Understanding The Use Of Medicare Procedure Codes For Advance Care Planning: A National Qualitative Study.

ABSTRACT: In 2016 Medicare introduced advance care planning Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes to reimburse clinicians for time spent providing the service. Despite recent increases, use of these codes remains low for reasons incompletely captured by quantitative research. To further identify barriers and facilitators to code use for Medicare fee-for-service enrollees, we conducted case studies at eleven health systems, including 272 interviews with clinicians, administrators, and key leadership. Five themes related to use of the new codes emerged: code-based constraints to billing, burdening patients with unexpected charges, ethical concerns with billing for discussion of advance care plans, incentives to signal the importance of their use in billing, and increasing both workflow bur

SUBMITTER: Ladin K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9683633 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature