Here are five takeaways:
1. Physicians can now bill Medicare $86 for an office-based, end-of-life counseling session with a patient for as long as 20 minutes.
2. Medicare has set no rules on what physicians must discuss during those sessions.
3. Patients can seek guidance on completing advance directives stating if or when they want life support measures such as ventilators and feeding tubes and how to appoint a family member of friend to make medical decisions on their behalf if they cannot.
4. In 2014, the Institute of Medicine found the nation’s health systems were not adequately dealing with end-of-life care, and among its recommendations was that insurers pay providers for advance care planning discussions.
5. The American Medical Association, which supports the reimbursement, estimates Medicare will pay for fewer than 50,000 counseling sessions in 2016.
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‘Alarm fatigue’ is a significant burden on physicians — 4 points
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