Keren Ladin on Why Medicare's Advance Care Planning Payment Is A Work In Progress

<p>Advance care planning 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 is called a living will.</p><p><br></p><p>Beginning in January of 2016, Medicare made it possible for certain clinicians to bill for their work for patients to develop advance care plans.</p><p><br></p><p>Despite the new billing option, uptake has been quite slow.</p><p><br></p><p>In health care, we often use financial incentives to motivate behavior change. You might have expected that simply creating a payment option for advance care planning would make it happen.</p><p><br></p><p>Keren Ladin from <a href="https://www.tufts.edu/">Tufts University</a> joins <em>Health Affairs </em>Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil on <em>A Health Podyssey</em> to discuss the reasons Medicare's payment policy has not led to the greater pursuit of advance care planning.</p><p><br></p><p>Ladin and coauthors published a paper in the January 2022 issue of <em>Health Affairs</em> <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2021.00848?utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_source=health+podyssey&amp;utm_campaign=january2022issue&amp;utm_content=ladin">examining the limited use of advance care planning billing codes among clinicians</a>. Their qualitative study revealed a number of potential explanations for low use that can help us  understand why a seemingly simple payment change doesn't automatically yield a desired result.</p><p><br></p><p>Barriers to use of the advance care planning billing codes include institutional practices, concerns about the effects on patients and more.</p><p><a href="https://www.pubservice.com/backissue/subbi.aspx?CO=PJ&amp;PC=HR&amp;BI=HRI&amp;utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_source=podcast&amp;utm_content=ladin">If you enjoy this interview, order the January 2022 <em>Health Affairs </em>issue</a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.pubservice.com/backissue/subbi.aspx?CO=PJ&amp;PC=HR&amp;BI=HRI&amp;utm_medium=podcast&