Medical Power of Attorney in Indiana: Requirements, Powers, and Costs

A medical power of attorney in Indiana is formally called a healthcare representative appointment, governed by Indiana Code 16-36-1. It lets you name an adult to make medical decisions for you if you can’t make them yourself. To be valid, the document must be in writing, signed by you while you’re capable of consenting to your own care, and witnessed by at least one adult who is not the person you’re naming.¹

What Indiana Requires for a Valid Appointment

Three conditions have to be met. The appointment must be in writing. You must sign it yourself. And at least one adult witness, who is not the person you’re appointing, must witness your signature.¹ Indiana requires one witness, not two. Notarization is not an alternative to the witness requirement, though notarizing the document is still a smart step if you expect any family disagreement about its authenticity.

You also have to be legally able to consent to your own healthcare at the time you sign, which generally means being an adult of sound mind.¹ If someone later argues you didn’t understand what you were signing, the appointment can be invalidated. Don’t wait until cognitive decline is already underway.

One change worth flagging: since January 1, 2023, another person can no longer sign the appointment on your behalf. You must sign it yourself.¹

Indiana does not require you to file the appointment with any government office. But the document is useless if no one can find it in an emergency. Give copies to your representative, your primary care doctor, and any hospital where you receive regular care. Some online advance directive registries can link the document to electronic health records, which is worth considering if you travel often.

Choosing Your Representative

Your representative must be a competent adult. Indiana does not require them to live in the state, though a representative across the country can create delays when a hospital needs an answer at 2 a.m. The right person is someone who knows your values, stays calm under pressure, and will follow your wishes even when other family members push back.

The statute requires the representative to act in your best interest and in good faith, consistent with the purpose you expressed in the appointment.¹ “Best interest” and “what you would have wanted” are not always the same thing to other relatives, and that’s where most conflict starts. Talk to your representative in advance about what matters to you. The clearer that conversation, the better protected they are against second-guessing later.

Name a successor in the document itself. If your first choice can’t serve or resigns, the successor steps in without anyone going to court. You can also include a provision letting your representative delegate authority if circumstances require it.¹

A representative who is unwilling to carry out the terms of the appointment must notify you (if possible), your legal representative, and any healthcare provider involved in your care. Once they resign, they lose all authority under the appointment.¹

What Your Representative Can Decide

The representative’s authority is defined by two things: what you write in the appointment, and what Indiana law allows. You can grant broad authority over all medical decisions or limit it to specific situations. Either way, the authority only activates when you can’t consent yourself, and it suspends automatically if you regain capacity.¹

With broad authority, your representative can consent to or refuse treatment, authorize hospitalization, approve transfers between facilities, and make decisions about palliative or hospice care.

There’s one trap that catches people using generic forms. If you want your representative to have authority over life-sustaining treatment in a terminal condition, the appointment must include the specific statutory language from IC 30-5-5-17.² Without it, a provider may refuse to accept the representative’s direction to withdraw life-prolonging procedures. This is the strongest single reason to have an attorney draft or review the document rather than rely on a template.

The statute explicitly states that nothing in Chapter 1 authorizes euthanasia.²

How It Works With a Living Will

A living will and a healthcare representative appointment are separate documents that work together. A living will, governed by Indiana Code 16-36-4, states your preferences about life-prolonging treatment if you develop a terminal condition. The representative appointment puts a person in charge of carrying out those wishes and handling every other medical decision the living will doesn’t cover.

Indiana’s living will form even anticipates this. It includes a provision letting you leave the decision about artificial nutrition and hydration to your healthcare representative rather than specifying it in the living will itself.³ A living will can only address scenarios you predicted in advance. A representative responds to the actual situation.

Indiana also recognizes a broader “advance directive” under Chapter 7, which combines a representative designation, a living will, and anatomical gift instructions into one document.⁴ If you’re starting from scratch, a single comprehensive advance directive is usually the most practical approach.

Medical Decisions Only, Not Financial

A healthcare representative appointment covers medical decisions. It does not give your representative authority to manage your bank accounts, pay your bills, or handle property. Those powers require a separate financial power of attorney, typically created under Indiana Code 30-5. Many people assume one document does both, and that assumption causes real problems when a family member tries to pay a hospital bill or handle an insurance claim and has no legal authority to do so. Planning for incapacity generally means having both documents in place.

Access to Medical Records

Under HIPAA, your healthcare representative is your “personal representative,” which means they have the same right to your protected health information that you have yourself. That covers medical records, test results, and mental health records.⁵ You don’t need a separate HIPAA authorization if the appointment is currently in effect.⁶

There is one exception. A provider can refuse to treat someone as your personal representative if the provider reasonably believes you have been or may be subject to abuse or endangerment by that person.⁶

Changing or Revoking the Appointment

You can revoke the appointment at any time while you’re still capable of consenting to your own healthcare. Indiana gives you two paths. You can notify your representative that the appointment is revoked (orally or in writing), or you can notify your healthcare provider that the representative’s authority is revoked (orally or in writing).¹ No court filing, no need to destroy the document.

Those two options do different things. Notifying the representative ends the appointment itself. Notifying the provider suspends the representative’s authority at that facility. For a clean break, do both. If you’re creating a new appointment, state clearly in the new document that it replaces all prior versions.

What you can’t do is revoke after you’ve lost capacity. The statute requires you to be capable of consenting at the time of revocation.¹ Once you can no longer speak for yourself, the appointment stands unless a court intervenes. That is exactly why the up-front choice of representative matters so much.

What It Costs

Creating the appointment can cost almost nothing. If you draft the document yourself using a reliable template and have it witnessed, your only real cost is time. Adding notarization runs no more than $10 per signature in Indiana.⁷

Hiring an attorney to draft a standalone healthcare representative appointment typically runs between $150 and $600. Many estate planning attorneys bundle it with a living will, a financial power of attorney, and sometimes a basic will for a flat package fee. If you need those other documents anyway, the package is usually the better deal.

What Happens If You Don’t Have One

Without a representative appointment, Indiana law provides a default hierarchy of people authorized to consent to treatment on your behalf. Under Indiana Code 16-36-1-5, that hierarchy generally runs in this order: a court-appointed guardian, then a spouse, adult children, parents, and siblings.⁸

Relying on that default is risky. Multiple people at the same priority level, say three adult children, may disagree about your care. The person at the top of the list may not know your wishes. And the statutory order may not reflect your actual relationships. Naming a representative removes that uncertainty and puts the person you trust in charge before the situation ever arises.

1
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 16-36-1-7 – Appointed Representative; Qualifications
2
Justia. Indiana Code 16-36-1 – Medical Consent
3
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 16-36-4-10 – Form of Living Will Declaration
4
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 16-36-7-2 – Advance Directive
5
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). Personal Representatives
6
HHS.gov. Does Having a Health Care Power of Attorney Allow Access to the Patient’s Medical and Mental Health Records Under HIPAA?
7
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 33-42-14-1 – Notary Public Fees
8
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 16-36-1-5 – Persons Authorized to Consent for Others