Legal Question in Health Care Law in Colorado

Re: Power of Attoney - with medical POA

The Colorado statutes provide both financial and medical form powers of attorney. These can be downloaded or copied for free or for a nominal charge from a variety of web sites.

Having said this, I do not recommend the use of these forms in most instances. They are very general and may not grant you all of the authority you will need in a given situation. For example, the form financial power of attorney does not specifically grant the power to make gifts; and the form medical power of attorney does not contain special provisions designed to comply with HIPAA's federal privacy regulations.

It is far better to have an attorney prepare customized powers of attorney for you that will be tailored to your mother's particular circumstances and wishes. Further, any powers of attorney should be durable, otherwise they will become void if your mother becomes incapacitated. An attorney should be able to prepare both a financial durable power of attorney and a medical durable power of attorney for your mother for around $400.

Your mother will need to sign her powers of attorney herself. Both the financial and the medical powers of attorney will need to be notarized; and the medical power of attorney will also need to be signed in the presence of two witnesses.

Our firm often prepares financial and medical powers of attorney for our clients. I would be happy to be of assistance.