Home care and senior services advocates are applauding recently introduced legislation that expands access to advanced care planning.
“The pandemic reinforced again how critical these conversations are for patients, families, and those that care for them,” National Association for Home Care & Hospice President William Dombi said in a statement.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced the Improving Access to Advance Care Planning Act which ensures Medicare enrollees, especially those with serious illnesses, are able to plan for their care. The bill also allows social workers to provide ACP services, removes beneficiary cost-sharing and promotes increased education for providers on current ACP codes and improves reporting on barriers to providing ACP services and billing the corresponding codes.
“End of life issues are nuanced and complicated, which is why it’s so vital that older adults and families have good access to advance care planning,” LeadingAge President & CEO Katie Smith Sloan said in a statement. “This bill is an important step toward greater, affordable access to planning that all Americans need.”
Rep. Earl Blumenaur (D-OR), who had been working for more than a decade to get legislation addressing end of life care passed, also introduced the bipartisan bicmameral bill in the House.
“Medicare has finally started paying physicians to help families understand their choices,” Blumenaur said in a statement. “This legislation will make advance care planning more accessible, allowing more of these conversations to happen and ensuring people’s wishes are heard, respected and enforced.”
