Wyoming Healthcare Power of Attorney Requirements

Introduction

Key Things to Know

1. 1

   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.

2. 2

   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)).

3. 3

   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.

4. 4

   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.

5. 5

   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)).

6. 6

   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.

7. 7

   You can sign before a notarial officer, or sign in front of two qualifying witnesses instead. You do not need both.

8. 8

   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).

9. 9

   If you name your spouse as agent and later divorce, their authority ends automatically unless your document says otherwise.

10. 10

    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.

11. 11

    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.

Wyoming Requirements for Healthcare Power of Attorney

• Appointment of Agent (Wyoming Statutes § 35-22-403)

  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.

• Alternate Agents

  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.

• Agent Authority (Wyoming Statutes § 35-22-403(b))

  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.

• HIPAA Authorization (45 CFR § 164.508)

  Authorizes the agent to access the principal's protected health information and medical records as needed to make informed healthcare decisions.

• Effective Date and Durability (Wyoming Statutes § 35-22-403(b), (d))

  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.

• Definition of Incapacity (Wyoming Statutes § 35-22-402(a)(iv), § 35-22-412(b))

  "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)).

• End-of-Life Decisions (Wyoming Statutes § 35-22-402(a)(ix), § 35-22-403(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).

• Organ Donation Authorization (Wyoming Statutes § 35-5-204(a)(ii))

  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)).

• Mental Health Treatment Decisions

  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.

• Revocation Provisions (Wyoming Statutes § 35-22-404)

  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)).

• Witness Requirements (Wyoming Statutes § 35-22-403(b), (c))

  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)).

• Execution Requirement (Wyoming Statutes § 35-22-403(b))

  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.

• Nomination of Guardian (Wyoming Statutes § 35-22-403(h))

  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)).

• Compliance with Patient Self-Determination Act (42 U.S.C. § 1395cc(f))

  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.

• Reliance Protection (Wyoming Statutes § 35-22-410)

  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.

• Religious Preferences (Wyoming Statutes § 35-22-403(f))

  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)).