete one.