Florida Health Care Surrogate: How to Designate One, What They Can Do, and When It Takes Effect

A Florida health care surrogate is the adult you name in writing to make medical decisions for you when you cannot make or communicate them yourself. The document that names that person is called a designation of health care surrogate, and it is governed by Part II of Chapter 765 of the Florida Statutes. It is what most other states call a medical power of attorney or health care proxy. Florida uses its own vocabulary, and the difference matters when a hospital asks what you signed.

This guide explains the Florida rules in plain terms: who can serve, how the document must be signed (two witnesses, no notary), when the surrogate’s authority actually begins, what a surrogate can and cannot decide, who decides if you never name anyone, and what happens when family members disagree. Every rule is tied to the statute that creates it.

What Is a Health Care Surrogate in Florida?

Under § 765.101, a surrogate is the competent adult you expressly designate to make health care decisions on your behalf. That is the whole health care surrogate definition: the person you chose, in writing, to speak for you medically when you can’t. The healthcare surrogate meaning, the health surrogate meaning and the medical surrogate meaning are all the same thing in Florida — a surrogate decision maker for health care. Some hospitals and out-of-state documents call that role a health care surrogate decision maker, a patient advocate or a health care representative.

Three points in that definition do most of the work:

• You choose the person. That is what separates a surrogate from a proxy, whom the statute selects when you have not chosen anyone.
• The choice must be in writing and signed with the formalities covered below.
• The subject is health care. A health care surrogate is designated to make health care decisions: consenting to, refusing or withdrawing treatment, and getting the medical information needed to decide. It is not a financial role. (If you are answering a course question that says “a healthcare surrogate gives someone authority to make financial decisions on your behalf,” the answer is false.)

The designation of health care surrogate is one of three advance directives (also written advance health care directive) that Florida recognizes. Section 765.101(1) defines an advance directive to include a living will, a designation of health care surrogate, and an anatomical gift. Many Florida residents sign a surrogate designation and a Florida living will together. How the two fit is explained in our guide to advance directives vs. living wills in Florida.

A surrogate is also not the same as the emergency contact on a hospital intake form. An emergency contact is someone the hospital calls. A surrogate is someone the hospital takes direction from.

A note on the word “surrogate”: this page is about medical decision-makers. It has nothing to do with gestational surrogacy, which is a different body of law.

Health Care Surrogate vs. Medical Power of Attorney vs. Health Care Proxy: Florida’s Vocabulary

People search for a medical power of attorney in Florida, a Florida health care proxy, a health care power of attorney and a health care surrogate as though they were four different documents, and they ask it as health care surrogate vs power of attorney, medical power of attorney vs health care surrogate, health care proxy vs surrogate, or simply surrogate vs proxy. In Florida these mostly describe one thing. Here is how the terms line up:

• Health care surrogate: the person you name in a written designation under Part II of Chapter 765. This is Florida’s statutory term, and what “designation of a healthcare surrogate” means is simply the signed document making that appointment.
• “Medical power of attorney” or “health care power of attorney” (often shortened to medical POA or health care POA, and sometimes written as a durable power of attorney for health care): the name most other states use for the same job. Florida’s statute doesn’t use that label. So the answer to “how do I obtain a medical power of attorney in Florida” is that you sign a designation of health care surrogate, and the answer to “does a medical power of attorney need to be notarized in the state of Florida” is that the surrogate designation does not require a notary at all.
• Health care proxy: in Florida this is not a document. Under § 765.101 a proxy is the person the statute assigns when you have no valid surrogate designation, drawn from the list in § 765.401. In New York and Massachusetts “health care proxy” is the name of the document itself, which is why the terms get crossed.
• Health care agent: a generic term (and the one used in many out-of-state forms) for whoever holds medical decision authority. In Florida, that is your surrogate.
• Durable power of attorney: a Chapter 709 document for financial and property matters. It can include health care powers only if they are specifically granted (§ 709.2201(2)(c)). If a durable power of attorney and a surrogate designation conflict, the surrogate designation controls unless the power of attorney was signed later and expressly says it overrides (§ 709.2109(3)(b)).

Document or role	Who picks the decision-maker	Florida statute	What it covers	Signing formalities	When it works
Health care surrogate	You	§§ 765.202–765.205	Health care decisions and medical information	2 adult witnesses; no notary	On a physician’s incapacity determination, or immediately if you elect it
Health care proxy	The statute	§ 765.401	Health care decisions	None: no document exists	Only when you are incapacitated and have no available surrogate
Living will	No decision-maker; it records your own instructions	§§ 765.302–765.304	Life-prolonging procedures at the end of life	2 adult witnesses; no notary	Terminal, end-stage or persistent vegetative condition, with no reasonable probability of recovering capacity
Durable power of attorney	You	Ch. 709	Money and property; health care only if specifically granted	2 witnesses and a notary (§ 709.2105)	When signed
Guardian of the person	A court	Ch. 744	Whatever rights the court order removes and delegates	Court proceeding	After an incapacity adjudication
DNRO (DH Form 1896)	A medical order, not a delegation	§ 401.45; Fla. Admin. Code R. 64J-2.018	Withholding CPR	Signed by the clinician and the patient or the patient’s surrogate, proxy, guardian or agent	When signed; honored by EMS and facilities

What is the difference between a medical power of attorney and a health care surrogate?

In Florida, none: the designation of health care surrogate is the medical power of attorney. The real difference is between a health care surrogate and a financial durable power of attorney, and that is the most common mix-up. It gets asked in a dozen ways: what’s the difference between a power of attorney and a healthcare surrogate, is a healthcare surrogate a power of attorney, health care surrogate vs durable power of attorney, health care surrogate vs medical power of attorney, is a health care surrogate the same as power of attorney, what is the difference between a durable POA and a healthcare POA. The answer is the same each time. A durable power of attorney in Florida is a financial document: bank accounts, real estate, taxes, bills. A health care surrogate handles medical decisions. They are signed differently, too. A power of attorney needs two witnesses and a notary under § 709.2105, while a surrogate designation needs two witnesses and no notary.

You can give a durable power of attorney health care powers, but only if they are specifically granted. So can a power of attorney override a health care proxy in Florida? When the two documents point different directions, the surrogate designation wins unless the power of attorney is later in time and expressly overrides it. Most well-built Florida plans keep them as separate documents, often naming the same trusted person, so that a hospital sees one clean medical instrument and a bank sees one clean financial instrument. What happens to a power of attorney when you die is covered in does a power of attorney end at death in Florida.

Does a durable power of attorney cover medical decisions in Florida?

Only if it says so. This is asked a dozen ways — does a durable power of attorney cover medical decisions, does durable power of attorney include medical power of attorney, is durable power of attorney the same as medical power of attorney, what is the difference between durable power of attorney and medical power of attorney — and Florida answers all of them with two provisions. Under § 709.2201(2)(c), a durable power of attorney carries health care authority only when that authority is specifically granted in the document; a general “all powers” clause does not do it. And when the two instruments disagree, § 709.2109(3)(b) settles it: the surrogate designation controls unless the power of attorney is later in time and expressly says it overrides. So no, a durable power of attorney does not automatically override a medical power of attorney or a surrogate designation in Florida — usually the reverse.

Most Florida plans therefore pair them deliberately: a durable power of attorney and a medical power of attorney (that is, the surrogate designation) signed together, naming people who will cooperate, with no overlapping language to argue about. If you are searching for a durable power of attorney for medical decisions in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Port St. Lucie or anywhere else in Florida, what you actually need is the pair.

