Reducing End-Of-Life Costs. It’s Not A Futile Pursuit.

In my most recent post, I describe several psychologic and economic phenomena impeding our ability to rein in the cost of end-of-life care. In brief, people with nothing to lose, who don’t trust doctors recommending they receive hospice care, and who face few economic consequences for receiving expensive care – they aren’t likely to put the brakes on a round of salvage chemo or a last-ditch admission to the ICU.

But that doesn’t mean we are powerless to reduce end-of-life spending. Recently, Brad Stuart, Chief Medical Officer at the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care, wrote an essay in Health Affairs describing a way to potentially reduce end-of-life costs by better aligning healthcare services with patient preferences.

(To read the rest of the article, please visit Forbes.)

PeterUbel