Medicare Outlines End-Of-Life Planning Proposal That Will Make Sarah Palin's Head Explode

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/08/medicare-end-of-life-counseling_n_7757036.html

WASHINGTON -- Physicians would be paid to discuss end-of-life options with Medicare patients who want their wishes spelled out in advance under a regulation proposed by the federal government Wednesday.

Medical societies and seniors' groups like the AARP have long supported so-called advance care planning as a way for patients to consider whether they want intensive medical care in the event of a life-threatening illness near the close of their lives, and to make their preferences known to their loved ones in writing. But Medicare has never had a mechanism with which to pay doctors for this counseling, except during a physical exam when beneficiaries first enroll in the program.

“Today’s proposal supports individuals and families who wish to have the opportunity to discuss advance care planning with their physician and care team, as part of coordinated, patient- and family-centered care," Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Chief Medical Officer Patrick Conway said in a statement. "CMS looks forward to gathering public input on this proposal.”

An early version of the legislation that became the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama's health care reform law, would have established a way for Medicare to pay physicians who discuss end-of-life options with patients. The plan was derailed, however, when ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee, falsely labeled these voluntary counseling sessions as "death panels" that would cut off medical care to older Americans against their wills.

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil," Palin wrote in an August 2009 Facebook post.



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