Health care surrogate vs health care proxy: what is a healthcare proxy vs surrogate?

You choose a surrogate. The statute assigns a proxy. A proxy acts only when you are incapacitated and no designated surrogate or alternate is available. If you have a valid designation, your surrogate comes first, ahead of your spouse and children on the proxy list.

Health care surrogate vs living will: can a healthcare surrogate override a living will?

Who can override a living will in Florida? Not your surrogate, and not your family. A living will states what you want at the end of life. A surrogate designation names who decides. That is the difference between health care surrogate and living will, and it is why you need both rather than one: yes, you need both a living will and a health care surrogate, because neither does the other’s job. They work as a pair. Your surrogate’s job is to carry out your written instructions, not to replace them. Where the two appear to conflict, or a family member believes the surrogate is ignoring your wishes, Florida’s remedy is a court petition under § 765.105 (explained below). Nothing in Chapter 765 lets a surrogate simply overrule your written living will.

Two documents, two different triggers (§ 765.306 vs § 765.204)

This distinction is missed by nearly every page on the subject, and it decides who can act and when. A living will only operates once your primary physician and at least one consulting physician separately examine you and each document that you have a terminal condition, an end-stage condition or are in a persistent vegetative state, with no reasonable medical probability of recovering capacity (§§ 765.304 and 765.306). A surrogate designation operates on the lighter § 765.204(2) capacity determination — your primary or attending physician, with a second physician only if the first has a question. Two physicians for the living will; ordinarily one for the surrogate. That is why a surrogate can consent to surgery after a car accident while a living will sits dormant.

What to put in the additional instructions

Florida’s suggested living will form at § 765.303 leaves space for additional instructions, and most people leave it blank. It is the most useful part of the document. Worth writing down: what an acceptable quality of life looks like to you in your own words, how you feel about a time-limited trial of treatment rather than an open-ended one, whether you want to be at home if the outcome is not going to change, religious or moral requirements your surrogate should honor, who you want kept informed, and who you do not want making decisions. Your surrogate’s job is substituted judgment; these sentences are what makes that possible.

Does refusing life support affect life insurance?

No. Section 765.309(2) says that withholding or withdrawing life-prolonging procedures in accordance with Chapter 765 “does not, for any purpose, constitute a suicide.” That matters because a life insurance policy’s suicide clause is what an insurer would otherwise point to. Section 765.309(1) is equally clear in the other direction: nothing in the chapter authorizes mercy killing or an affirmative act to end life.

Health care surrogate vs guardian (and how a designation helps you avoid guardianship)

A guardian is appointed by a court after an incapacity proceeding. A surrogate is appointed by you, with no court involvement. Signing a valid designation is one of the main ways to avoid guardianship for medical decisions and keep your family out of Florida guardianship court altogether. A guardian’s appointment does not by itself revoke a valid surrogate designation. Under § 744.3115, when a valid advance directive exists the court must specify what authority the guardian may exercise over the surrogate, and may modify or revoke the surrogate’s authority only on the grounds listed in § 765.105. Section 765.205(3) says the same thing from the other direction: if a guardian is appointed later, the surrogate keeps making health care decisions unless the court modifies or revokes that authority under § 744.3115. In Graham v. Florida Department of Children & Families, 970 So. 2d 438 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007), letters of guardianship purporting to give the guardian authority regardless of any valid advance directive were reversed, because they effectively revoked the directive without any § 765.105 ground. When nothing was signed and capacity is already gone, the family’s remaining route is a guardianship — often an emergency temporary guardianship in Florida, which means a court petition, a hearing and a court-appointed guardian, all of it on the court’s schedule rather than the hospital’s. There is a further protection when a professional guardian is involved: under § 744.4431, a professional guardian must petition the court and prove by clear and convincing evidence before withholding or withdrawing life-prolonging procedures or executing a do-not-resuscitate order.

Every Florida Authority on Health Care Surrogates: the Statute Map

Chapter 765 is titled Health Care Advance Directives — the Florida advance directive statute, sometimes called the Florida Health Care Advance Directives Act, and the chapter people mean when they search for the “Florida Health Care Surrogate Act” or for advance directive laws in Florida. It recognizes three types of advance directives: a living will, a designation of health care surrogate and an anatomical gift. It runs in five parts, and a handful of provisions outside it do real work too. This is the whole map, so you can see which section answers which question. Florida advance directive requirements, including the witness requirements, live in §§ 765.202 and 765.302; nothing in Chapter 765 was amended in the 2024, 2025 or 2026 sessions.

Authority	What it governs	Why it matters to you
§ 765.101	Definitions: advance directive, surrogate, proxy, health care decision, terminal condition, end-stage condition, persistent vegetative state	Settles the vocabulary fights, including that a living will and a surrogate designation are both advance directives
§ 765.104	Amendment and revocation, including orally; divorce	How to change your mind, and what a divorce does automatically
§ 765.105	Expedited judicial intervention, six grounds, broad standing	The only lawful route for a family member, physician or facility to challenge a surrogate
§ 765.110	Facilities may not condition care or admission on signing a directive; fine up to $1,000 per incident	You never have to sign a hospital’s packet to be treated
§ 765.1105	Provider unwilling to comply: transfer duty, 7 days, at the provider’s expense	What happens when a hospital or doctor refuses
§ 765.112	Out-of-state advance directives	Snowbirds and recent arrivals
§ 765.113	Decisions a surrogate or proxy may not make without express authority or court approval	The limits nobody’s form mentions
§ 765.202	The designation: writing, two adult witnesses, witness restrictions, alternates, immediate authority, mental health surrogate, the evidentiary presumption	The core execution section
§§ 765.2035, 765.2038	Designation of a surrogate for a minor	Children, travel, caregivers, deployments
§ 765.204	Capacity determination, commencement of authority, incapacity is not incompetency	When the surrogate can actually act
§ 765.205	The surrogate’s duties	What the job actually requires
§§ 765.302–765.306	Living wills: execution, procedure and the two-physician determination in § 765.306	The companion document, with its own separate trigger
§ 765.303	Suggested living will form, including the additional instructions space	Where your own words go
§ 765.309	Mercy killing not authorized; withdrawal in accordance with the chapter is not suicide	The life insurance question
§ 765.401	The proxy: the eight-tier priority list and the standard of decision	What happens when you sign nothing
§ 765.5155	Joshua Abbott Organ and Tissue Donor Registry	Florida’s only advance-directive-adjacent registry, and it covers donation only
§ 394.4598	Guardian advocate under the Baker Act	Mental health treatment decisions
§ 401.45 and Fla. Admin. Code R. 64J-2.018	Do Not Resuscitate Order, DH Form 1896	The separate medical order your surrogate may sign
§ 117.285(5) and § 415.102	Remote online witnessing, and the vulnerable adult limit on it	Signing without everyone in the room
§§ 709.2105, 709.2109(3)(b), 709.2201(2)(c)	Power of attorney execution, conflicts with a surrogate designation, and health care powers in a POA	How the two documents fit together
§§ 744.3115, 744.4431	Guardianship court must address the directive; professional guardians must petition before withholding life-prolonging procedures	What a guardianship does and does not do to your choice
§ 381.00321	Right of Medical Conscience (2023)	An open question about how far a provider’s refusal can go
Fla. Prob. R. 5.900	Petition procedure: hearing within 72 hours, evidentiary hearing within 4 days	How fast a dispute actually moves

Two things are not in the map because they do not exist in Florida. There is no state advance directive registry, and there is no POLST or MOLST program. If a website tells you to register your directive with the state, it is describing another state’s system.

