Last month, however, this six-year struggle came to a quiet resolution. With hardly a ripple of dissent, Medicare authorized payment for end-of-life discussions.
Now health care professionals can punch in a code to bill Medicare for sitting down with patients to discuss end-of-life decisions. They’ll get paid $86 for the first half hour’s conversation in an office (in a hospital, it’s $80), and $75 for an additional 30 minutes. If you need to reopen the subject in a few months, or a few years, Medicare will pay again.
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