Wyoming Healthcare Power of Attorney Requirements
Wyoming is one of a small number of states that lets you decide, right in the document, when your agent's authority to act actually begins, instead of locking you into one fixed rule.
Introduction
Wyoming is one of a small number of states that lets you decide, right in the document, when your agent's authority to act actually begins, instead of locking you into one fixed rule. That flexibility lives inside Wyoming's Power of Attorney for Health Care, created and governed by the Wyoming Health Care Decisions Act (Wyoming Statutes Sections 35-22-401 through 35-22-416), through which you name a trusted agent to make health care decisions on your behalf. It is one of two types of advance health care directive Wyoming law recognizes, the other being individual instructions (a living will) that state your own wishes directly; Wyoming lets you combine both in one document. This document's authority is deliberately kept apart from a financial power of attorney's, limited to health care decisions, not your money, property, or bills. By default, your agent cannot start making decisions the moment you sign. Unless you specify otherwise in the document itself, your agent's authority begins only once a determination is made, ordinarily by your primary physician, that you lack the capacity to make your own health care decisions, and it ends automatically if you later regain capacity. Wyoming gives you two ways to make the document legally valid: sign it before a notarial officer, or sign it in front of two qualifying witnesses. Wyoming law does not provide an official statutory form and does not maintain a state registry for these documents, so you keep the signed original yourself and give copies to your physician, your agent, and anyone else who may need it.
Key Things to Know
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Wyoming's Health Care Decisions Act does not disqualify your own treating physician from serving as your agent, unlike many other states' laws; the only person barred from acting as your agent is an owner, operator, or employee of a residential or community care facility where you are receiving care, unless they are related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption.
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Unless you state otherwise in the document, your agent's authority does not begin the moment you sign. It starts only after a determination, ordinarily by your primary physician, that you lack capacity to make your own health care decisions (Wyoming Statutes Section 35-22-403(d) and (e)).
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Wyoming lets you choose to make your agent's authority effective immediately instead of waiting for an incapacity determination, as long as you say so in the document itself. That override is a genuine choice under Wyoming law, unlike some other states where the incapacity trigger cannot be changed.
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Unless you limit it in the document, your agent can make any health care decision you could have made yourself, including decisions about life-sustaining treatment and artificial nutrition and hydration.
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Unless your agent is related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption, your agent cannot be an owner, operator, or employee of a residential or community care facility where you are receiving care (Section 35-22-403(b)).
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Wyoming's witness disqualification rules are narrower than in many states. A witness cannot be your treating health care provider, your named agent, or a facility operator or employee, but Wyoming law does not disqualify someone from witnessing just because they are your relative or stand to inherit from you.
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You can sign before a notarial officer, or sign in front of two qualifying witnesses instead. You do not need both.
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You can revoke your agent's designation at any time, but only by a signed writing. You can revoke any other part of the document, such as your instructions, at any time and in any manner that shows your intent to revoke (Section 35-22-404).
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If you name your spouse as agent and later divorce, their authority ends automatically unless your document says otherwise.
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Wyoming has no central state registry for these documents and no official statutory form. Keep the signed original and give copies to your physician, your agent, and any alternate agents.
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This is a different document from Wyoming's Durable Power of Attorney under the Wyoming Uniform Power of Attorney Act, which covers property and financial decisions, not health care.
Key decisions before you file
Before you file a Healthcare Power of Attorney in Wyoming, a few decisions shape the document: which option to choose and what each one means. The Healthcare Power of Attorney guide walks through them.
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Wyoming Requirements for Healthcare Power of Attorney
Designates a specific individual to serve as healthcare agent with authority to make healthcare decisions on behalf of the principal when the principal lacks capacity to make or communicate decisions.
Naming a successor agent to act if the primary agent is unable or unwilling to serve is good estate-planning practice, but it is not itself addressed by Wyoming's Health Care Decisions Act. The Act has no statutory form and no successor-agent clause; it refers only to the single agent nominated in the writing.
Defines the scope of agent's powers, including consent to or refusal of medical treatment, surgical procedures, and other healthcare interventions, The agent's authority includes the power to make any health care decision the principal could have made while having capacity.
Authorizes the agent to access the principal's protected health information and medical records as needed to make informed healthcare decisions.
The document itself remains in effect indefinitely notwithstanding the principal's later incapacity, Separately, unless the document specifies otherwise, the agent's authority to actually act becomes effective only upon a determination that the principal lacks capacity, and ceases upon a determination that the principal has recovered capacity (§ 35-22-403(d)). Unlike some other states, Wyoming lets the principal expressly override this default and make the agent's authority immediately effective instead of springing.
"Capacity" is defined as an individual's ability to understand the significant benefits, risks, and alternatives to proposed health care and to make and communicate a health care decision (§ 35-22-402(a)(iv)). An individual is presumed to have capacity unless the primary physician has certified in writing that the individual lacks it (§ 35-22-412(b)).
The agent's general authority to make any health care decision includes approval or disapproval of orders not to resuscitate and directions to provide, withhold, or withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration and all other forms of health care (§ 35-22-402(a)(ix)), exercised under the general grant of authority in § 35-22-403(b).