How to Designate a Health Care Surrogate in Florida: The Signing Requirements

What are the requirements for a health care surrogate form in Florida? They are short, strict and easy to get wrong. The table below is the whole checklist under § 765.202.

Requirement	What Florida requires	Source
Written document	The designation must be in writing and signed by you	§ 765.202(1)
Witnesses	Two subscribing adult witnesses, present when you sign	§ 765.202(1)
Witness restriction #1	The person you designate as surrogate may not act as a witness	§ 765.202(2)
Witness restriction #2	At least one witness must be neither your spouse nor a blood relative	§ 765.202(2)
Notary	Not required. Chapter 765 contains no notarization requirement	Ch. 765
Filing or registration	None. Florida has no advance directive registry and no court filing	Ch. 765
Copy to the surrogate	Mandatory: an exact copy of the instrument must be provided to the surrogate	§ 765.202(1)
If you cannot sign	You may direct another person, in the presence of the witnesses, to sign your name for you	§ 765.202(1)
Alternate surrogate	Optional (and explicit if used); the alternate may act if the original surrogate is “not willing, able, or reasonably available.” Failing to name one does not invalidate the designation	§ 765.202(3)
Duration	Unless the document states a time of termination, the designation remains in effect until you revoke it	§ 765.202(7)
Form	No mandatory form. Section 765.203 gives a suggested form a designation “may, but need not be” in	§ 765.203
Immediate authority	Optional. You may state that the surrogate’s authority to receive health information, make decisions, or both is exercisable immediately	§ 765.202(6)

A properly executed designation carries legal weight. Under § 765.202(8), a written designation signed this way establishes a rebuttable presumption of clear and convincing evidence of your designation of the surrogate. In practice, anyone who wants to argue that you didn’t really choose that person starts at a steep disadvantage.

How do I designate a healthcare surrogate in Florida, step by step?

How can I designate a health care surrogate in Florida, how do I appoint someone to make medical decisions, and how do I get it done properly? If you are asking how to make medical decisions for someone else, the honest answer is that the authority has to be arranged before the crisis, by them, in writing. The process, start to finish:

1. Decide who. One surrogate, plus at least one alternate in a stated order.
2. Decide when their authority starts — on a physician’s determination that you lack capacity, or immediately.
3. Decide what they can and cannot do, including whether to grant the restricted § 765.113 powers expressly and whether a separate mental-health surrogate is needed.
4. Have the document prepared so it fits with your living will, your durable power of attorney and your HIPAA authorization instead of contradicting them.
5. Sign in front of two qualified adult witnesses — not your surrogate, and at least one not a spouse or blood relative.
6. Deliver copies to your surrogate and alternate, your primary physician, and any hospital or facility that treats you regularly. Tell your family who you named.
7. Revisit it after a marriage, a divorce, a move, a serious diagnosis, or the death or illness of the person you named.

Does a healthcare surrogate need to be notarized in Florida?

No. Neither a Florida health care surrogate form nor a designation of health care surrogate needs to be notarized. The words “notary” and “notarized” do not appear in the surrogate provisions of Chapter 765. Validity turns on the two witnesses. A notary stamp with only one witness does not make the document valid, while two qualified witnesses with no notary does.

The confusion comes from the durable power of attorney, which does need a notary under § 709.2105, and from other states’ health care proxy rules. If your health care powers are folded into a durable power of attorney rather than a separate surrogate designation, the power of attorney’s own signing rules, notary included, apply to that document.

Who can witness a healthcare surrogate in Florida, and can a surrogate be a witness?

Any two adults, with two limits:

• Not the surrogate. The person you are naming cannot sign as a witness. Keep your alternate off the witness lines too.
• At least one outsider. At least one of the two witnesses must be neither your spouse nor a blood relative. Because the statute says blood relative, a son-in-law or sister-in-law can serve as that second witness. Your spouse can serve as one witness if the other witness is not a spouse or blood relative (and your spouse is not the surrogate).

In a hospital, a nurse, social worker or chaplain often serves as the independent witness, but facility policies vary and some staff are not permitted to witness. The Florida advance directive witness requirements are their own rule, incidentally — they are not the will-signing formalities of § 732.502, and satisfying one does not satisfy the other.

Can I sign a health care surrogate designation online in Florida? (Remote online witnessing)

Yes, with conditions. Chapter 765 itself is silent on electronic signing, but § 117.285(5) expressly lists a health care advance directive among the documents that may be witnessed remotely by audio-video communication through a Florida online notary. There are guardrails. When fewer than two witnesses are physically present, the signer must answer statutory screening questions, and certain answers require physical witnesses instead. A vulnerable adult, as defined in § 415.102, cannot use remote witnesses at all. The electronic-wills statute, § 732.522, does not apply to Chapter 765 documents. For the practical side of signing from anywhere in Florida, see online estate planning in Florida.

Is there a “Florida health care surrogate form”?

There is no mandatory form. Section 765.203 sets out a suggested form that a designation “may, but need not be” in, so what makes a designation valid is the execution formalities of § 765.202, not the printed page you started from. That is why thousands of Floridians go looking for a Florida health care surrogate form every month and end up with something that fails anyway. Hospitals, health plans and advocacy groups hand out fill-in-the-blank versions, and there is no shortage of them online. Using one is not illegal. The problem is that a blank document has no way to catch the mistakes that actually cause trouble, and it cannot tell you what it is leaving out. The failures below come straight from the statute’s own requirements and limits:

What goes wrong with a do-it-yourself designation	Why it matters
The surrogate signs as a witness (common at a kitchen table)	Violates § 765.202(2). Whether the designation is void or merely voidable has never been decided by a Florida appellate court, and you do not want your family to be the test case.
Both witnesses are family	If both are spouses or blood relatives, the one-outsider rule fails.
One witness plus a notary stamp	A notary does not replace the second witness.
No alternate named	If your only surrogate is unreachable, travelling or ill, decisions fall to the statutory proxy list.
No immediate-authority election when one is needed	For someone with a progressive illness, waiting for a formal incapacity finding can stall treatment and information.
No express authority for restricted decisions	Without written delegation, § 765.113 forces a court petition for decisions such as voluntary admission to a mental health facility.
An ex-spouse still named	Divorce revokes the ex-spouse’s designation (§ 765.104(2)). With no alternate, the document may name no one at all.
Conflicts with a power of attorney	A later durable power of attorney with health care language can create a priority fight under § 709.2109(3)(b).
A form written for another state	An out-of-state document signed while you lived in Florida must meet Florida’s rules to be valid here.
A form for an adult used for a child	Minors are governed by separate sections (§§ 765.2035 and 765.2038).

The value of having an attorney prepare the document is not the paper. It is the judgment about who to name, which powers to grant expressly, whether to elect immediate authority, how the designation fits with your living will and power of attorney, and a signing ceremony with the right witnesses so the document holds up when it is finally used.

Who Should You Choose as Your Health Care Surrogate?

Florida requires a competent adult. Beyond that, the choice is yours: a spouse, an adult child, a sibling, a partner or a close friend. The practical qualities matter more than the relationship:

• Reachable. Hospitals move fast. Someone who answers the phone at 2 a.m. is worth more than someone with a better title.
• Willing to follow your wishes, including wishes they would not choose for themselves.
• Steady under pressure and able to push back on a physician or on relatives.
• Familiar with your values, including your religious and moral views on life support, feeding tubes and comfort care.

Then talk to them. Tell them what you want, where your documents are, and who else you want kept informed. A designation works best when your surrogate never has to guess.

