Doctors could get paid to listen to patients about their end of life wishes. Help is on the way with H.R. 1898 being proposed in the House.

May 11, 2009 by  
Filed under For Patients & Families


law1

H.R. 1898 is being proposed in the United States House of Represented. What this bill does is to provide financial support for doctors to have meaningful end of life conversations. This is amazing. Right now, doctors get paid to take action. Now they could get paid to stop and spend time talking to patients and families about important end of life decisions. And I will tell you, doctors do what they get paid to do. If they get paid to go to surgery instead of allowing physical therapy to work, then they will go to surgery. This proposed legislation is historic. Being paid to listen and respect the patient’s wishes while designing an appropriate end of life care plan would be great. This is a great beginning to shifting the culture of medicine by changing what priorities will be paid for by Medicare.