Compassion & Choices, which works to ensure that end-of-life care honors individual values and autonomy, today endorsed legislation introduced by U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and U.lS. Representative Nanette Barragán (D-CA) to help patients access the care that is right for them. The legislation is cosponsored in the U.S. Senate by U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA).

“Every person deserves to have their wishes respected when facing serious illness or the need for end-of-life care,” Blumenthal said. “The Compassionate Care Act will help patients plan ahead, empower families and providers to have important conversations, and ensure that people’s care preferences are known and honored.”

“Only 5% of Americans have an advance care plan for their future medical care preferences, and many are unsure how to begin these important conversations with their health care providers,” said Barragán. “Senator Blumenthal and I are reintroducing the Compassionate Care Act to establish clear guidelines, improve physician education, increase public awareness, and expand access—including through telehealth services— to advance care planning. More Americans should feel empowered to take control of their end-of-life care.”

“The nation must improve our advance care planning policies so that doctors and families are not put in the deeply disturbing position of having to make life-altering care decisions without knowing the patient’s wishes,” said Kevin Díaz, president and CEO of Compassion & Choices. “We will work with Senator Blumenthal to secure congressional support to pass this critical legislation, which would increase the likelihood that patient-directed care is both the expectation and the norm.” 

“Passing this legislation matters greatly because patients facing their final months, weeks, or days need to know that their wishes will be honored even if they are not physically, mentally, or cognitively able to make their own decisions about end-of-life care at that very moment,” said Díaz. “Only about one in three of the nation’s adults have completed an advance directive, forcing too many physicians and family members to make agonizing,  life-and-death judgments on behalf of an individual with unnecessarily limited information.”

“Compassion & Choices is proud to be grouped with other esteemed organizations like the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (CTAC) and the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI) in endorsing this legislation,” Díaz added.

Among other provisions, the Compassionate Care Act would:

• Establish guidelines for advance care planning between health providers and patients;
• Launch a National Public Awareness Campaign that would encourage patients and providers to make end-of-life plans;
• Direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop education resources for providers to engage with patients, work with providers, state boards of medicine, and clinical associations to develop advance care education resources and solicit feedback from providers and develop quality measures;
• Improve access to advance care planning by expanding telehealth options for providers and patients; and,
• Facilitate a study on a national advanced care planning registry that would allow patients to transfer their advanced directives from state to state.

The full text of the legislation is available here. A one-page summary is available here.