Administration reverses on end-of-life counseling

[cali]

(AP) – 41 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Reversing a potentially controversial decision, the Obama administration will drop references to end-of-life counseling from the ground rules for Medicare's new annual checkup, a White House official said Wednesday.

The latest shift on the sensitive subject comes ahead of a vote next week in the new GOP-led House to repeal President Barack Obama's landmark health care overhaul. The decision is not likely to have much impact on patients and doctors already discussing options for care in the last stages of life.

Medicare coverage for voluntary end-of-life planning was part of the original House version of the overhaul legislation in 2009, but it was dropped after Sarah Palin and other Republicans raised the specter of "death panels" deciding the fate of vulnerable seniors. Those charges were later debunked by several non-partisan fact-checking groups.

End-of-life counseling unexpectedly surfaced again late last year in a Medicare regulation that spelled out what would be covered in a new annual checkup, or wellness visit, authorized by the health care law. The regulation said such voluntary doctor-patient discussions could be part of the annual visit.

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5igwEMuvyQvaeSMtSe92aoD1xdeWA?docId=eb6f576292dc443ca3c5069287278f6c

[Brickbat]

1. Yes, yes -- someone might spin it and misconstrue it, so we better avoid it.

[elocs]

2. "Death Panels". Republicans were allowed to define the terms, putting the Dems on the defensive

and now they won the point. "See! We forced them to drop the Death Panels" will be their refrain.

So it went and so it goes and so it will continue.

[LeftinOH]

5. +1,000. The Dems do a terrible job of 'branding' their efforts, allowing the R's

to do it for them. And yet, our party leaders remain oblivious.

[COLGATE4]

3. Jesus Christ on a crutch! Can't Obama hold his position on ANYTHING?????

[hatrack]

4. Jello. Fucking Jello-spined pathetic LOSERS.

What do they take us for?

[mmonk]

6. Surrender! Republicans ahead!

[nolabear]

7. EOL Counseling is being left to the churches, as it should be.

You won't actually die; you'll go to a place where there's no pain, where everything is peaceful and beautiful. And everyone you love will go there when they die, too. So it's okay if you don't think about it or have rules about how much agony you go through or if your family goes broke keeping your lungs pumping because they'll go to that beautiful place too eventually, unless of course you or they try to make any of your own decisions about it, in which case we'll lock you up and then you'll go to a lake of fire and burn for all eternity.

Now, don't you feel better?

[elocs]

8. My hometown, La Crosse, WI, and "Death Panels"

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120346411

The story is entitled: "Why This Wisconsin City Is The Best Place To Die"

Now, anytime a doctor in this large health system pulls up their records, their wishes for end-of-life care will be prominently displayed. The result of all this attention is that nearly all adults who die in La Crosse, 96 percent of them, die with a completed advance directive. That's by far the highest rate in the country.

Bud Hammes, the medical ethicist who started Respecting Choices, says "We believe that our patients deserve to have an opportunity at least to have these conversations."

But it's expensive to spend time with patients filling out living wills. Medicare doesn't reimburse for the time the hospital's nurses, chaplains and social workers do this. Bud Hammes, the medical ethicist who started the program, called Respecting Choices, says it costs the hospital system millions of dollars a year. "We just build it into the overhead of the organization. We believe it's part of good patient care. We believe that our patients deserve to have an opportunity at least to have these conversations."

And that's how La Crosse unexpectedly got in the middle of the national debate over health care and the so-called "death panels."

And so the concessions and compromises on health care begin this year.

[blackspade]

9. Rolling over for the rethugs...again.

[truebrit71]

10. 'Yes we c---wait, the republicans are sayin nasty things about it? '....oh never mind...

..:puke:

[Mike 03]

11. Unbelievable and pathetic

End of life counseling has been going on for years (from physicians, RNs, PAs and attorneys), and it was dumb of this administration to pretend this was something new at a time when the "death panel" BS was viral, and this moronic "controversy" never had to happen.

Obama needs better strategists.