Senior Navigation and Planning Act of 2000

Floor Speech

SENIOR NAVIGATION AND PLANNING ACT OF 2009 -- (Senate - June 15, 2009)

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about legislation to help
seniors navigate through a complicated and often overwhelming health care delivery system. Because of the fragmented nature of our health care system, we often fail to provide patients, their families, and caregivers with the necessary tools, information, and support to both age well and with dignity in the setting of their preference, oftentimes their homes.

I believe if we provide patients with better information about advanced care planning in noncrisis situations, they will make decisions for themselves and their families that result in better care and a better quality of life.

Today I am introducing the Senior Navigation and Planning Act of 2009 to help seniors and their families navigate through a complex system and to help them make informed medical decisions. My legislation would provide access to an advanced illness care management benefit, a benefit that does not exist currently in our health care delivery system.

My legislation, as well, would increase the awareness of advanced care planning through a national education campaign and clearinghouse. It would also reduce legal hurdles to the enforcement of advanced directives. It would create incentives for hospitals and physicians to get accredited and certified in palliative care. It would increase compliance with medical orders and discharge instructions. Too often a patient may leave a hospital, not do the appropriate actions afterwards, and not follow the discharge information, which can result in the patient being readmitted to the hospital or ending up with their health care provider not having the appropriate followup. We have to make sure we put an end to that.

My legislation would also educate entities, including faith-based organizations, on advanced care planning issues. Oftentimes an individual or family, when dealing with end-of-life issues, will turn not only to their medical provider but oftentimes to their priest or rabbi or minister. We want to make sure folks in the faith-based community understand the challenges and opportunities people have with advanced care planning.

My legislation, as well, would increase coordination and integration between the Medicare and Medicaid Programs. Too often these programs that both deal with seniors, their health care issues, and aging issues do not cooperate or collaborate.

Collectively, these initiatives will create a more accessible environment for seniors to receive the care they need when they need it, and in the setting they prefer.

Let me be clear, this legislation does not deny or withhold services. However, it does recognize that overall health reform should include a thoughtful process that informs patients, their families, and caregivers on how to navigate and think through difficult decisions about when and how to pursue treatments at the end of life.

By enacting these reforms, we will begin to develop a culture in which all of us will have the ability to age well, with dignity, and, again, in the setting of our choosing.

I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record letters of support from the following organizations: the AARP, the Alzheimer's Foundation, the Duke University Divinity School, the Institute on Care at the End of Life, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, UnitedHealth Group, and Aetna.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

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