Can you have two health care surrogates in Florida? (Co-surrogates and backups)

You can name one surrogate and one or more alternates — a backup health care agent, in everyday language — who step in, in order, if the first is unwilling, unable or not reasonably available. Naming two people to act together as co-surrogates is a different matter: Chapter 765 is built around one surrogate at a time, with alternates who act in succession, and it contains no provision for two people holding and exercising the authority simultaneously. The statutory structure is sequential — surrogate, then alternate, then proxy. Joint decision-makers who disagree at a bedside also leave the hospital without a clear answer, and resolving that can mean a court petition.

Can my health care surrogate live out of state?

Yes. Chapter 765 requires only “any competent adult” and imposes no Florida-residency requirement, so the practical question is availability, not an address. A surrogate in another state can make decisions by phone and sign what needs signing, but a hospital will usually want someone reachable immediately. Many snowbirds name a Florida-based alternate for exactly that reason.

Should my surrogate be the same person as my power of attorney agent?

Often, yes. The person deciding on a nursing facility and the person paying for it work best when they are the same person or are closely coordinated. It is not required, and some families deliberately split the roles, for example a medically trained child as surrogate and a financially organized child as agent. If you split them, make sure the documents don’t conflict (§ 709.2109(3)(b)).

Can an unmarried partner or close friend be my health care surrogate?

Yes. This is one of the strongest reasons to sign a designation. Without one, an unmarried partner or close friend ranks below your adult children, parents, siblings and other relatives on Florida’s proxy list. A written designation moves the person you actually trust to the front of the line.

When Does a Health Care Surrogate Take Effect in Florida? (When the Surrogate’s Authority Begins)

You choose one of two starting points.

1. On incapacity (the default). Unless your document says otherwise, your surrogate’s authority begins when you are found to lack capacity to make health care decisions. Under § 765.204(2), your primary or attending physician evaluates your capacity. A second physician evaluates you only if the evaluating physician has a question about whether you lack capacity. It is not an automatic two-doctor rule. Once you are found to lack capacity, the surrogate’s authority commences under § 765.204(3).

2. Immediately. Under § 765.202(6), your document can state that the surrogate’s authority to receive your health information, make health care decisions, or both is exercisable immediately, with no incapacity determination. This is the answer to “can a healthcare surrogate be springing in Florida?” Springing is the default. Immediate is your option.

Immediate authority does not silence you. While you can make and communicate decisions, your own decisions control, and the surrogate’s role is to help: speaking with doctors, getting records, and stepping in the moment you can’t — under anesthesia, in an ICU, in a coma after an accident, or during a stretch of delirium or advancing Alzheimer’s disease.

A capacity determination is also about the decision in front of you, not a permanent status. When you regain capacity, your own decisions control again.

Who should choose immediate authority?

• People living with a progressive diagnosis such as dementia, Parkinson’s or advanced cancer, where capacity may fluctuate.
• Older adults who already rely on a child to handle appointments and portals.
• Anyone who wants their surrogate to have ready access to medical information without a formal capacity finding first.

How is incapacity determined in Florida, and is it the same as being declared incompetent?

No. A physician’s determination that you lack capacity to make health care decisions is not a finding of incompetency for any other purpose (§ 765.204(5)). It doesn’t strip your legal rights, affect your will or contracts, or amount to a guardianship. It simply lets your surrogate act on your medical care.

What Does a Health Care Surrogate Do in Florida? Powers, Duties and Rights

What can a healthcare surrogate do, what power does a healthcare surrogate have, and what rights does a healthcare surrogate have in Florida? Once authority begins, your surrogate stands in your shoes for health care decisions. The surrogate’s duties and responsibilities include:

• Consenting to, refusing or withdrawing treatment: surgery, medications, dialysis, ventilators, feeding tubes and other life-prolonging procedures, consistent with your instructions and any living will.
• Talking directly with your physicians and care team about diagnosis, prognosis and options.
• Getting the medical information needed to decide. Section 765.205(1)(d) entitles the surrogate to be provided access to your appropriate health information; many plans still pair the designation with a separate HIPAA authorization so records flow without an argument.
• Signing a do-not-resuscitate order. Florida’s DNRO (DH Form 1896) may be signed by the patient’s surrogate, proxy, guardian or agent alongside the clinician (Fla. Admin. Code R. 64J-2.018(6)).
• Deciding based on your wishes. Section 765.205(1)(b) makes this the rule: the surrogate must make the decision the surrogate believes you would have made, and may consider your best interest only if there is no indication of what you would have chosen. Lawyers call it substituted judgment.
• Authorizing admission, discharge or transfer to or from a facility licensed under chapter 400 or 429, and releasing health information to keep your care continuous (§ 765.205(2)) — which is how hospice, rehabilitation and skilled nursing placements actually get arranged.

Who signs the consent form for surgery if I can’t?

Your surrogate. Informed consent has to come from someone with authority, so when the patient cannot give it, the hospital looks for a surrogate, then down the proxy list. That is what hospitals and ethics committees mean by surrogate consent and by an informed consent surrogate decision maker, and Florida’s version of a default surrogate consent law is § 765.401. Two practical notes: the person signing a surgical consent should be the one named in your document, not whichever relative is standing closest; and signing a consent to treat is not the same as signing an admission agreement that makes someone financially responsible.

Can a healthcare surrogate sign a DNR in Florida? (Who can legally sign a DNR)

Yes. The Florida Department of Health’s Do Not Resuscitate Order (DH Form 1896, revision 02/2024, under § 401.45 and Fla. Admin. Code R. 64J-2.018, effective 10 October 2024) requires two signatures: the patient’s physician, osteopathic physician, autonomous advanced practice registered nurse or physician assistant, and either the patient or the patient’s health care surrogate or proxy, a court-appointed guardian, or an agent under a durable power of attorney who is expressly authorized to make health care decisions. The surrogate named on that form is what people mean when they ask what a surrogate on a DNR is. A DNRO is a medical order. It is expressly not a substitute for an advance directive (R. 64J-2.018(3)), so you still need the surrogate designation. Florida has no POLST or MOLST program. A 2026 bill that would have created one died in committee.

Practical points families ask about the Florida DNR form 1896. It must be on yellow paper, though any shade counts; EMS may decline to honor one that is not yellow, whose content has been altered, or whose wording is not legible. Copies are honored, including a version rerecorded in an electronic medical record, and so are earlier versions of the form — EMS acts on “an original or a copy.” The reduced-size portion at the bottom of the form is the DNRO Device, which is the wallet-card version. A Florida DNRO has no expiration date. The patient may revoke it at any time: orally, in writing, by physically destroying it, by a writing signed the same way as the DNRO, or simply by not presenting it to EMS. A surrogate acting for an incapacitated patient does not revoke it that way; the surrogate exercises the same Chapter 765 authority and directs the physician to rescind or change the order. If the patient regains capacity, the patient’s own choice controls. As for DNI — do not intubate — Florida has no separate DNI form; it is handled as a physician’s order and a treatment decision made with your doctor. On DNR vs living will: a living will is your written instruction for a defined end-of-life condition, while a DNRO is a physician’s order that EMS and facility staff act on immediately. They are different instruments, and having one does not give you the other.

Can a healthcare surrogate make financial decisions, and is a healthcare surrogate responsible for medical bills?

A Florida health care surrogate has no general authority over your money or property. That belongs to your agent under a durable power of attorney, or to a court-appointed guardian of the property. Even closely related “business” decisions fall outside the role. In Blankfeld v. Richmond Health Care, Inc., 902 So. 2d 296 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005), and Manor Oaks, Inc. v. Campbell, 276 So. 3d 830 (Fla. 4th DCA 2019), the court held that a health care surrogate could not bind the patient to a nursing home arbitration agreement, because “the narrow focus of the document is on the surrogates’ power to make health care decisions, not business choices concerning dispute resolution.”

Acting as surrogate is a decision-making role, not a promise to pay your medical bills. Surrogates should read facility admission paperwork carefully before signing anything that describes them as a “responsible party” or “guarantor,” because that is a separate commitment from serving as surrogate.

There is one narrow exception, and it surprises people. Section 765.205(1)(e) expressly authorizes your surrogate to apply for public benefits such as Medicare and Medicaid on your behalf, and to see your income, assets, banking and financial records to the extent required to make that application. A provider cannot make applying a condition of continued care if you, while capable, would have refused. That is the outer limit: it is a benefits-application power, not general control of your money. Everything else financial — paying bills, selling property, moving accounts, long-term Medicaid planning — belongs in a durable power of attorney, which is why the two documents are planned together.

Does a health care surrogate decide where you live?

A surrogate decides about health care, including treatment and the medical care setting. Broader decisions about your residence, your property and your personal affairs outside medical care belong to you while you have capacity. After that, they belong to a guardian or your agent to the extent a court order or power of attorney grants them. When families expect a surrogate to manage a move to assisted living, the plan usually needs a coordinated durable power of attorney as well.

Decisions a Health Care Surrogate Cannot Make Without Express Authority

Florida sets aside a short list of decisions a surrogate or proxy may not make unless you expressly delegated that authority in writing, or the surrogate first obtains court approval under Florida Probate Rule 5.900 (§ 765.113):

Restricted decision	Statute	How to authorize it
Abortion	§ 765.113(1)	Express written delegation, or Rule 5.900 court approval
Sterilization	§ 765.113(1)	Same
Electroshock therapy	§ 765.113(1)	Same
Psychosurgery	§ 765.113(1)	Same
Experimental treatment not approved by a federally approved institutional review board	§ 765.113(1)	Same
Voluntary admission to a mental health facility	§ 765.113(1)	Same
Withholding or withdrawing life-prolonging procedures from a pregnant patient before viability (as defined in § 390.0111(4))	§ 765.113(2)	Same

If any of these could matter to you, say so in the document. A standard fill-in form almost never does.

Mental Health Treatment and a Separate Mental Health Surrogate

Florida lets you name a separate surrogate for mental health treatment, to act if a court finds you incompetent to consent to mental health treatment and appoints a guardian advocate under the Baker Act (§ 394.4598). Unless your document says otherwise, your health care surrogate is presumed to be your choice for mental health decisions as well (§ 765.202(5)). If you would rather have a different person, for example someone with experience in psychiatric care, name that person expressly. Remember that voluntary admission to a mental health facility is one of the restricted decisions above. This is what people mean when they search for a Florida mental health advance directive or a psychiatric advance directive: Florida handles it inside Chapter 765 and the Baker Act rather than through a separate statute of its own.

Health Care Surrogate for a Minor in Florida (Designation for a Minor Child)

Parents and legal guardians can sign a designation of health care surrogate for a minor under § 765.2035 and § 765.2038. It answers the question of who can make medical decisions for a child when the parents are unreachable: the designated person can consent to care for your child during those hours or weeks — a grandparent during a summer visit, a relative while you travel, a caregiver during a deployment. The same witness rule applies, and the designated surrogate cannot be a witness. Unless the document says otherwise, the designation is presumed to cover mental health treatment. A designation is not invalid solely because it was signed before the child was born.

“Medical power of attorney” for an adult child or college student

At 18, your child is an adult, and your authority as a parent ends. If a college student is hurt and can’t communicate, Florida’s proxy list puts a parent fourth, behind a guardian, a spouse and any adult children. Either parent may act, which can lead to conflict in divorced families, and there is no immediate right to medical information. A young adult’s own designation of health care surrogate fixes all three problems: it names the parent (or other person) they choose, names an alternate, and can make access to health information immediate.

Health care surrogate for an aging parent

If you are helping a parent, the designation must be signed by your parent, while your parent still has capacity to sign it. You can’t sign one for them. If capacity is already gone and no designation exists, the options are Florida’s proxy list or a guardianship, which is why the conversation is worth having early.

What Happens If You Don’t Have a Health Care Surrogate in Florida?

If you are incapacitated and have no valid designation, or no designated surrogate or alternate is willing and available, Florida’s statute chooses a health care proxy for you. This is the answer to the questions people ask most often: who makes medical decisions if you are incapacitated in Florida, who makes medical decisions if you are not married, who makes medical decisions if there is no power of attorney, who makes decisions for an incapacitated person, and who can make decisions for me if I am unable. The person who makes medical decisions for someone else is a surrogate if you chose them and a proxy if the statute did. Under § 765.401(1), the order is:

Priority	Proxy
(a)	A judicially appointed guardian (or guardian advocate) authorized to consent to medical treatment, if one has already been appointed
(b)	Your spouse
(c)	An adult child, or if you have more than one, a majority of the adult children who are reasonably available
(d)	A parent
(e)	An adult sibling, or a majority of adult siblings who are reasonably available
(f)	An adult relative who has shown special care and concern for you
(g)	A close friend
(h)	A licensed clinical social worker selected by the provider’s bioethics committee

That order is the surrogate decision maker hierarchy — the medical decision maker hierarchy, in plainer words — and three things follow from it:

• Your spouse is not automatically first. A guardian outranks a spouse, and a spouse is only first among family.
• “Majority of adult children” can mean deadlock. With three children split on a decision, no one has clear authority.
• Partners and friends rank low. An unmarried partner, a girlfriend or boyfriend of many years, a single person’s closest friend: all of them sit at tier (g). Only a written designation moves them up.

Can a next of kin make medical decisions in Florida? Effectively yes, but only in the order above, only once you are found to lack capacity, and only if nobody higher on the list is available. “Next of kin” is not a legal shortcut here, and it is not a substitute for naming someone.

Each class is reached only if no one in a class above is reasonably available, willing and competent to act. Under § 765.401(2) the proxy must decide as the proxy reasonably believes you would have decided, and may fall back on your best interest only if there is no indication of what you would have chosen. And § 765.401(3) adds a heavier burden for the decision that matters most: a proxy’s decision to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging procedures must be supported by clear and convincing evidence of what you would have chosen, or of your best interest where your wishes are unknown. That standard traces to In re Guardianship of Browning, 568 So. 2d 4 (Fla. 1990) — and Browning also holds that the rebuttable presumption comes from a written declaration and “does not attach to purely oral declarations.” A signed designation and living will are the best evidence there is.

Who makes medical decisions for a spouse, an aging parent, an adult child or someone with dementia?

The same list answers all of them, which is exactly why it disappoints so many families:

• A spouse. Who makes medical decisions for a spouse? Can a spouse make medical decisions without a power of attorney — can a wife make medical decisions for her husband, or a husband for his wife? Yes, as a proxy at tier (b), but only after a physician determines the patient lacks capacity, and only if no guardian has been appointed. Does a spouse need a medical power of attorney in Florida? Not to reach tier (b) — but a designation is what gives a spouse immediate authority, access to information, and the ability to act without argument from adult children.
• An aging parent. Who makes medical decisions for elderly parents falls to the same list, and adult children share tier (c), so siblings who disagree can deadlock.
• An adult child. Who makes medical decisions for adult children is the college-student problem above: parents sit at tier (d).
• Someone with dementia. Who makes medical decisions for someone with dementia, or for dementia patients generally, depends entirely on whether a designation was signed while the person still had capacity to sign one. After that window closes, the choice is the proxy list or a guardianship.
• An unmarried or single adult. Who makes medical decisions for an unmarried adult, or who makes medical decisions for single adults with no children, runs down to siblings, other relatives, then a close friend — often someone the patient would not have chosen.

