Advanced care planning (ACP) is a process that supports patients in understanding and defining their values, goals, and preferences regarding future medical care when facing a serious illness. The goal of ACP is to help ensure that people receive medical care that is consistent with these preferences. This can be a very delicate and difficult [...]
With 2020 coming to a close in a matter of weeks, we’re taking some time to reflect on the important insights this year has revealed for health plans, members and clinicians. Organizations that make ACP a part of their population health strategies will improve quality of care delivered to patients and enhance the patient experience [...]
In the COVID-19 era, under relaxed federal emergency orders, licensed clinicians have been able to prescribe opioid analgesics for their patients even if they've only ever seen the patient via telehealth, rather than in person. For providers like Stephen Bekanich, MD, a palliative care physician for Ascension Texas in Austin, this provision allows him to [...]
On Wednesday December 2, Senator Richard Blumenthal introduced the Compassionate Care Act, a bill that supports advance care planning and serious illness. Advance care planning (ACP) is an ongoing process that supports individuals in understanding and sharing their values, goals and preferences for future medical care. These care decisions are then formally documented within an [...]
When it comes to advance care planning (ACP), not all care plans are created equal. The range of what constitutes ACP spans from patients attempting to complete advance directives on their own to in-depth conversations about future care facilitated by clinicians. With so much inconsistency surrounding the definition of ACP, it can be difficult for [...]
In many cases, serious illnesses are a family affair. Spouses, children, siblings and other caregivers are often deeply involved in their loved one’s serious illness, assisting with everything from daily care to emotional support. Although the benefits of advance care planning (ACP) are often framed around the patient, ACP also provides numerous benefits for caregivers. [...]
The right advance care planning (ACP) program can be transformative for organizations that manage a population of people with serious illnesses. Currently, many people with serious illnesses do not receive any ACP services at all; according to Medicare billing data, only 4.2% of seriously ill individuals had an ACP encounter with their physician in 2017. [...]
In spite of seemingly endless cost-saving solutions, it can be difficult for health plans to find solutions that are beneficial and appreciated by physicians, members and plans — but Advance Care Planning (ACP) is one of them. The end results of ACP are impressive, yet they are not widely known. This is in large part [...]
When people with serious illnesses are faced with the option to improve quality of life or length of life, many feel pressured to choose one or the other — but recent evidence shows that advance care planning (ACP) can help individuals achieve both outcomes simultaneously. This does not mean ACP is a magic bullet that [...]
