Diane Meier Featured in Interview About Pilot Program Allowing Hospice Patients to Receive Life-Pr

In light of a recently launched pilot program that will allow patients under hospice care to receive curative treatments, Diane Meiers, direct of the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) as well as Hartford grantee, speaks on the significance of such a program and what this may mean in changing the approach that doctors have toward dying patients.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced the launch of Medicare Care Choices Model, a program created under the health law that allows hospice patients with advanced cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure and HIV/AIDS to receive not only hospice care but also curative care.

In a recent interview with Kaiser Health News, Hartford grantee Diane Meier and director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) expounded on the implication of this new pilot program. Seeing this development as a noteworthy change in the approach toward dying patients, Dr. Meier said, "I think it's a recognition that this forced choice between palliative care and life-prolonging treatment is irrational."

However, she also expanded on the limitations of such a program and added, "It’s a misnomer to say they’re going to be cured. There are very few diseases that we cure in U.S.medicine. In most cases what we’re talking about is life-prolonging treatment, and in most cases that’s palliative treatment. It makes people feel better. If you have emphysema and I give you broncodilators and steriods to open up your airways, it will prolong your life, and it will also make you feel better."

Read the full interview here.