How to determine capacity to make medical decisions in the first place, and who judges medical decision making capacity? By your treating physician, under the § 765.204(2) rule described above, not by your family’s opinion and not by a court.

What happens if there is no health care proxy, and can a surrogate be chosen verbally?

No health care proxy, who makes decisions? If there is no health care proxy and no designation, the statute still supplies a decision-maker from the list, so the question is never whether someone will decide — it is whether it is the person you would have picked. A verbal designation does not do the job: § 765.202 requires a written, witnessed document, so an oral designation is not a designation at all. Browning makes the same point about evidence — the rebuttable presumption comes from a written declaration and “does not attach to purely oral declarations,” though oral evidence can still be clear and convincing. The asymmetry is worth remembering, because revocation works the other way. You can revoke orally, but you cannot appoint orally.

Can Family Override a Health Care Surrogate in Florida?

Can a family member override a healthcare proxy or a designated surrogate? Relatives sometimes announce that they are doing exactly that. Florida does not work that way. No Florida appellate decision has held that family members can unilaterally override a validly designated health care surrogate. The route is a court petition under § 765.105, which lets the patient’s family, the health care facility, the attending physician or any other interested person who may reasonably be expected to be directly affected seek expedited judicial intervention on six grounds:

1. The surrogate’s decision is not in accord with the patient’s known desires or with Chapter 765.
2. The advance directive is ambiguous, or the patient changed his or her mind after signing it.
3. The surrogate was improperly designated or appointed, or the designation is no longer effective or has been revoked.
4. The surrogate has failed to discharge duties, or incapacity or illness makes the surrogate incapable of doing so.
5. The surrogate has abused powers.
6. The patient has sufficient capacity to make his or her own health care decisions.

These petitions move quickly. Florida Probate Rule 5.900 sets a preliminary hearing within 72 hours of filing and an evidentiary hearing within four days after that. Published examples are rare: in Jeda v. Gerasci, 330 So. 3d 549 (Fla. 4th DCA 2021), a hospital officer petitioned for expedited judicial intervention to withhold life-prolonging procedures over the objection of the designated surrogate, the patient’s mother; the patient died and the appeal was dismissed as moot. A closer case on family displacement is Martinez v. Guardianship of Smith, 159 So. 3d 394 (Fla. 4th DCA 2015), which reversed the displacement of a designated surrogate spouse where the court invoked a ground but did not adequately support it. Section 765.105 also contains a carve-out for a capacitated principal whose surrogate holds immediate authority.

The practical lesson is upstream of the courthouse: name one surrogate, name alternates in order, put your instructions in writing, and tell the rest of the family what you decided and why. Most bedside fights are about surprise, not about law.

What if the hospital refuses to follow my surrogate or my advance directive?

A provider who is unwilling to carry out your directive or your surrogate’s decision cannot simply refuse and wait. Under § 765.1105, the provider must make reasonable efforts to transfer you to another provider who will comply. A facility can rely on a conscience-based exemption only if the situation is not an emergency and it gave written notice of its policy at admission. Within seven days, the provider must either transfer you, at the provider’s expense, or carry out your wishes. Separately, § 765.110 bars a facility from conditioning treatment or admission on whether you have signed an advance directive, backed by a fine of up to $1,000 per incident. One caution: Florida’s 2023 Right of Medical Conscience statute, § 381.00321, lets providers decline to participate in care that violates conscience, and no Florida appellate decision has yet settled how far that reaches against the § 765.1105 transfer duty. If a facility is stalling, that unresolved tension is the reason to get counsel involved quickly rather than argue it at a nurses’ station.

How to Revoke or Change a Florida Health Care Surrogate

While you have capacity, you can change your mind at any time. Under § 765.104, an advance directive can be amended or revoked by a signed, dated writing, by a later directive that is materially different, or orally, by an expression of your intent to revoke. A revocation is effective when it is communicated, and a provider or surrogate who has no actual knowledge of the revocation is not liable for acting on the old document.

Divorce is automatic. Under § 765.104(2), a dissolution of marriage revokes the designation of a former spouse as surrogate. If your ex is your only named surrogate, the document is left with no one to act and your care falls back to the proxy list. Name an alternate, and re-sign after a divorce.

The safest way to make a change is a new designation that expressly revokes prior versions, signed with fresh witnesses, with copies delivered to your surrogate, your physician and any facility holding the old one. Collect the outdated copies. A document nobody can find is the same as no document at all.

Does a Florida health care surrogate designation expire?

Does a health care proxy expire, or do health care proxy forms expire? Not in Florida. It does not expire on a schedule the way a driver’s license does. It stays in place until you revoke it, unless you wrote a termination date into the document. Even so, it is worth reviewing every few years, and after any of these: marriage, divorce, the death or illness of your surrogate, a move to or from Florida, a serious diagnosis, or estrangement from the person you named.

Is an out-of-state health care directive valid in Florida?

Generally yes. Under § 765.112, an advance directive executed in another state is valid in Florida if it was executed in compliance with the law of the state where it was made, or with Florida law. For snowbirds, the practical advice is still to sign a Florida designation: Florida hospitals recognize the Florida instrument on sight, and a Florida-based alternate solves the availability problem. If you split the year between two states, it is worth checking that the two documents name compatible people and don’t contradict each other.

Does a surrogate’s authority end at death?

A health care surrogate’s role is to make decisions about your medical care while you are alive, so the authority does not continue after death the way people expect. Organ donation is handled separately: anatomical gifts are governed by Part V of Chapter 765, and Florida’s statewide registry, the Joshua Abbott Organ and Tissue Donor Registry (§ 765.5155), covers organ and tissue donation only. Florida has no registry for advance directives, so there is nowhere to “file” your designation for safekeeping.

The Florida Cases Behind the Law

Chapter 765 did not appear from nowhere. Florida’s courts spent fourteen years working out who decides for a patient who cannot speak, and the Legislature codified the answer in 1992. If you are looking for the life support laws in Florida, or for who decides to remove life support, this is the line of authority.