Under the Wyoming Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, an agent of the donor may make an anatomical gift on the principal's behalf, unless the power of attorney for health care or other record prohibits the agent from doing so (§ 35-5-204(a)(ii)).
Wyoming's Health Care Decisions Act contains no explicit carve-out excluding psychiatric treatment or psychotropic medication from the agent's general health care authority, unlike some other states that specifically exclude inpatient mental health commitment from a healthcare agent's powers. However, the Act does not override Wyoming's separate statutes governing involuntary civil commitment, and Wyoming maintains an independent, optional Psychiatric Advance Directive process (Wyoming Statutes Sections 35-22-301 through 308) for planning specifically around psychiatric restabilization, medication, and inpatient treatment preferences. A principal who wants dedicated psychiatric-treatment planning should consider that separate document rather than relying solely on this one.
Revoking the designation of an agent specifically requires a signed writing by an individual with capacity (§ 404(a)). Any other part of the document may be revoked at any time and in any manner that communicates intent to revoke, with oral revocations documented in a signed, dated writing as soon as possible afterward (§ 404(b)). A decree of divorce, annulment, dissolution, or legal separation automatically revokes a spouse's designation as agent unless stated otherwise (§ 404(d)). A later directive revokes an earlier one only to the extent the two conflict, not automatically in full (§ 404(e)).
The principal signs in the presence of two witnesses who each witness the signing or acknowledgment, or alternatively signs with the signature acknowledged before a notarial officer (no witnesses needed if notarized) (§ 403(b)). None of the following may serve as a witness: a treating health care provider or that provider's employee; the agent named in the document; or the operator or an employee of a residential or community care facility (§ 403(c)).
Notarization is one of two equally valid ways to execute the document; it is not a mandatory universal requirement. The principal may instead sign in the presence of two qualifying witnesses without ever involving a notary.
A written advance health care directive, which includes a power of attorney for health care, may include the individual's nomination of a guardian of the person (§ 403(h)).
Facilities that participate in Medicare and Medicaid must inform patients of their rights under state law to make advance directives, including a power of attorney for health care.
Provides immunity from civil or criminal liability, or professional discipline, for healthcare providers and institutions who in good faith rely on and comply with a health care decision made by a person apparently having authority to make it, and for agents and surrogates acting in good faith.
When the principal's wishes are not known, the agent must act in accordance with the agent's determination of the principal's best interest, considering the principal's personal values to the extent known (§ 403(f)).
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Check my Healthcare Power of AttorneyFrequently Asked Questions
A Power of Attorney for Health Care in Wyoming is a legal document, created under the Wyoming Health Care Decisions Act (Wyoming Statutes Sections 35-22-401 through 35-22-416), that lets you name a trusted adult, called your agent, to make health care decisions for you if you become unable to make them yourself. It covers only health care decisions, such as consenting to or refusing treatment. Unless you state otherwise in the document, your agent's authority begins only after your primary physician determines you lack the capacity to decide for yourself.
A Power of Attorney for Health Care covers only health care decisions. Wyoming's Durable (Financial) Power of Attorney, under the Wyoming Uniform Power of Attorney Act (Wyoming Statutes Sections 3-9-101 through 3-9-403), covers property and financial matters instead, such as banking or real estate, and does not authorize health care decisions. The two documents also default in opposite directions: the financial power of attorney is effective immediately upon signing by default, and requires only your signature, with notarization optional. The Power of Attorney for Health Care requires either a notarial officer's acknowledgment or two qualifying witnesses, and by default your agent's authority waits for a physician's incapacity determination, though Wyoming lets you override that default in the document itself.
You need one or the other, not both. You can sign the document and have your signature acknowledged before a notarial officer, with no witnesses required, or you can sign in front of two witnesses who each watch you sign or acknowledge the document (Wyoming Statutes Section 35-22-403(b)).
Wyoming's statute does not broadly bar your treating physician from serving as your health care agent, unlike several other states. The only agent restriction in the Wyoming Health Care Decisions Act is narrower: unless that person is related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption, your agent cannot be an owner, operator, or employee of a residential or community care facility where you are receiving care (Section 35-22-403(b)). If you are considering naming your own physician as agent, discuss the potential conflict of interest with an attorney before signing.
Unless your document says otherwise, your primary physician makes that determination, or your primary health care provider if your primary physician is unavailable (Wyoming Statutes Section 35-22-403(e)). You are presumed to have capacity unless your primary physician certifies in writing that you lack it (Section 35-22-412(b)).
No. Wyoming does not operate a central registry for these documents. You keep the signed original yourself and give copies to your physician, your agent, and any alternate agents so they have it when needed.
Revoking your agent's designation specifically requires a signed writing (Wyoming Statutes Section 35-22-404(a)). You can revoke any other part of the document, such as your instructions, at any time and in any manner that shows your intent to revoke, though an oral revocation should be documented in a signed, dated writing as soon as possible afterward (Section 35-22-404(b)).
If you named your spouse as your agent, a decree of annulment, divorce, dissolution of marriage, or legal separation automatically revokes that designation, unless the decree or your document states otherwise (Wyoming Statutes Section 35-22-404(d)).