These stories highlight the opinions, facts and requirements surrounding the delivery of end-of-life care.
1. Read here about CMS' recent proposed changes to the Physician Fee Schedule for 2016 that include a provision aiming to reimburse physicians for advance care planning services.
2. Heart surgeon Sen. Bill Frist, MD, stressed in an opinion piece that America's aging population and extended life expectancy calls for healthcare providers to get involved in end-of-life-care discussions with their patients. "This new reality has more and more people thinking about new models of end of life care, and has sparked a national conversation about how we can all live well, until the very end," he wrote.
3. Portland-based Oregon Health & Science University has developed a way to make end-of-life decisions information accessible to providers by linking it to its EHR system. Read more here.
4. Only 20 percent of Americans have an advanced directive documenting their wishes for end-of-life medical care. Find 10 more statistics on the state of healthcare decision making here.
5. Here are six questions physicians can ask to start the conversation with patients about advanced care planning.
6. Find out what preparing a cup of coffee can teach healthcare about end-of-life care.
7. Palliative and hospice care is a growing field, but providers have historically had little guidance in evaluating their program's quality. Here are 10 key quality indicators for palliative and hospice care from the American Academy of Hospital and Palliative Medicine and Palliative Nurses Association.
8. Read here on six trends shaping the delivery of end-of-life care, including costs, hospice utilization rates and patient preferences, among others.
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