SHM has joined 65 medical specialty and professional societies in signing a letter to HHS asking for end-of-life care codes to be formalized in CY 2016.Image Credit: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
On July 8, following on the heels of the sustainable growth rate repeal, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a proposed update to the 2016 Physician Fee Schedule that would reimburse physicians and other qualified providers for conversations with patients and patient families about end-of-life care.
It is yet another move toward higher quality patient-centered care, CMS said in a news release on its website the day the proposed rule change was published. The comment period, which spanned 90 days, closes Nov. 1. The final rule will take effect Jan. 1, 2016.
Although CMS specifically cites the recommendation made by the American Medical Association to make advance care planning a separate, payable service, many physician groups, including the Society of Hospital Medicine, have championed and continue to actively advocate for reimbursement for end-of-life conversations with patients and their families.
“We think that palliative care and hospice services are underutilized, so we support anything we can do to make sure there is more appropriate use of these services,” says Ronald A. Greeno, MD, FCCP, MHM, a founding member of SHM, a longtime SHM Public Policy Committee member, and a current member of its board of directors. “We think it’s important to encourage providers to take the time to have those discussions, and one way is getting reimbursement for that time.”
When CMS considered reimbursement for advance care planning last year but did not propose a rule, SHM wrote a letter in December 2014 to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) acting administrator Marilynn Tavenner urging the agency to consider adopting the two codes for complex advance care planning developed by the AMA’s CPT Editorial Panel.1 In May 2015, SHM joined 65 other medical specialty and professional societies in signing a letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell asking for these codes to be formalized in CY 2016.2
In the more recent letter, the authors mention peer-reviewed research demonstrating that advance care planning leads to “better care, higher patient and family satisfaction, fewer unwanted hospitalizations and lower rates of caregiver distress, depression and lost productivity.” SHM also cites a 2014 Institute of Medicine report, Dying in America, in which advance care planning is listed as one of five key recommendations.3
We think that palliative care and hospice services are underutilized, so we support anything we can do to make sure there is more appropriate use of these services. We think it’s important to encourage providers to take the time to have those discussions, and one way is getting reimbursement for that time.
—Dr. Greeno
Pending final rule adoption, the codes 99487 and 99498 will become payable starting in January 2016.
“We (hospitalists) are in this position pretty much every day, working with people in late life and at the end of life, cycling in and out of the hospital with end-stage chronic diseases,” says Howard Epstein, MD, FHM, CHIE, executive vice president and chief medical officer at PreferredOne Health Plans in Minnesota and a hospice and palliative medicine-certified hospitalist. “I’ll be quite honest: I don’t think reimbursement is going to pay for the time and expertise for these procedures; it’s more offsetting the costs of doing the right thing for patients and families.”
What reimbursement does is lend credibility to the goals of care and advance care planning discussions patients and providers are already having, Dr. Epstein says.