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Iowa Healthcare Power of Attorney

An Iowa Healthcare Power of Attorney is a legal document that gives a person or organization permission to make health-related decisions on your behalf, such as accepting or refusing a certain medical treatment or procedure, if you cannot do so.

The individual giving control is called the "principal," and the individual or organization obtaining authority is known as the "agent." Suited for Iowa residents, this Power of Attorney for health care can be used in Polk County, Linn County, Scott County, and in every other county in the state. All Iowa Healthcare PoA forms from Rocket Lawyer can be fully customized to address your particular situation. With this document on hand, your agent(s) will be able to offer proof to medical facilities and other parties that they can legally act in your interest when you are not able.

It's quick and easy to grant or obtain the authority you may need with a free Iowa Healthcare Power of Attorney template from Rocket Lawyer:

1. Make the document - Answer a few simple questions and we will do the rest
2. Send or share - Review the document with your agent or ask a legal question
3. Sign it - Optional or not, witnesses/notarization are a best practice

This route is often notably less expensive than working with your average law firm. If necessary, you can prepare this Medical PoA on behalf of an elderly parent, a spouse, or another relative, and then have that person sign it after you've drafted it. Keep in mind that for a Power of Attorney to be legally valid, the principal must be mentally competent at the time of signing. If the principal is already incapacitated and unable to make their own decisions, a conservatorship may be required. When managing such a situation, it would be important to connect with a lawyer.

Every person over 18 ought to have a Healthcare Power of Attorney. While it is painful to acknowledge, a time may come when you are not able to make medical decisions on your own. Here are a few common situations in which power of attorney would be helpful:

• You are planning for an upcoming medical procedure or a hospitalization
• You are aging or dealing with ongoing health issues
• You have been given a terminal diagnosis
• You are planning to move into a care facility

Whether this Iowa Healthcare Power of Attorney is being drafted as part of a forward-looking plan or created as a result of an unexpected issue, witnesses and notarization can often help to protect your document if a third party doubts its lawfulness.

At times, in discussing the topics of estate planning or elder care with legal or healthcare professionals, you might hear "healthcare proxy" and "healthcare power of attorney" used interchangeably. At the end of the day, they are the same. That said, please keep in mind that it is absolutely possible to give power of attorney over matters that aren't health-related, in which case, "proxy" generally is not the term of choice.

Iowa Medical PoA forms are typically simple; however, you might have questions. Depending on whom you approach, some lawyers won't even accept requests to review your document if they weren't the person who wrote it. A better approach would be to request help from the Rocket Lawyer On Call^® network. If you sign up for a Premium membership, you will be able to ask for advice from an On Call attorney with relevant experience or ask other questions about your Healthcare Power of Attorney. As always, we'll be here to support you.

The cost of hiring a lawyer to make a Medical Power of Attorney might add up to anywhere from two hundred to five hundred dollars, based on your location. Rocket Lawyer can offer much more protection than many other Power of Attorney template providers that you might come across. As a Rocket Lawyer member, you can get up to a 40% discount when hiring an attorney.

As a Rocket Lawyer member, you can make edits, download it as a Word document or PDF file, and/or print it out. In order to finalize your Power of Attorney, it needs to be signed. Your agent(s), care providers, and other impacted parties should receive copies of the final document.

The specifications and restrictions governing PoA forms vary by state; however, in Iowa, your document will need the signatures of two witnesses and a notary public. The witnesses to your PoA form shouldn't be your healthcare provider or their employees. Only one of the witnesses may be a relative (including your spouse or any adopted children). As a basic standard, your witness(es) must not be under 18 years old, and none of them should also be your PoA agent.

See Iowa Healthcare Power of Attorney law: Chapter 144B