What is the difference between medical and durable POA?

I'm glad to hear you visited an elder law attorney and have things in order! I'm glad you saw an attorney. While there's nothing wrong with the statutory POAs you may be able to get from the AG's website (and other sites), the attorney will make sure the proper authority is in the POA, whether you think you need it or not! Congrats on getting things in order while you still can.

Best wishes!

Thank you to all for your great input. I met with an elder care attorney and believe I am all set at this point.

Rebecca, thank you very much and for also clarifying some things to other posters. :)

a regular medical power of attorney is null and void if the person is mentally unfit, you would need a durable medical power of attorney to make those decisions.(E.G.: Alzheimers patient.)

Healthcare directive POA and medical POA sound like the same thing. Do you have financial POA? In either case, if your mother is unable to make her own decisions, your POA(s) might no longer be in effect UNLESS they are durable POAs (DPOAs). (Depends on how the POA is written, as pointed out in previous post (our DPOAs specified the conditions necessary to establish incapacity). If mom is still competent to do so, these documents can be updated to durable powers of attorney. Otherwise you might have to get guardianship/conservatorship (somebody who knows more about this can help here--I don't). Doesn't sound like any trust is involved--she owns nothing and you are joint holders on her accounts so no probate when she dies so there wouldn't be any reason for a trust. But having said all that, when my hubby was diagnosed with dementia in hospital and released to a memory care I checked with our lawyer to make sure that I had the correct documentation but they never asked me for anything (perhaps because I'm spouse). I finally had to have him declared incapacitated to satisfy the requirements of the bank I took on as my co-trustee for our trust. Only one other time was I asked: by paramedics who showed up when I thought he was having a stroke and he didn't want to go to ER (I had to talk him into it because I hadn't yet put the medical DPOA in a place where I could quickly lay my hands on it).

As to the original poster:

A POA could include both health and financial powers in a single document. It could be two separate documents.

A health/medical POA is a POA related to the care and welfare of a person. A financial POA relates to the property of that principal. Durability is a provision in the POA, and it's often used in the title which it can be confusing sometimes.

If you don't have the financial POA (what it appears is being referred to as a DPOA), you may not be allowed to handle the financial affairs of your loved one. It sounds like the medical side of the POA issue is well covered with both an advance directive and a healthcare POA in the original poster's specific situation. But it appears they are looking for a financial-related POA. I agree you have little property to require a financial POA, but perhaps the facility relies upon that? If the health POA allows you to handle AL/MC arrangements (and many such POAs do allow that), I'd like to think it should be good enough, and it may be something you have to point out to them.

As a legal professional reviewing multiple POAs a day for LTC/Life/Annuity insurer, I need to clarify a few things seen in a post that are not, from a legal perspective, accurate:

A springing POA is one that only goes into effect in a certain set of circumstances provided in the POA itself. For instance, many people indicate the POA is not active until 2 physicians certify the principal is not competent to make his/her own decisions. It is NOT active immediately. That's not how it operates in law. Most POAs take effect immediately UNLESS it's a springing POA.

A durable POA simply means that the POA survives even if the principal becomes unable to handle their own affairs. It doesn't have anything to do with trusts - trust handling can be a part of a financial power of attorney, but the durable provision is not related to the trust. Most, but not all, POAs are durable. Some state laws says that it's assumed to be durable even if not specified. Other states require a declaration of durability to be considered durable.

Each state has its own laws regarding the requirements of POAs - health or financial. What is required in one state isn't necessarily the requirement in another state. Always check with either a legal professional or consult your attorney general website to make sure you obtain a POA compliant with your state laws.

Never heard of needing a health directive medical POA and a medical POA. You never got a Financial POA? If not, too late at this point if Mom is not able to make informed decisions. Who is handling the payments to the AL for Mom? Do you have your name on her bank accounts allowing you to write checks for her? If so, you should be OK for now. Your Medical POA should be enough for the home so they can discuss her health. Don't sign anything making your responsible for her debts. If she owns a home and has assets that may need to be liquidated, this is where the Financial POA comes in. You may want to talk to a lawyer about your choices. You may be able to get conservatorship to handle Mom's money. Then there is guardianship. Both cost money but can be taken out of Mom's money. If she ever needs Medicaid, they will allow this in the five year look back.

Medical POA is just that a medical power of attorney it lets the successor handle only medical affairs. A Springing durable power of attorney is just that, "SPRINGING" means it is invoked imeadiately and durable means for everything listed in the trust and is usually only put together with a Living Trust, as the trust is the whole body of instructions with several sections as follows
1a. Names of husband / wife
2a. Names of all children living and dead

1b. Power of Attorney

1c. Last Will and Testament

1d. Property section

1e. instructions to each Administrator and Co-Administrator
2. settlors are each person or Administrator if more than one
3. The mechanics of a trust during settlors life
4. What happens after settlor passes
5. Special Needs Trust - usually only used when a mentally or physically handicapped child is involved as in a beneficiary
6. The Administrator or Trustee's Job location / description
7. Accounting Distribution Powers
8. Disinheritance - in the very rare event you need to remove someone from a trust and all of its benefits due to illegal activity or distrust in an individual. in such cases you must use this before the Principal or Trustee passes as once trustee passes it can either be a locked trust or a changeable trust, most common are locked meaning the trust stands as it was when Trustee passes and no further changes can happen that is why it is very very important to be d*mn sure of who your installing as co admins.
if in doubt kick them out, as I had to do, when my exwifes son whom I found out wasnt biologically mine and after he commited 2 acts of attempted murder against the biological family of the trustee, since my ex wifes son originally our son till DNA came back to settle the "Who's Your Daddy Contest" I then Disinherited him,my ex wife and his cousin and his aunt. on the other side of the family, It was one of the most insane and sick acts of Conspiracy I have ever seen. and I tip my hat to my security guy for even bringing up the trust at all because what he heard my ex's son high fiving a drug dealer that wow we won the trust it is all ours, not 2 years later he set me up on a 72 hour hold at a hospital where the procedures he had the doctors put me thru could have killed me, then tried to have my security guy murdered by cop, Then stole the trustees medications while I was out of town for 2 days and furthermore denied doing it. I just want to catch that son of a b*tch on the stand telling a little white lie once and he goes for 10 years for perjury on a federal level.
Hope this helps
sorry for being so thorough and drawn out but once I started I thought it was best to share what I know from experience and and experience you dont want!!

For a brief explanation see: https://www.suntrust.com/resourcecenter/article/power-of-attorney-vs-durable-power-of-attorney#.WdYLTZApDxA

http://info.legalzoom.com/difference-between-durable-regular-power-attorney-20508.html
Here is what LEGAL ZOOM says.