Texas Medical Power of Attorney: Where the Copy Goes

In Texas, a signed copy of your medical power of attorney should go to your agent, any alternate agents, your primary doctor, and any hospital or care facility you use. Keep the original somewhere your agent can reach, and write the name of every person and place holding a copy on the form itself.

If you haven’t signed one yet, Texas Health and Human Services posts the official form for free, in English and Spanish: Medical Power of Attorney Designation of Health Care Agent. The legal text behind it is Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 166, Subchapter D, and the form itself is section 166.164.

Handing out copies is the step people tend to treat as optional, and it shapes how smoothly the document works when someone needs it. This is general information about Texas law, not legal advice. If your situation is complicated, a Texas attorney can tailor it.

Last checked: October 20, 2026. We read the official text of Chapter 166 (Subchapter D and the general provisions in Subchapter A) and the Texas HHS form page that day.

Who should get a signed copy

The Texas statutory form tells you directly. Its disclosure statement says you should discuss the document “with your agent and your physician and give each a signed copy.” Texas Law Help widens the list a little: keep the original, and give copies to your agent, your alternate agents, and your health care and residential care providers.

In practice, that list looks like this:

• Your agent, the person you named. They are the one who will be standing in the hallway with the paper.
• Each alternate agent. If your first choice can’t be reached, the backup needs their own copy, not a promise that one is somewhere.
• Your primary care doctor. Ask the office to add it to your chart.
• Any specialist you see often, especially for an ongoing condition.
• The hospital you’d most likely go to, if it will put a copy on file ahead of time.
• A nursing home, assisted living facility, or home health agency, if one is involved in care.

Other family members are not on that list, and the law doesn’t require you to give them a copy. Still, arguments over who holds the paper, and who gets to see it, come up again and again on caregiver forums. Telling your adult children or siblings who you picked, and where the paper lives, costs nothing.

Where to keep the original

Keep the original somewhere your agent can get to without you. A locked box only you can open is a poor home for a document that only matters when you can’t speak for yourself.

The form has a line for this: “The original of this document is kept at:” Fill it in. Then make sure the place you wrote down is still true a year from now.

An emergency binder is built for this. It doesn’t need the original. It needs a copy and a note saying where the original is. Our guide to what goes in an important documents binder covers when to file the original, when a copy is enough, and when a locator note is the better choice.

Why the copy matters more than you’d think

Two sections of the Texas statute explain why the copy should reach your doctors ahead of time.

First, section 166.158 says a health or residential care provider who knows your medical power of attorney exists must follow your agent’s directions, as long as they are consistent with your wishes, the law, and the document. That duty is tied to the provider knowing about it.

Second, section 166.160 covers the opposite case. A doctor or care provider has not engaged in unprofessional conduct for failing to follow your agent’s directions if they were “not provided with a copy of the medical power of attorney” or had no knowledge of a directive. The same section protects a provider who follows an agent under a document that had expired or been revoked, if the provider didn’t know that. Both rules are about professional conduct, the kind of thing a licensing board looks at. They don’t say what happens in every other dispute, and a lawyer is the right person to ask about that.

So the copy has to reach the right people, and it has to stay current.

The Texas Hospital Association gives similar advice in plainer words for advance directives in general: share copies with your doctor and your family, and take copies with you to the hospital.

A copy does not switch your agent on by itself, though. Under section 166.152, your agent can act only after your attending physician certifies in writing, and files in your medical record, that you are incompetent. Even then, treatment can’t be given to or withheld from you over your objection. The copy makes sure the right person is recognized when that moment comes. It doesn’t hand them control before it does.

Use the form’s own tracking lines

The statutory form has a second line right under the first: “The following individuals or institutions have signed copies:” The disclosure statement asks you to fill it in, saying you should “indicate on the document itself the people and institutions that you intend to have signed copies.”

That list is the closest thing the form gives you to a tracking system. Chapter 166 doesn’t set up a state registry for medical powers of attorney, and we didn’t find one on the Texas HHS advance directives pages. So the record of who has a copy is the one you keep.

A simple version you can copy into your binder:

When you sign a new version, this table tells you who needs the replacement and who should hand back or destroy the old one. Our emergency binder checklist includes a spot to note where your power of attorney paperwork is filed, so this fits right next to it.

When something changes: revoking, divorce, or a new agent

Texas makes revoking a medical power of attorney easy. Under section 166.155, you can revoke it by telling your agent or a licensed or certified health or residential care provider, out loud or in writing, or by any other act that shows you mean to revoke it. That works whether or not you are competent at the time. Signing a new medical power of attorney also revokes the old one.

You can’t edit the one you have. The form’s disclosure statement says it “may not be changed or modified,” so changing your agent or your limits means signing a new document.

That ease is why old copies are a problem. A revocation you mentioned once to one nurse may never reach the agent’s copy in their kitchen drawer.

