[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 466 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 466

To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for coverage 
     of an end-of-life planning consultation as part of an initial 
      preventive physical examination under the Medicare program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 31, 2007

  Mr. Rockefeller (for himself, Mr. Nelson of Florida, and Mr. Lugar) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                          Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for coverage 
     of an end-of-life planning consultation as part of an initial 
      preventive physical examination under the Medicare program.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Medicare End-of-Life Care Planning 
Act of 2007''.

SEC. 2. MEDICARE COVERAGE OF AN END-OF-LIFE PLANNING CONSULTATION AS 
              PART OF AN INITIAL PREVENTIVE PHYSICAL EXAMINATION.

    (a) In General.--Section 1861(ww) of the Social Security Act (42 
U.S.C. 1395x(ww)) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ``paragraph (2),'' and 
        inserting ``paragraph (2) and an end-of-life planning 
        consultation (as defined in paragraph (3)),''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
    ``(3) For purposes of paragraph (1), the term `end-of-life planning 
consultation' means a consultation between the physician and an 
individual regarding--
            ``(A) the importance of preparing advance directives in 
        case an injury or illness causes the individual to be unable to 
        make health care decisions;
            ``(B) the situations in which an advance directive is 
        likely to be relied upon;
            ``(C) the reasons why the development of a comprehensive 
        end-of-life plan is beneficial and the reasons why such a plan 
        should be updated periodically as the health of the individual 
        changes;
            ``(D) the identification of resources that an individual 
        may use to determine the requirements of the State in which 
        such individual resides so that the treatment wishes of that 
        individual will be carried out if the individual is unable to 
        communicate those wishes, including requirements regarding the 
        designation of a surrogate decision maker (health care proxy); 
        and
            ``(E) whether or not the physician is willing to follow the 
        individual's wishes as expressed in an advance directive.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to initial preventive physical examinations provided on or after 
January 1, 2008.
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