Health Affairs Blog Post on How We Can Increase The Use Of Palliative Care In Medicare
In the End-of-Life & Serious Illness series, the lastest Health Affairs Blog post explores the idea of expanding palliative care through alternative payment models.
The post recounts a story of a a 93-year-old woman who died of congestive heart failure, five weeks after she underwent surgery to receive a pacemaker. Medicare paid for the surgery and pacemaker with no questions asked, even though the procedure was, in retrospect, unproductive, wasteful, and even harmful from the family’s perspective.
The better alternative would have included palliative care, which helps patients and family members to call a “timeout,” step back, and decide what course of treatment is best for addressing symptoms and deteriorating quality of life in persons with advanced, life-limiting illness.
To read the full post on the Health Affairs Blog, click here.
This End of Life & Serious Illness series on the Health Affairs Blog is sponsored by our partners at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
