Friday, January 21, 2022 | The Latest Research, Commentary, And News From Health Affairs
Dear John,
An article in the January issue of Health Affairs focused on barriers to billing for advance care planning.
Advance Care Planning
Advance care planning (ACP) is a term used to describe when a person prepares for future management of serious or terminal illness, including developing an advance care directive or what is sometimes called a living will.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services introduced Current Procedural Terminology
codes that allow billing for advance care planning in fee-for-service Medicare in 2016, but their use remains low.
Based on 272 interviews with key staff from eleven health systems, Keren Ladin and coauthors identified barriers—ranging from concerns about patient ethics to workflow burden—that reflect the challenges associated with using the codes.
"Integrating ACP billing into their workflow proved exceptionally challenging for clinicians, who had little incentive to overcome these barriers," they noted.
"Institutions can support ACP billing by monitoring [quality measures] more closely, setting benchmarks, engaging local champions, and investing in training and support to ensure that documentation is clear and achievable with minimal disruption to workflow."
Keren Ladin discussed this research further with Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil on the most recent episode of A Health Podyssey.
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Health Affairs is the leading peer-reviewedjournalat the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Published monthly by Project HOPE, the journal is available in print and online. Late-breaking
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