A West Virginia University expert said the newly proposed Medicare benefit to reimburse doctors for conversations about end-of-life care will simultaneously improve the quality of health care and reduce its costs, but now physicians need to be trained on how to conduct these discussions.

On Wednesday (July 8), the federal government proposed a rule to pay health-care providers, such as doctors and nurse practitioners, for talking to Medicare patients about end-of-life care.

“There has been a building consensus among health-care professionals and the public that physicians need to talk to patients to learn what is important to them at the end of life. Everyone agrees that patients’ wishes should be respected,” said Alvin Moss, MD, FACP, FAAHPM, professor in WVU’s School of Medicine and director of the WVU Center for Health Ethics and Law.

The conversations can be emotional and difficult, and depending on the patient, it can take several meetings to come to a decision about care. Yet, often patients have not had meaningful conversations with their health-care professionals about the choices available because their doctors are not paid for that time.

Moss said that the next step should be to train physicians and other health professionals about how to have conversations with patients about end-of-life care.

“End-of-life care communication has not been a part of medical education in most medical schools in this country until very recently. For the past 10 years medical students at WVU have been taught how to have such conversations in workshops in which they role play the conversations with patients and family members. The West Virginia Center for End-of-Life Care has been providing this training for health care professionals statewide for six years, but very few participants have been physicians,” Moss said.

“Everyone will benefit from these conversations – patients, families, friends and physicians who can be reassured that the treatment they are providing is what the patient wanted.”

Moss is available to offer commentary to the media. He can be reached at 304.293.7618 or amoss@hsc.wvu.edu.

West Virginia University experts can provide commentary, insights and opinions on various news topics. Search for an expert by name, title, area of expertise or college/school/department in the Experts Database at WVU Today.

-WVU-

ms/07/13/15

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