Revised
TEXAS MEDICAL ASSOCIATION HOUSE OF DELEGATES
Resolution 402 (A-07)
Subject: Disease and Debilitation Scale for Medicare
Introduced by: Angelina County Medical Society
Referred to: Reference Committee on Socioeconomics
Whereas, Medicare currently comprises a large, growing, and unsustainable portion of the federal budget with annual efforts by Congress to reduce reimbursements; and
Whereas, The majority of the average citizen's lifetime health expenditures are incurred in the last two months of life; and
Whereas, Physicians, rather than government bureaucrats, elected government officials, or family members without financial responsibility for their decisions, are in the best position to make prudent decisions about medical care at the end of life; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That (1) organized medicine coordinate and provide leadership with elected government officials to determine a reliable and reproducible standard disease and debilitation scale. The scale shall consider chronic and irreversible disease conditions, chronic and irreversible mental deterioration, overall physical condition and age, and whatever other reproducible and valid criteria may be determined to be of most value; (2) when a federal health care beneficiary reaches such a state of deterioration that it is found by statistically valid methods that recovery to a functional state is unlikely and further efforts shall be deemed futile, then hospice care only shall continue as a federal health care benefit; and (3) further treatments other than palliation, pain control, and hospice care are in no way prohibited, except that all further treatments previously paid by the CMS, if insisted upon by family members, shall become the financial obligation of the patient and his or her family.
Relevant TMA Policy
85.014 Physician Responsibility with End-of-Life Care : Physicians should educate themselves on the opportunities and responsibilities provided by state law governing advance directives and medical power of attorney and use all appropriate opportunities to educate their patients on the subject (Amended CHSO Rep. 1-A-05).
TMA House of Delegates: TexMed 2007