Today, April 16, 2013, is National Healthcare Decision Day (NHDD);
a collaborative initiative started in 2008 to raise awareness and highlight the
importance of advanced care planning. The program encourages patients to
document their advanced care wishes and put in place a framework for care that
can be used if they are no longer able to voice their personal decisions.
Included in the events for today are various rallies and panels
around to country, designed to educate and mobilize state and local organizations,
healthcare providers, and other key stakeholders. The NHDD initiative is focused
on making sure that all adults with decision making capacities have the
information and opportunities needed to communicate and document their
healthcare decisions.
The initiative hosts a website, www.nationalhealthcaredecisionday.org
or www.nhdd.org, with information and resources
that individuals can use to help ensure that any future care is within their
wishes. According to that website, 90% of Americans have heard of a living
will, 71% of Americans have thought about their end of life preferences, but
only 29% of Americans currently have a living will.
Advanced directives are also an area of focus in NAHAM’s recently
released CMS Toolkit, available to members here. Along with issues like
charity care and patient abuse, advanced directives are a topic that the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has published guidelines on.
For information on today’s events, you can visit the NHDD Facebook
page here.
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