Oklahoma Healthcare Power of Attorney Requirements

The principal designates a primary health care agent (full name and contact information) using the Health Care Agent Act's optional statutory form (63 O.S. Section 3111.5).

The statutory form lets the principal name a first alternate agent and a second alternate agent who serve if the primary agent, or the prior alternate, is unwilling, unable, or not reasonably available (63 O.S. Section 3111.5).

Unless the principal limits it, the agent may make any health care decision the principal could make, including consenting to or refusing care, selecting or discharging health care providers and facilities, accessing medical records, and signing a do not resuscitate consent under the Oklahoma Do Not Resuscitate Act. The agent's authority explicitly excludes withholding or withdrawing life sustaining treatment, nutrition, or hydration, which can only be authorized in a separate Advance Directive for Health Care.

The agent's authority to access the principal's health records must comply with the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

By default, the agent's authority becomes effective only once the attending physician determines the principal lacks capacity, and ends once capacity is determined to be recovered; that determination is made by the attending physician alone. Oklahoma law also lets the principal mark a box on the statutory form to make the agent's authority effective immediately upon signing instead. This document is not called 'durable' anywhere in the Health Care Agent Act; that term belongs to Oklahoma's separate financial power of attorney law (58 O.S. Section 3004).

For this document, capacity or its loss is determined by the principal's attending physician alone. This differs from Oklahoma's separate Advance Directive Act, where a 'qualified patient' determination for life sustaining treatment decisions requires the attending physician AND another physician to concur.

The principal may revoke the designation of an agent by a signed writing or by personally informing the health care provider, at any time and in any manner that communicates an intent to revoke (Section 3111.4(A)). A decree of annulment, divorce, dissolution of marriage, or legal separation automatically revokes a prior designation of a spouse as agent unless the decree or the power of attorney itself says otherwise (Section 3111.4(C)). A later, conflicting power of attorney for health care revokes an earlier one only to the extent of the conflict (Section 3111.4(D)).

The principal signs before two witnesses who are at least eighteen years old and who are not a legatee, devisee, or heir at law of the principal. Oklahoma law contains no other witness qualification or disqualification for this document.

Under Oklahoma's Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, an agent authorized to make health care decisions under a power of attorney for health care may also make an anatomical gift on the principal's behalf, unless the power of attorney or another record prohibits the agent from doing so.

The Health Care Agent Act itself states this document does not authorize an agent to consent to the principal's admission to a mental health care facility UNLESS the principal's written directive expressly so provides, and does not override Oklahoma's involuntary civil commitment statutes under Title 43A, Chapter 1 (63 O.S. Section 3111.11(C)-(D)). Separately, Oklahoma also has a distinct, stand-alone Advance Directive for Mental Health Treatment under Title 43A Section 11-106, letting a person appoint a different attorney-in-fact specifically for mental health treatment decisions.

A health care provider or facility acting in good faith and in accordance with generally accepted health care standards is not subject to civil or criminal liability, or discipline for unprofessional conduct, for complying with a health care decision made by a person with apparent authority, for declining to comply based on a good faith belief the person lacked authority, or for complying with a power of attorney for health care in good faith. An individual acting as agent under the Act is likewise not subject to civil or criminal liability for good faith health care decisions.

A power of attorney for health care is valid for purposes of the Oklahoma Health Care Agent Act if it is in substantial compliance with the Act, regardless of when or where it was executed or communicated.

The Health Care Power of Attorney explicitly defers all decisions about withholding or withdrawing life sustaining treatment, nutrition, or hydration to a separately executed Advance Directive for Health Care under the Oklahoma Advance Directive Act, and the Health Care Agent Act states it does not supersede or authorize noncompliance with that Act's requirements.

Oklahoma law gives a person nominated as guardian in the ward's previously executed power of attorney priority consideration if a court guardianship proceeding is later commenced (30 O.S. Section 3-104). This nomination is a preference the court considers, not a binding directive.

Facilities that participate in Medicare and Medicaid must inform patients of their rights under state law to make advance directives, including a health care power of attorney.

The agent must make health care decisions according to the principal's individual instructions and other known wishes; where those are unknown, the agent must act in the principal's best interest, considering the principal's personal values, which can include religious beliefs. Oklahoma's separate Advance Directive Act also has its own distinct religious-belief mechanism (63 O.S. Section 3101.4(F)): a person who avoids having an attending physician for established religious reasons may designate someone other than the health care proxy to determine incapacity instead of a physician.