• Satz v. Perlmutter, 362 So. 2d 160 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978), approved 379 So. 2d 359 (Fla. 1980). A competent adult on a ventilator was allowed to refuse continued treatment. The right to refuse came first; everything else is a mechanism for exercising it when you cannot speak.
• John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital v. Bludworth, 452 So. 2d 921 (Fla. 1984). The right survives incompetency and can be exercised by a proxy, without a court order in the ordinary case.
• Corbett v. D’Alessandro, 487 So. 2d 368 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986). Artificial feeding is treatment like any other, so it can be refused.
• In re Guardianship of Browning, 568 So. 2d 4 (Fla. 1990). The case the whole chapter rests on. It set the clear and convincing evidence standard for what the patient would have chosen, and held that a written declaration creates a rebuttable presumption meeting that standard. It is also the reason no prior judicial approval is needed when the patient’s wishes are clear.
• Matter of Dubreuil, 629 So. 2d 819 (Fla. 1993). A competent adult’s refusal of a blood transfusion on religious grounds was upheld; the state’s interests did not override it.
• The Schiavo litigation, ending with Bush v. Schiavo, 885 So. 2d 321 (Fla. 2004). The feeding tube case in Florida that everyone remembers. Terri Schiavo left nothing in writing, so the fight was over proving what she would have wanted, which took years. The Supreme Court struck down “Terri’s Law” on separation of powers. The clear and convincing standard applied in her case came from Browning, not from her case. What her case actually proves is the value of a signed designation.
• Scheible v. Joseph L. Morse Geriatric Center, 988 So. 2d 1130 (Fla. 4th DCA 2008). A nursing home resuscitated a resident contrary to her living will. The jury returned a $150,000 breach-of-contract verdict. A directive that is ignored is not automatically a private cause of action under Chapter 765, but it is not toothless either.
• Blankfeld v. Richmond Health Care, 902 So. 2d 296 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005) (en banc) and Manor Oaks v. Campbell, 276 So. 3d 830 (Fla. 4th DCA 2019). A surrogate’s authority is medical, so it does not reach a nursing home arbitration agreement. Blankfeld rested on two grounds, and the second — a public-policy holding about limiting statutory remedies — drew a “declined to follow” from the Second District in 2009; the surrogate-authority ground relied on here was reaffirmed in Manor Oaks.
• Graham v. Florida Department of Children & Families, 970 So. 2d 438 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007). Appointing a guardian does not by itself revoke a valid surrogate designation; revocation requires compliance with §§ 744.3115 and 765.105.
• Jeda v. Gerasci, 330 So. 3d 549 (Fla. 4th DCA 2021). The rare published example of a provider seeking expedited judicial intervention over a designated surrogate’s objection. The appeal was dismissed as moot after the patient died.

Two questions in this area are genuinely unsettled, and any page that tells you otherwise is guessing: whether a designation witnessed by the surrogate is void or merely voidable, and how far the 2023 Right of Medical Conscience statute, § 381.00321, can be stretched against § 765.1105’s transfer duty. No Florida appellate decision has resolved either one.

Is a Health Care Surrogate Personally Liable? (§ 765.109 Immunity)

This is the question that stops people from saying yes, and Florida answers it directly. Under § 765.109, a surrogate or proxy who makes a health care decision on a patient’s behalf under Chapter 765 “is not subject to criminal prosecution or civil liability for such action.” The same section protects health care facilities, providers and people acting under their direction who carry out a decision made in accordance with the chapter, and says they are not to be deemed to have engaged in unprofessional conduct for doing so.

The protection carries one condition: it applies unless it is shown by a preponderance of the evidence that the person authorizing or carrying out the decision did not, in good faith, comply with the chapter. A surrogate who follows your instructions and the statute is protected; one who ignores both is not. For the ambulance setting, § 401.45(3)(b) separately protects EMTs, paramedics, physicians and medical directors who withhold resuscitation under a valid DNRO.

If There Is No Directive, No Family and No Friend: § 765.404

Florida has a last-resort provision for the hardest case — a patient in a persistent vegetative state, with no advance directive, no evidence of what the person would have wanted, and, after a reasonably diligent inquiry, no family or friends available or willing to serve as proxy. Under § 765.404, life-prolonging procedures may be withheld or withdrawn only if both conditions are met:

1. The person has a judicially appointed guardian representing his or her best interest, with authority to consent to medical treatment; and
2. The guardian and the person’s primary physician, in consultation with the medical ethics committee of the facility, conclude that the condition is permanent, that there is no reasonable medical probability of recovery, and that withholding or withdrawing is in the patient’s best interest. A facility without its own ethics committee must have an arrangement with another facility’s committee, or with a community-based ethics committee approved by the Florida Bio-ethics Network.

That is what the absence of a signed designation actually costs: a court, a guardian, an ethics committee and strangers deciding. It takes an afternoon to avoid.

Common Myths About Florida Health Care Surrogates

• “My spouse is automatically my surrogate.” Your spouse is second on the proxy list, behind a court-appointed guardian, and only after a physician determines you lack capacity. A designation puts your spouse in charge immediately if that is what you want, and it names a backup if your spouse is unavailable or you are in the same accident.
• “It has to be notarized.” It does not. Two witnesses, one unrelated by blood or marriage, and the surrogate is not one of them.
• “Signing means I lose control now.” While you can make and communicate decisions, your decisions govern. Even with immediate authority, the surrogate assists; you decide.
• “My financial power of attorney covers medical decisions.” Only if health care authority was specifically granted, and even then the surrogate designation usually controls in a conflict.
• “I told my family what I want, so writing it down is optional.” A written designation carries a statutory presumption; a memory of a conversation does not, and family members remember differently.
• “A living will is enough.” A living will only speaks to end-of-life conditions. It cannot consent to surgery after a car accident or approve a treatment plan while you are unconscious but expected to recover.
• “Surrogates are for the elderly.” Every adult over 18 needs one. The cases where a surrogate matters most, an accident or a sudden illness in a healthy adult, arrive without notice.
• “A court has to approve it.” No court involvement is required to sign or use a designation. Court involvement is what a designation is meant to avoid.

Do I Need a Health Care Surrogate? (Even If I’m Married)

Do I need a health care proxy if I’m married? Should I have one at all? Why do I need one, and who should have one? Every adult over 18 in Florida should, and marriage is not a substitute. A spouse reaches tier (b) of the proxy list only after a physician documents incapacity, cannot get information before that, and shares the room with adult children who may disagree. The designation is also the smallest piece of incapacity planning there is: it costs a fraction of what a guardianship costs and takes an afternoon. Among the essential Florida estate planning documents — a will or trust, a durable power of attorney, a living will, a HIPAA authorization — this is the one that gets used first and most often, because incapacity is far more common than death in any given year.

Are advance directives legally binding? Yes. A properly executed designation is a legal document that physicians, hospitals and facilities are required to honor, subject to the transfer rules already described. Can a healthcare surrogate be a family member? Yes — most are — as long as that person is not also serving as one of your two witnesses. And how long is a healthcare surrogate good for? Until you revoke it.

Questions to ask before you name someone

Worth asking the person directly: are you willing to do this; can you say no to a doctor; can you follow my wishes even if you disagree with them; will you be reachable; and do you want the job at all. A surrogate who says yes reluctantly in a kitchen is the one who freezes in an ICU.

Do I Need a Lawyer, and How Much Does a Health Care Surrogate Cost in Florida?

Can you do a medical power of attorney without a lawyer in Florida? Legally, yes — the law does not require one. What an attorney adds is judgment and a properly conducted signing: choosing the surrogate and the order of alternates, deciding whether authority should be immediate, expressly granting the § 765.113 powers that matter to you, addressing mental health treatment, coordinating the designation with your living will and durable power of attorney, and running a signing ceremony with witnesses who actually qualify. Those are the points where do-it-yourself documents fail, and they fail at the worst possible moment.

Cost in Florida is modest compared with what it prevents. Lorenzo Law prepares a designation of health care surrogate for a flat fee of $575 per person, per document. That figure covers everything needed to get the document fully executed, not merely drafted — the drafting, the signing ceremony and witnesses who actually qualify under § 765.202(2). Where a client needs more than one document, or a spouse is signing their own, the additional documents are discounted, which is why these are normally handled alongside a living will, a durable power of attorney and the rest of a plan. A designation for a minor child under §§ 765.2035 and 765.2038 is quoted separately. This fee is current as of the date of this page, applies to the standard engagement described here, and is confirmed in writing before any work begins. Set against it: an emergency guardianship proceeding, filed because nobody held authority, costs many times what the document does and takes weeks you do not have.

