Related Stories

'Fighting Our Best': TMA Efforts Help Improve End-of-Life Care Bill - 11/11/2024

Mark Casanova, MD, has a sign in his office reminding him of his team’s unconventional motto “Stomp Out Suffering.” “A number of years ago, at the end of a team meeting, I just uttered the words as


Planning That Pays: Physicians Can Receive Payment for Helping Patients Prepare for End-of-Life - 11/04/2024

Physicians can receive Medicare payment for helping patients prepare for end-of-life medical decisions.


OIG: Physicians Incorrectly Billing for End-of-Life Care Planning - 01/05/2023

Advance care planning (ACP) services were meant to give patients the opportunity to choose the care that is right for them at the end of their lives or during medical crises that could render them unable to make personal health decisions.


Advance Directives Act: Directive to Physicians - 03/22/2022

The Texas Health and Safety Code authorizes the use of a written Directive to Physicians in accordance with these guidelines.


Wrong Directive: Legal Shifts on End-of-Life Care Concern Physicians - 02/27/2021

Challenges to Texas laws governing end-of-life care, whether through legislative rewrites or judicial override, are nothing new. The recent success of those challenges is. In particular, two recent erosions have physicians like Houston palliative care specialist Mark Casanova, MD, chagrined and concerned about the future of doctors’ role in end-of-life treatment.


TMA Supports Medical Ethics Committee Review Law in Latest Challenge - 12/20/2019

TMA has joined several other organizations on a friend-of-the-court brief in a case challenging the state's medical ethics committee review law. In the most recent challenge, the mother of a 10-month-old girl who since birth has been on life-support at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, has sued the hospital and obtained a temporary restraining order to keep her daughter on life support.


Get Paid for End-of-Life Care Discussions With Patients - 07/18/2019

Since 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has used two Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) payment codes for conversations about end-of-life treatment.