Health care; creating the Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act of 2025. Effective date.
SB 937 creates the “Uniform Health Care Decisions Act of 2025” and establishes a detailed framework for making, documenting, and revoking health care decisions in Oklahoma. The bill defines when an individual has capacity for these purposes, presumes capacity unless a court or qualified professional finds otherwise, and allows capacity to be supported through communication assistance, technology, supported decision-making, or other reasonable accommodations. It also specifies who may make a capacity finding, what must be documented, and who is barred from making that finding, including certain family members and surrogates.
The bill authorizes individuals to create written health care instructions and health care powers of attorney, including naming agents, default surrogates, and preferred decision-making arrangements. It requires health care professionals or institutions to document instructions in the medical record, allows later instructions to revoke earlier conflicting ones, and permits health care instructions to be included in the same record as a power of attorney. The bill also sets witness requirements for health care powers of attorney, including allowing remote witnessing through real-time audio or video, and disqualifies certain agents such as those found to pose a danger or certain nursing home personnel unless they are close family or cohabitants. Health care decisions made by an agent would be effective without judicial approval, and the act would take effect November 1, 2025.
SB 937 would add a new statutory scheme to Title 63 governing advance health care directives, health care instructions, and powers of attorney for health care. It would affect patients, health care providers, hospitals, long-term care facilities, agents, surrogates, and courts by clarifying who may make decisions, how incapacity is determined, how directives are documented, and when an agent may act. The measure would also modernize execution requirements by recognizing electronic and audio-visual witnessing and by expressly allowing supported decision-making and reasonable accommodations in capacity determinations.
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee debate or votes in the provided materials, the overall sentiment appears procedural and policy-oriented rather than overtly contentious. The bill is framed as a modernization and clarification measure for health care decision-making, with language that appears designed to expand access to advance directives while protecting against abuse. No formal opposition, amendments, or recorded vote patterns are available in the provided context.
The main potential points of contention are the standards for determining capacity, the scope of who may make that determination, and the safeguards against conflicts of interest or coercion. The bill allows a broad range of professionals to rebut the presumption of capacity, including in urgent situations a responsible health care professional when a physician or other listed professional is not available, which could raise concerns about consistency. It also bars certain family members, cohabitants, and surrogates from making incapacity findings, and disqualifies agents in nursing facilities or those found by a court to pose a danger, reflecting concern about undue influence and elder abuse. The remote witnessing provisions and the ability to make decisions without judicial approval may also be areas where stakeholders could differ on convenience versus protection.