Here’s what you need to know.
1. Approximately 14,000 providers have billed for the service, once referred to as “death panels’ by Republicans” AZ Central reports.
2. Approximately 223,000 patients sought advance care planning services between January and June 2016. Those patients equate to nearly $35 million in billing.
3. Full-year numbers won’t be available until July 2016, but analysts believe demand for the service is higher than initially anticipated.
4. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) introduced legislation that would pull Medicaid funding for the service.
5. Paul Malley, president of Aging with Dignity, a Florida nonprofit, defended the service saying, “It’s great to hear that almost a quarter million people had an advance care planning conversation in the first six months of 2016. I do think the billing makes a difference. I think it puts it on the radar of more physicians.”
More articles on coding, billing and collections:
Republican official open to maintaining payer cost-sharing subsidies, reinsurance payments — For now: 4 points
Payers increasing scrutiny of coding compliance
Sen. Schumer will fight all attempts to privatize Medicare: 4 key notes
