Black Ops

Per the new HHS regulation that pays for “voluntary” end-of-life counseling as part of seniors' annual physicals – just what makes it voluntary?  Does a person need to ask for it? Will there be a discussion guide?  If so, who will prepare the talking points? When are such conversations "appropriate?" And since physicians are being incentivized to provide this service, where are the "best practice" guidelines? These are only a few of many unanswered questions.

 

The Wall Street Journal reports that:

 

The office of Oregon Democrat Earl Blumenauer, the author of the original rider who then lobbied Medicare to cover the service, sent an email to supporters cheering this "victory" but asked that they not tell anyone for fear of perpetuating "the 'death panel' myth." The email added that "Thus far, it seems that no press or blogs have discovered it, but we will be keeping a close watch.

So much for embracing transparency. “The regulatory process,” the WSJ opines, “isn't supposed to be a black-ops exercise.”
 

The Journal continues,

 

The affront is that Medicare needs to sneak around in order to offer a type of care that is routine in private insurance. If the medical experts in Congress haven't decided that some treatment or service is worthy of the fee schedule, then the program won't pay for it even if it is in the best interests of patients.

Under highly centralized national health care, the government inevitably makes cost-minded judgments about what types of care are "best" for society at large, and the standardized treatments it prescribes inevitably steal life-saving options from individual patients.

 

Set your TiVo for CSPAN.