New Jersey Palliative Care and CMS changes

CMS issued a new policy on July 7, 2015 on advanced care planning that has created quite a buzz. CMS summarized the proposed rules as a way to “better enable seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries to make important decisions that give them control over the type of care they receive and when they receive it.” Advanced care planning “is a service that includes early conversations between patients and their practitioners, both before an illness progresses and during the course of treatment, to decide on the type of care that is right for them.” A part of that discussion would seemingly include advanced care directives and other end-of-life choices. One major change for CMS’s view of end-of-life counseling is its payment methodology. CMS has historically only covered advanced care planning as a part of an initial visit. But of course that may not always be useful. The proposed rules would expand the availability of advanced care planning by introducing a series of new CPT codes/payments that would likely greatly change the landscape of end-of-life counseling.

Of course, the availability and advisability of palliative care could also be a key topic. While hospice care rightfully gets a lot of attention, CMS’s push will also likely elevate the national consciousness towards palliative care. This is an exciting time and we hope to keep you updated with some of the major changes that affect hospice and palliative care in New Jersey.