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WYDEN LEGISLATION WOULD IMPROVE CARE
FOR PATIENTS NEAR THE END OF LIFE
Two bills strengthen hospice in Medicare, support
field of palliative care
May 11, 2005
Washington, DC – U.S.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) today introduced legislation aimed
at improving hospice care for America’s seniors and expanding
the field of palliative care for those at the end of life. Wyden’s
two bills – the Medicare Hospice Demonstration Act and the
Palliative Care Training Act – are part of an effort to
help the Senate address the fundamentals of end-of-life care and
pain treatment in a responsible manner.
“Supporting new ways to
care for a very ill patient physically, spiritually and emotionally
long before the last days of life is a good and appropriate use
of the Senate’s time,” said Wyden. “Providing
more hospice treatment to Medicare recipients and supporting palliative
care are ways to both empower and comfort Americans at the end
of life.”
In remarks before the Senate
last month, Wyden called for a stop to congressional efforts to
intrude on Americans’ end-of-life decisions, and encouraged
his colleagues to take up measured legislation that will empower
Americans facing life-threatening medical crises, instead of growing
the role of government.
Hospice programs provide a range
of services to control pain and other symptoms, maintain dignity
and provide comfort care, primarily to individuals in their own
homes. Medicare currently requires patients and doctors to stop
all treatment that might bring a cure before they can begin hospice
treatment – a choice that many patients and physicians are
unwilling to make. The Medicare Hospice Demonstration Act would
create demonstration projects permitting Medicare patients to
seek hospice care as they seek a cure, to determine whether more
patients will take advantage of the important care hospice can
provide if they are not forced to abandon hope for a cure. Today,
only 20 percent of patients who die in the United States receive
hospice care, and of that low number few begin care early enough
to receive the full benefit of hospice.
The Palliative Care Training
Act will help ensure that our country has health care providers
who know how to provide support and comfort care to the dying.
Palliative care is an approach that improves the whole quality
of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated
with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief
of suffering by early identification, assessment and treatment
of pain and other problems. Palliative care neither hastens nor
postpones death and is applicable early in the course of illness,
in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong
life such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and offers a support
system to help patients live as actively as possible until death.
The Wyden legislation provides grants to individuals with appointments
as junior faculty at accredited medical schools to help them teach
palliative care to other providers. In recent testimony before
the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee,
the National Hospice and Palliative Care Association singled out
the Wyden legislation as addressing an important need.
“These bills take an appropriate
Federal approach to key end-of-life issues, and if the Senate
is committed to considering the end of life in a serious fashion,
I will expect to see them come to a vote,” said Wyden.
The Medicare Hospice Demonstration
Act is expected to be referred to the Senate Committee on Finance,
of which Wyden is a member. The Palliative Care Training Act is
expected to be referred to the HELP Committee. Also expected to
come before the HELP Committee is the Conquering Pain Act, legislation
Wyden introduced today with U.S. Senator Gordon Smith (R-Ore.)
to give patients, families and providers 24-hour access to information
and assistance for pain management.