Talk to a Florida Health Care Surrogate Attorney

If you are looking for a health care surrogate attorney, an advance directive attorney or lawyer, a health care directive attorney, or a designation of health care surrogate lawyer in Florida, Lorenzo Law prepares these documents as part of a coordinated estate plan, or on their own. Because this is a solo practice, the attorney you speak with on the first call is the attorney who drafts your document and supervises the signing. There is no hand-off to staff or to a junior associate you never met.

Our only offices are in Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale, and we serve the entire state of Florida — Miami-Dade County, Broward County and Palm Beach County, including Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Aventura and Hialeah; the Treasure Coast, including Port St. Lucie, Stuart, Vero Beach and Indian River County; Central Florida, including Orlando, Kissimmee, Altamonte Springs, Winter Park, Lake Mary, Sanford and Daytona Beach; the Gulf Coast, including Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, Fort Myers and Naples; and North Florida, including Jacksonville, Gainesville and Tallahassee. Matters outside South Florida are handled remotely, with travel where a matter requires it, and documents can be signed remotely where Florida law allows it. Se habla español: también preparamos documentos en español.

Health care surrogate attorney in Orlando and Central Florida

A large share of the people searching for an Orlando health care surrogate attorney — or for a health care surrogate attorney in Altamonte Springs, Winter Park, Lake Mary, Sanford, Kissimmee or Daytona Beach — are looking for something that does not require anyone to drive anywhere. Lorenzo Law has no Orlando-area office and does not claim one. Central Florida clients are served remotely: the consultation happens by phone or video, the document is drafted the same day it is approved, and Florida law allows the signing to be handled remotely in most cases. If you would rather sign in person, the Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale offices are available by appointment.

Comparing health care surrogate lawyers or law firms near you?

Two questions are worth asking whoever you hire: who will actually draft the document, and who will supervise the signing. At a firm with several attorneys and a paralegal team, those are often three different people. Here they are one person. If you are comparing health care surrogate attorneys or a designation of health care surrogate lawyer near you in Florida, ask how the witnesses are arranged, whether a HIPAA authorization is included, and whether the surrogate designation will be coordinated with your living will and your durable power of attorney.

También atendemos a clientes en español: la designación de sustituto para la atención médica (lo que muchos llaman un poder médico o poder de atención médica) se prepara y se explica en español.

Contact Lorenzo Law or call (305) 224-6811 to get your Florida health care surrogate designation prepared and signed correctly.

Florida Health Care Surrogate FAQ

What is another name for a health care surrogate, or for a health care proxy?

Outside Florida, the same role is called a health care proxy, health care agent, health care representative, patient advocate, medical power of attorney or durable power of attorney for health care. In Florida the statutory term is surrogate, and “proxy” means the person the statute picks when you named no one.

Is a healthcare surrogate an advance directive?

Yes. Section 765.101(1) defines an advance directive to include a designation of health care surrogate, along with a living will and an anatomical gift. So a surrogate designation is an advance directive, and a living will is an advance directive; they are two of the three, not alternatives to it.

What are the downsides of naming a health care surrogate?

The honest ones: you are handing real authority to another person, so naming the wrong one is worse than naming no one; relatives who were passed over sometimes react badly, especially an adult child who assumed the role was theirs; and a document signed without care can fail on the witness rules or leave out powers your surrogate turns out to need. None of those is an argument for going without. They are arguments for choosing deliberately and documenting it properly.

Is Five Wishes valid in Florida?

Five Wishes, published by Aging with Dignity in Tallahassee, is written to satisfy both Florida’s living will and surrogate designation requirements when it is executed correctly, and no Florida court has ruled otherwise. It is not a DNRO, it does not replace legal advice about who to name, and like any pre-printed document it can only reflect the choices it happens to offer.

How many witnesses does a Florida designation of health care surrogate need?

Two adult witnesses. At least one cannot be your spouse or a blood relative, and the person you designate as surrogate cannot serve as a witness.

Can my surrogate see my medical records?

Access to your protected health information, to the extent needed to make an informed decision, is part of the role, and the document can make that access immediate under § 765.202(6). Many Florida plans add a separate HIPAA authorization so hospitals and physician practices release records without a debate.

Does my surrogate need a HIPAA release, and how long is a HIPAA release valid?

Strictly, a properly drafted designation that grants access to health information should be enough. In practice a separate HIPAA release form — a Florida HIPAA release form is the usual phrasing — ends most arguments before they start, because hospital records departments recognize the federal form on sight. A HIPAA authorization is valid for as long as it says it is: it can name an expiration date or event, or state that it remains effective until you revoke it in writing. Ask for the second version.

When is a health care proxy invoked, and when does a health care proxy take effect?

How is a health care proxy invoked? “Invoked” is hospital vocabulary, not Florida statutory language, and it usually means the moment the chart records that the patient lacks capacity and the surrogate’s or proxy’s authority is now active. In Florida that moment is the § 765.204(2) determination — or immediately on signing, if your document elects immediate authority.

Can a health care proxy restrict visitors, override a DNR, request medical records, or override an advance directive?

Requesting your medical records is squarely within the role. Visitation is a facility policy question rather than a Chapter 765 power, though a surrogate acting for an incapacitated patient is usually the person the staff will consult. A surrogate cannot override your own written directive: the role is to carry it out. What a surrogate can do is make the decisions your directive does not cover, including signing or revoking a DNRO consistent with your wishes.

Can you challenge an advance directive in Florida?

Yes, but only through § 765.105 and Florida Probate Rule 5.900 — the six grounds and the fast hearing schedule described above. There is no informal route, and a relative’s disagreement is not by itself a ground.

Do I need a surrogate if I already have a living will?

Yes. A living will applies only to end-of-life conditions and names nobody to speak for you. The two documents are designed to work together.

What if the hospital hands me its own advance directive packet?

Hospitals must ask whether you have an advance directive — that question comes from the federal Patient Self-Determination Act — and they cannot condition your care or admission on signing one (§ 765.110). Completing a packet at admission is better than nothing, but it is filled out under stress, usually names one person with no alternate, and rarely addresses the restricted decisions or immediate authority.

Where should I keep my designation of health care surrogate?

Not in a safe deposit box. Give a copy to your surrogate and alternate, one to your primary physician for the chart, and keep one where a family member can reach it quickly. A wallet card naming your surrogate with a phone number, carried where paramedics will look, closes the gap between the emergency room and the file cabinet. Anyone who has a copy of an old version should get the new one when you sign it.

Is a designation of health care surrogate a public record?

No. It is not recorded, not filed with any court, and not entered in any state registry. It is a private document you deliver to the people who need it.

Can I name my doctor or paid caregiver as my surrogate?

Florida does not prohibit it. Unlike a number of other states, Chapter 765 imposes no bar on a treating physician, a health care provider, or an employee or operator of a facility serving as your surrogate; the only disqualification tied to the designation is the witness rule in § 765.202(2). That said, naming a treating physician or a paid caregiver mixes a decision-maker’s role with a provider’s interests, facility policy may restrict it, and it invites a challenge later. Discuss it with an attorney rather than assuming a form will handle it.

What does my surrogate do if my wishes are unclear?

The surrogate must decide as you would have decided, based on what you said and how you lived. Where there is nothing to go on, the decision turns to your best interest. That is precisely why the written instructions section of your document, and a real conversation with the person you name, are worth more than the form itself.

Related Florida Estate Planning Guides

• Advance Directive vs. Living Will in Florida
• Living Will in Florida: Requirements, Cost and How to Make One
• Does a Power of Attorney End at Death in Florida?
• Conservatorship vs. Guardianship in Florida
• Online Estate Planning in Florida
• Estate Planning Attorney in Fort Lauderdale