Bipartisan legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) on Monday would improve end-of-life care planning through education and the support of innovation.
The Compassionate Care Act, S. 2961, introduced by Capito and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), would establish a National Public Education Campaign to raise awareness about end-of-life care counseling and options.
The bill would also establish a pilot program to help medical providers develop skills to better discuss advance care planning, and it would support the expansion of continuing education programs and core end-of-life quality measures across health care provider settings.
“Those in the final stages of life should have access to the compassionate care that hospice provides, yet physicians have reported difficulty in addressing these end-of-life conversations,” Capito said. “The Compassionate Care Act helps to alleviate those challenges by supporting training for health care professionals and increasing awareness about what hospice care options are available. If we can increase our understanding of hospice care, more patients and loved ones can experience the comfort that hospice provides.”
Additionally, the bill would establish a demonstration project to reimburse costs associated with the use of telemedicine services for advance care planning. It would also direct the Department of Health and Human Services to study establishing and implementing a national uniform policy on advance directives.
“Talking about end-of-life wishes is a sensitive, personal, and difficult conversation,” Blumenthal said. “It can be heartbreakingly hard to know what to say or when to say it. You may be waiting for your loved one or your doctor to bring it up first. But these critical conversations are essential to ensuring that we all receive the care that we want and that is right for us. This bipartisan legislation will help open the lines of communication to improve end-of-life care for all Americans.”