What Doctors Should Be Asking Their Patients About How They Want To Die

Are doctors ready to talk to their patients about death?

At the beginning of this year, Medicare announced it will cover at least 30 minutes of “advance care planning” — a conversation between a doctor and a patient about what medical decisions they’d like to make when faced with death. The policy change was very popular among medical professionals, who hoped it would spur more meaningful — and vital — conversations about end-of-life care. It’s a simple question: What do you value most at the end of your life?

But nearly four months later, a recent study found only 14 percent of doctors have actually billed the federal health program for this service, leading many experts to question if physicians are truly prepared for the critical task....
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2016/04/25/3772332/end-of-life-care-discussion/