POA vs POAH....

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I see this all the time- and wonder if folks think they are the same. They are NOT. :)

POA- Power of Attorney- for financial issues

POAH- Power of Attorney for Healthcare....for medical decisions.

The paperwork is VERY different....

You don't call the POA for decisions re: medical care. Actually, the business office is the one with the most need for the POA.

Nurses and docs have more use for the POAH. The same person can have both designations.

I see them used interchangeably (or if not interchangeably, then wrong)....only reason I brought it up :twocents:

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That is interesting. I had never heard of POAH. My question is what if a person only has POA, does that suffice for medical decisions???

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Specializes in Peds Homecare.

In NYS, we have Power of Attorney and Health Care Proxy. The first has to do with legal matters and bank accounts excetera. To have someone to make your medical decisions you appoint them as your Health Care Proxy.

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That is interesting. I had never heard of POAH. My question is what if a person only has POA, does that suffice for medical decisions???

Depending on the state- no.

They aren't covered.

People need to know what their state requires re: medical decisions (either for themselves or their patients)

The POA form is purely financial....no mention of medical issues. (TX and IL)

POAH is purely medical- though I think there may be a small part re: expenses pertaining to medical care..... has NO impact on selling the house if in a nursing home, etc.

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Enter: Power of Attorney vs Power of Attorney for Healthcare (or whatever your state calls it) and watch millions of entries come up :)

I had the link- but it lead to some personal info I can't get rid of :D

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I have not heard of a POAH either. In Colorado, where I live, it is MDPOA-Medical Durable Power of Attorney.

For my mother, I have both a Financial POA, and a MDPOA.

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Here in California, it varies - with my late mom, we had a DPOA for financial (with me as the primary) and an Advance Healthcare Directive (with my sister as the primary). We each were listed as the alternate on the other's document, and it ended up being a comedy of errors when admission time came around - half the time I ended up being the main point of contact, half the time she did. The big issue seemed to be that the document that was actually NEEDED by the healthcare staff was the AHD, but what they would ASK for was the POA; and I had a heck of a time trying to get my sister to understand the distinction. When I handled the matter, they'd get the AHD; if she was asked, she'd point them at me and then I ended up being the decision maker. Technically, the hospital was in the clear either way, with a slight increase in risk when I handled the decision making (since I wasn't the primary - but she backed me up 100% of the time anyway) but it sure made for some fun times trying to determine who did what.

As far as can a DPOA be written up that has a single person listed as both - sure, but as a general rule (this according to the estate planning attorney we went with) it's typically split, both to split the workload and to address potential conflict of interest issues.

As always, I'm not an attorney, don't play one on TV, and couldn't be paid enough to stay at a Holiday Inn. :barf01:

----- Dave

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I have not heard of a POAH either. In Colorado, where I live, it is MDPOA-Medical Durable Power of Attorney.

For my mother, I have both a Financial POA, and a MDPOA.

Durable Medical Power of Attorney is essentially the same thing. :)

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Yeah, I figured...it has been one those brain-draining days. Sorry.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

It depends on the jurisdiction. In many areas, the POA refers to both financial and healthcare decision making rights, in others the POA does not confer the right to make healthcare decisions.

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It depends on the jurisdiction. In many areas, the POA refers to both financial and healthcare decision making rights, in others the POA does not confer the right to make healthcare decisions.

Right- my main point is to know the paperwork...:)

Unless the POA specifically covers healthcare decisions, it is useless for medical decisions.

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