Sarah Lawrence College Offering Free Webinar on End of Life Care

Federal health officials are now proposing that Medicare begin paying doctors to discuss end-of-life issues with patients, which had caused some controversy and misunderstandings with the Affordable Care Act legislation.

Currently, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) seek comment on a proposal that supports patient- and family-centered care for seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries by enabling them to discuss advance care planning with their providers. The proposal follows the American Medical Association’s recommendation to make advance care planning services a separately payable service under Medicare.

To help people better understand the shifting landscape, Sarah Lawrence College’s End of Life Care program is offering a free webinar that will focus on proposed changes to Medicare. These changes will make it possible for primary care providers to offer advanced care planning services that are eligible for reimbursement.

The webinar -- to be offered at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 2 -- is the first in a series of online offerings through Sarah Lawrence College’s End of Life program. The workshop presenters are Joshua Lapps, government relations manager at the Society of Hospital Medicine and Rebecca O. Johnson, associate program director of Graduate and Professional Studies for the End of Life Care Program at Sarah Lawrence College.

As part of this webinar, you can expect to:
• Receive guidance in how to comment on the CMS Rule Change at Regulations.gov.
• Learn about the proposed changes to Medicare that will make it possible for primary care providers to offer advance care planning services for reimbursement.
• Learn about how the proposed changes by CMS will affect access to advance care planning, including health proxies, advance directives, Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) and Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST).
• Learn what this could mean for your patients and loved ones.

People interested in listening to the webinar can register through Sarah Lawrence’s website at: https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/s/registrations/new?cid=jxaagrwws55o.