Wyoming Medical Power of Attorney Form: How to Name a Health Care Agent

In Wyoming, there is no standalone "medical power of attorney form" to download. The document that appoints someone to make healthcare decisions for you is Part 1 — Power of Attorney for Health Care — of the state's unified Advance Health Care Directive, created under the Wyoming Health Care Decisions Act (W.S. § 35-22-401 et seq.). Other states split these into separate forms; Wyoming deliberately combined them, which means if you sign only a treatment-preference document and skip Part 1, no one has legal authority to speak for you.

Here's how the Wyoming medical power of attorney works: who you can appoint, how to sign it correctly, and what happens if you don't.

What Part 1 Actually Does

Part 1 of the Advance Health Care Directive names your health care agent (Wyoming's term — you may also see "proxy" or "attorney-in-fact" in generic forms). Your agent steps in only when you can't make or communicate your own decisions. Their authority covers the full range of medical choices: consenting to or refusing treatment, choosing providers and facilities, accessing your medical records, and enforcing the treatment instructions you wrote in Part 2 of the same document.

You should name at least one alternate agent. Agents get sick, travel, and sometimes predecease you — a directive with no backup can fail at exactly the wrong moment.

Who You Can (and Can't) Appoint

Wyoming law lets you appoint almost any competent adult who knows you well — a spouse, adult child, sibling, friend, or long-term partner. One statutory restriction catches people off guard: your agent cannot be an owner, operator, or employee of a residential or community care facility where you're receiving care, unless that person is related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption. If your parent is moving into assisted living and the obvious family choice works at the facility, you need a different agent.

Practical selection criteria matter more than the legal ones. Pick someone who:

• Lives close enough (or is willing to travel) to actually get to a Wyoming hospital fast.
• Can stay calm and assertive with medical staff under pressure.
• Understands your values well enough to decide situations you never wrote down.
• Will honor your wishes over their own preferences — and over pressure from other family members.

Have the conversation before you sign. An agent who learns about their appointment from a hospital social worker is set up to fail.

Signing Requirements

Part 1 is executed under the same rules as the rest of the directive (W.S. § 35-22-403): in writing, dated, signed while you have capacity, and either acknowledged before a notary public or witnessed by two competent adults. Witnesses cannot be your treating provider or its employees, your designated agent, or employees of the care facility treating you. Notarization sidesteps all witness-eligibility questions and is the low-friction option.

There's no filing requirement and no state fee. Once signed, distribute copies: your agent, your alternate, your primary care doctor, and your local hospital's registration desk. Keep the original accessible — not in a safe deposit box nobody can open on a Saturday night.

Revoking or Changing Your Agent

The revocation rules differ between the two halves of the directive, and this is the detail generic national forms get wrong. Under W.S. § 35-22-404, the appointment of your agent can be revoked only by a signed writing while you still have capacity — telling your sister "you're not my agent anymore" does nothing legally. (Your written treatment instructions in Part 2, by contrast, can be revoked in any manner, including orally, though an oral revocation must be documented in writing promptly.)

One automatic rule to know: a decree of divorce, annulment, or legal separation revokes your spouse's appointment as agent unless the decree or your directive explicitly says otherwise. After any divorce, re-execute the directive naming a new agent — don't assume the alternate just slides up.

What Happens With No Medical Power of Attorney

If you're incapacitated in Wyoming without a named agent, the default surrogate hierarchy in W.S. § 35-22-406 takes over: spouse first, then adult children, parents, grandparents, adult siblings, adult grandchildren. Two problems. First, the statute doesn't know your life — an unmarried partner of twenty years has no standing, while an estranged sibling does. Second, when multiple people share a rank and disagree, the provider follows the majority; an even split can land your care in front of a District Court. For the full picture, see our guide to the Wyoming advance directive.

Naming an agent takes ten minutes and eliminates all of it. If you want guided help — choosing between candidates, an agent-conversation worksheet so your wishes are actually understood, witness and notary checklists, and a revocation tracker for when life changes — the Wyoming Advance Directive & Living Will Kit walks through the whole process step by step.

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