Advance Care Planning / End of Life

You may never have heard of Vice News, but it’s likely your kids and grandkids have. It’s a news source that, through edgy video and visual material, covers the news and often focuses on what it considers underreported topics. Very recently Vice News produced a 10 minute video piece on The Business…

Physicians have historically been uncomfortable initiating conversations about end-of-life care with their patients. Such communication requires tact, sensitivity and, of course, time. In 2016, however, physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants were given the authority to bill Medicare to conduct these challenging discussions, thus allowing providers to carve out discreet time…

Continuing the theme of conversations with physicians about health care decision making, especially at the end of life: such advance care planning becomes all the more complex and challenging when there’s no clear person to step in to be a surrogate decision maker should something happen to you. Typically, patients…

For many of us, it’s our worst nightmare: to be desperately ill with no end in sight and no way to relieve the suffering. While a few states are wrestling with the concept of physician-assisted death, that involves a complex legal system of checks and balances to ensure that only…

In a moving op-ed in The Washington Post, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has voiced a controversial but important opinion. As someone who has devoted his life to the dignity of all human beings, he has now shifted his focus to life as it comes to a close. At…

It’s not easy thinking about the end of your life, but in this day and age most people realize it’s important to document your wishes in a living will and to appoint another person to be your health care agent. These legal documents can ensure that your wishes for treatment…