Misinformation About Hospice\Palliative Medicine in Health Care Reform Bill

Help Correct Misinformation About Hospice and Palliative Medicine in Health Care Reform Bill

The American Pain Foundation and the American Academy of Hospice & Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) request your help in correcting misinformation about hospice and palliative medicine in the health care reform bill. Your voice is urgently needed to weigh in on the health care reform debate. Provisions AAHPM worked hard to have included in health care reform legislation are now being attacked, and some members of Congress have been hearing from constituents who've been misinformed. We need you to correct the record!

America's Affordable Health Choices Act (H.R. 3200) contains a provision that would provide coverage under Medicare for people to talk to their doctor about their wishes and care preferences at the end of life. This has prompted some groups to falsely claim that care planning consultations include "euthanasia," that physicians would be required to "recommend a method for death" and that such consultations would be "mandatory every five years." These claims are blatantly false.

The provision included in H.R. 3200 simply allows Medicare to pay for a conversation between a patient and their doctor if the patient wishes to speak about their preferences and values. This benefit would be purely voluntary, and patients do not need to have this consultation with their doctor if they do not wish to do so. The new Medicare benefit would allow doctors to be compensated for these conversations every five years, and more frequently if a patient has a life-limiting illness or health status changes.

Staff for U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), who sponsored the original legislation on advance directives, have been reaching out to other Congressional offices in an effort to clarify mischaracterizations of the health care reform legislation. Now they are asking to hear from you. They need quotes from patient advocates and health care providers so they can help correct the record and promote the benefits of advance care planning among the members of Congress.

If you wish to weigh in on this legislation, please forward a quote - no more than a few sentences - to Christa Shively in Sen. Blumenauer's office stating why these provisions in the health care reform bill are important. These should be positive statements about improving patient care and helping families through difficult times. They need your feedback as soon as possible. You may also want to follow up with your own representatives in Congress - let them know that you support this and other hospice and palliative care provisions in the health care reform bills.

Please contact AAHPM Advocacy with any questions.

PLEASE NOTE: Members of Congress will recess and return to their home states for an August work period. AAHPM urges you to make an appointment with your representatives for this time, to discuss the benefits of hospice and palliative care provisions now included in the health care reform bills. Your voice is crucial to ensuring all of these provisions remain in the final version of reform legislation.