Posted on 07/08/2015 6:24:58 PM PDT by markomalley
Federal health officials are proposing that Medicare begin paying doctors to discuss end-of-life issues with their patients, six years after the “death panel” controversy erupted in the early days of the debate over President Obama’s health-care legislation.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the new policy Wednesday as part of its annual Medicare physician payment rule. The proposed rule includes reimbursement for “advance care planning.” The final rule is due by Nov. 1, and payments would start Jan. 1. The discussions would be voluntary.
Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate in 2008, ignited a political firestorm in 2009 when she denounced a provision in the health-care legislation that would have allowed Medicare to reimburse doctors for discussing living wills and other end-of-life issues with older patients. She said it would create a “death panel” that could decide who received care. The provision was removed from the final Affordable Care Act legislation.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
It is a feature of Medicare that you can’t get paid for spending time with a patient, unless you DO something.
They want to make an exception for time spent discussing end of life care, which, Obamacare aside, is important and valuable work that is usually done poorly.
IMO, the jury is out on this one.
Wight Care!
Use dragon glass on the death panels!
My mom died from ALS. Her doctor and her had a clear understanding of each other's expectations, options, and outcome.
Yes, of course. I have had many such conversations over the past 40 years and I am very familiar with them.
However, if your doctor that you have a close relationship with billed Medicare for a visit or visits where these artful discussions took place, up until now he was committing fraud.
This rule change allows payment for at least one (probably only one) artful conversation about these matters, and as such is not necessarily a bad thing.
As I said, the jury is out.
If they issue that rule, Congress should require that all Federal Health Officials (one and all from the President down to the puke little clerk that rejects your claims) be given an end-of-life briefing annually and a booklet that describes 101 methods of suicide commonly used by bureaucrats.
I’m okay with doctors advising certain politicians on end of life options, hell even assisting them!
“Will to Live, NOT Living Will.”
http://www.priestsforlife.org/euthanasia/livingwill.htm
Personally, I’m going to go to a practicing Catholic lawyer, and tell him/her to write my will according to the teachings in the Catholic catechism.
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