Congress struck planning for near-death medical care from Affordable Care Act coverage. Now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have included the coverage in regulation.
According to the Wall Street Journal,
The federal government will pay doctors who speak with patients about the type of medical care they want when they are near death, a turning point after a similar proposal six years ago ran into opposition and was stripped from what became the Affordable Care Act.
The rule announced Friday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will reimburse, starting Jan. 1, health-care providers if they choose to have conversations with Medicare patients about advance care planning—also known as end-of-life discussions. The decision affects about 50 million beneficiaries and could ripple through the health-care industry. Private insurers often follow payment practices adopted by Medicare, the national insurance program for seniors and the disabled.
For more information, see the full story from the Wall Street Journal.
For more information about medicare in Maryland, see this Help with Medicare page from Baltimore County’s Department of Aging.
MACo’s Winter Conference will feature a session on the Affordable Care Act and its implementation in Maryland County Government.
Learn more about MACo’s Winter Conference:
- Registration Brochure (with session titles and descriptions)
- Online Registration
- Online Hotel Reservations at the Hyatt
- Sponsorship Brochure
- Exhibitor Brochure
- #MACoCon Twitter Feed
- Conduit Street blog coverage
Questions? Contact Meetings & Events Director Virginia White.
