AzHDR Can No Longer Accept Previous Secretary of State Healthcare Registry Registration Agreements. Read More

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Registering Your Advance Directives in Seven Steps

If you’ve prepared advance directives in another state, but you have relocated to Arizona—or live here part time—you’ll want to make sure your wishes are honored in Arizona.

Follow the steps below to get started.

1
Determine Which of Your Forms From Another State Can Be Honored in Arizona.

Advance Directives documents from other states are valid in Arizona if:

  • They have been prepared according to the guidelines from that state
  • Do not request health care treatments or interventions that are not legal in the State of Arizona

2
Prepare the Arizona Pre-Hospital Medical Care Directive (Do Not Resuscitate) Form.

If you wish to include an out of hospital DNR/Pre-Hospital Medical Care Directive, this must be on the Arizona form, which can be downloaded here in English and in Spanish.

3
Complete & Sign a Registration Agreement.

A completed and signed Registration Agreement needs to be included with your advance directives. (At present, you can continue to use the Secretary of State Registration Agreement.) If you would like to receive communications by email, please be sure to add your email address to the Registration Agreement along with your mailing address. Information on the agreement must be legible and clear to be accepted. You are welcome to type your responses if you prefer.

A Spanish AzHDR Registration Agreement is available as well.

NOTE: The Arizona Healthcare Directives Registry (AzHDR) is no longer able to accept the previous Secretary of State’s Healthcare Registry Registration Agreement. Please be sure to use the AzHDR Registration Agreement when submitting your advance directive documents. Beginning, Jan. 15, 2023, any advance directives that include the former Secretary of State Registration Agreement will be returned for correction.

4
Mail or Email Copies of Your Forms and Registration Agreement to Contexture.

Make sure to send copies of your forms—not originals. Your documents cannot be returned once they have been uploaded into the registry, so you will want to hang on to your original forms.

Mail your forms to:
Arizona Healthcare Directives Registry – Contexture
2901 N. Central Ave., Ste. 1100
Phoenix, AZ 85012

NOTE: Please be aware that we do not accept walk-ins to drop off advance directives at our office location.

Or submit via email to: Documents@azhdr.org.

5
Contexture Will Verify Your Documents & Send Registry Login Information.

Once Contexture has received your documents, we will review them and verify that they have been completed according to Arizona Statutes (A.R.S. §36-224, §36.3286, §36-3232, §36.3262).

You will be sent a letter or email stating that your documents have been received and processed.

  • If no corrections are required:
    • You will be provided with login information to set up your account in the AzHDR
    • Instructions to complete your wallet card with your chosen credentials.

  • If corrections to your documents are needed, you will receive:
    • A notification of the required modification(s).
    • Sign-up instructions to set up your AzHDR account, so you can make these changes by either uploading new documents into the AzHDR or sending them to Contexture via email or postal mail.

6
Activation of Your Directives.

Once you have received the letter stating your documents were reviewed and no corrections were needed, your advance directives will then be active in the AzHDR and available for viewing by anyone who has your username and password credentials (most likely shared via AzHDR wallet card).

NOTE: Your wallet card should only be shared with trusted loved ones, caregivers and/or healthcare providers.

7
Make Updates As Needed.

Once you have set up your AzHDR account, you can then make demographic changes to your profile.

Additionally, if you want to update an advance directive document at any point, you will need to fill out a new Registration Agreement and check the box to replace a directive in the registry. You can upload the new Registration Agreement and updated directive form directly into your AzHDR account—or you can email or postal mail them using the instructions above.

If you choose to complete Arizona advance directives, here is more information to help:

To learn more about Arizona advance directives, click here to view and print the Attorney General’s Life Care Planning packet. This packet contains the four advance directive forms accepted in Arizona:

  • Living Will (End of Life Care)
  • Health Care Power of Attorney
  • Mental Health Care Power of Attorney
  • Pre-Hospital Medical Directive (Do Not Resuscitate)

You can use any advance directive form that meets Arizona’s requirements, and the forms in the packet meet these requirements.

If you would like the packet mailed to you, visit this page for instructions: azag.gov/seniors/life-care-planning.

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