COVID-19 a Reminder of Importance of Advance Care Planning

National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) is held on April 16 each year. It exists to inspire, educate and empower the public and healthcare providers about the importance of advance care planning. The NHDD initiative encourages patients to express their wishes regarding healthcare, and providers and facilities to respect those wishes, whatever they may be. NHDD was founded in 2008 to provide clear, concise, and consistent information on healthcare decision-making to both the public and providers through the widespread availability and dissemination of simple, free, and uniform materials and content to guide the process.

It is somewhat ironic that NHDD will occur this year during a worldwide pandemic. As a result, during this unprecedented time of social distancing and other mitigation measures, many NHDD-related events have been cancelled. Still, advance care planning remains as important as ever. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis serves as a reminder of the importance of doing advance planning should you ever be stricken with an illness or medical condition that could render you incapable of making an important decision about your own care.

“It is essential for people to consider who would speak for them if they became unable to make their own decisions when they are very sick,” said Dr. Alexander Nesbitt, a geriatrician at UPMC Susquehanna. “It’s also important to consider and communicate preferences about care that would be wanted. National Healthcare Decisions Day is an opportunity to consider, discuss and document what you do or don’t want.”

Read more ...

Coronavirus Update: Wavier approved for time-sensitive document signings

UPDATE (as of March 30, 2020):

Steinbacher, Goodall & Yurchak has received approval from Governor Wolf's Office to conduct time-sensitive document signings for those clients in a crisis during the shutdown. Time-sensitive and crisis situations will be determined with each individual client on a case-by-case basis. Any in-person meeting will be conducted while observing the required social distancing guidelines and other mitigation measures to protect our clients and staff. The firm remains open and here to serve you in your time of need, and our staff will continue working remotely, with our physical offices in Williamsport and State College remaining closed until the Governor's shutdown order is rescinded. We thank you for your understanding during these challenging and unprecedented times.

If our office can be of any assistance to you, please call us at 570-322-2077 (Williamsport), 814-237-4100 (State College), or toll-free at 1-800-351-8334 for a free consultation, which can be done by video or phone. You can also reach us via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. All of our client appointments are being done via phone or video conferencing. For those clients that already have an appointment scheduled, our office will be in touch with you about moving it to a phone or video conference or rescheduling.

Also, please visit our seminars & podcasts page for a library of content on a variety of elder law topics, which is being updated with new content weekly.