Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Representative Nanette Barragan (D-CA) recently introduced the Compassionate Care Act to promote advance care planning and end-of-life care. The Act provides critical resources to educate patients and providers, develops core end-of-life quality measures, and expands access to advance care planning via telehealth. Many people do not have an ACP in the event they experience a serious illness to ensure they have access to the care they need and is right for them.
“The Coalition to Transform Advanced Care is extremely grateful to Senator Blumenthal for reintroducing the Compassionate Care Act. The senator’s leadership directly improves the lives of individuals with serious illness,” said Jon Broyles, CEO of Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC). “This legislation includes critical improvements in advance care planning (ACP) guidelines, and by making permanent telehealth provisions for hospice recertification and ACP at home and by audio only. This along with the much-needed provider and public education will help ensure that patients’ care preferences are understood, recorded, and followed, the foundation of patient-centered care that C-TAC promotes.”
Provisions of the Compassionate Care Act include:
- Establish guidelines for advance care planning between health providers and patients
- Launch a National Public Awareness Campaign that would encourage patients and providers to make end-of-life plans
- Direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop education resources for providers to engage with patients, work with providers, state boards of medicine, and clinical associations to develop advance care education resources and solicit feedback from providers and develop quality measures
- Improve access to advance care planning by expanding telehealth options for providers and patients
- Facilitate a study on a national advanced care planning registry that would allow patients to transfer their advanced directives from state to state
This legislation is supported by: Compassion & Choices, C-TAC, National Partnership for Healthcare & Hospice Innovation (NPHI), National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), National Patient Advocate Foundation (NPAF), American Heart Association, AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, LeadingAge, LeadingAge Connecticut, American Academy of Home Care Medicine (AAHCM), Consumer Coalition for Quality Health Care, Connecticut Center for Patient Safety, Connecticut Long Term Care Ombudsman Program, and the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC).
The full text of the legislation is available here. A one-page summary is available here.