The law puts some of the burden on providers. Under the same section, a licensed or certified provider who is told about a revocation must record it in your chart right away and notify your agent and any known providers currently responsible for your care. But that only covers the people who are told. The copies you handed out yourself are yours to chase down.

When anything changes, work through your tracking list:

1. Tell every person and place on the list, in writing if you can.
2. Ask for the old copies back, or ask holders to destroy them.
3. Hand out the new version and update the “signed copies” line.

Divorce. If you named your spouse as agent and the marriage is later dissolved, annulled, or declared void, section 166.155 treats that appointment as revoked unless the document says otherwise. The form’s alternate-agent section repeats the rule. Copies naming your former spouse may still be sitting in a doctor’s file, so tell the office.

End dates. You can put an expiration date on the document, but it doesn’t always stop on that day. If you are incompetent on that date, section 166.152 keeps it in effect until you become competent again or it is revoked. If you use an end date, write it on your tracking list so you know when a fresh document is due.

Who shouldn’t be your agent or witness

Your agent has to be an adult: 18 or older, or a younger person who has had the legal “disabilities of minority” removed (section 166.151). Under section 166.153, a person can’t act as your agent while they are your health care provider or residential care provider. The same goes for an employee of either one, unless that employee is your relative. So an unrelated nurse who works at your parent’s nursing home can’t act as your parent’s agent while working there, however much the family trusts them.

Section 166.154 sets out the signing. You either sign in front of two witnesses or sign and have your signature acknowledged by a notary public. If you use witnesses, both must be competent adults, and under section 166.003 at least one of them can’t be:

• your agent
• a relative by blood or marriage
• someone who would inherit anything from you under your will or by law
• your attending physician, or an employee of that physician
• an employee of a health care facility where you are a patient who gives you direct care, or an officer, director, partner, or business office employee of that facility
• anyone with a claim against what you leave behind

The form calls this person the first witness and has them sign a statement saying none of those apply. Choosing the notary route avoids that sorting. If you are physically unable to sign, section 166.154 lets another person sign your name in your presence and at your express direction.

For the agent: what to bring and how to sign

If you are the one named as agent, keep your copy where you can grab it quickly, along with a photo ID. A clear photo or scan on your phone is a good backup. Whether a given facility accepts a photocopy or a phone image instead of signed paper is something to ask that facility ahead of time. We didn’t find a Texas rule that settles it.

Section 166.157 lets an agent, subject to any limits in the document, request and review the principal’s medical records for the purpose of making a health care decision.

When a hospital hands you admission paperwork, read it before you sign. Some caregivers suggest signing “as agent for” the patient, so it is clear you are signing in that role and not for yourself. That’s common practice, not a Texas rule, so ask the hospital. Section 166.161 says the cost of care that results from an agent’s decision is handled the same as if the principal had made the decision. A separate form that makes the signer personally responsible for the bill is a different matter, so ask about it before you sign. And a medical power of attorney covers health care only. Handling the principal’s bank account takes a separate financial power of attorney.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a lawyer to make a Texas medical power of attorney?

Not necessarily. The statutory form’s own disclosure statement says, “You do not need a lawyer’s assistance to complete this document,” and adds that you should ask a lawyer to explain anything you don’t understand. You can download the form free from Texas HHS, and Texas Law Help links to a fillable version from the Dallas Bar Association. Some people still have an attorney prepare it as part of a broader set of legal papers, which can help if your wishes are complicated.

Does a copy work as well as the original?

The statute and the Texas Hospital Association both assume copies will be shared and used. We didn’t find a Texas law requiring every facility to treat a photocopy exactly like the original, so ask your doctor’s office and hospital what they want on file.

What happens if I don’t have one?

Texas law fills the gap with a default order. Under Health and Safety Code section 313.004, if an adult in a hospital, nursing home, or home health care can’t communicate and has no guardian and no agent who can be reached, consent to medical treatment can come from the spouse, then the adult children, then the parents, then the nearest living relative. Decisions about life-sustaining treatment follow a similar list under section 166.039, made together with the attending physician. The Texas State Law Library notes that the default order covers only certain treatments. A medical power of attorney lets you choose the person yourself instead of leaving it to that order.

Are there decisions my agent can’t make?

Yes. Under section 166.152, an agent can’t consent to voluntary inpatient mental health services, convulsive treatment, psychosurgery, or abortion, or to neglecting the person by leaving out care meant mainly for their comfort.

Final thoughts

Signing the form feels like the finish line, but it isn’t. This week, make a short list of who should hold a copy, hand those copies out, and fill in the two tracking lines on the form. Then put a copy and a note about where the original lives in your binder.

If you want one place for that note, along with the rest of your family’s important papers, the Family Emergency Binder has a page built for tracking where each original and copy is kept.