When does health care power of attorney go into effect?

When does health care power of attorney go into effect?

The health care power of attorney can either go into effect at a time defined in the power itself, and that power can be determined based upon the condition of the principal, the individual who's conferring the power; comatose, completely disabled mentally, some condition which precludes the person giving a meaningful consent or instruction concerning medical care. What we do in our office is make the power effective immediately. The reason we do so is that under the new privacy laws enacted at the federal and California level, we believe by giving that power of attorney agent the power now, if later on, there is a need for that person to act, that person's current appointment qualifies him or her to release medical information that otherwise would not be available. It's a technical problem that has been created by the Privacy Act that we're simply trying to circumvent.