60 minutes ran a story Sunday night Aug. 6, 2010 (originally published on Nov. 22, 2009). The Cost of Dying: End-of-Life Care . It started with the statement “Every medical study ever conducted has concluded that 100 percent of all Americans will eventually die. This comes as no great surprise, but the amount of money being spent at the very end of people’s lives probably will.” They also reported, that last year, Medicare paid $55 billion just for doctor and hospital bills during the last two months of patients’ lives. That’s more than the budget for the Department of Homeland Security, or the Department of Education.
This piece created a lot of emotions for me. I don’t think it was an accident that I related to this story, considering that I have been working with colleagues who are experts in the field of eldercare and life coaching.
When I first decided to add this story to my blog; it seemed like an easy angle to write about our role in the debate as medical billers. (If you have any thoughts on what role we play, please comment.) After reporter Steve Kroft asked Dr. Elliott Fisher, a researcher at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy “How do so many people end up in the hospital?” and Fisher replied “It’s the path of least resistance”. I realized I was about to take the same path with this blog–so here goes the harder way.
Perhaps we as a country need to take a step back and as hard as this is to say “decide how we want to die”.
Most Americans don’t like to focus on morbid thing like this, but I have to agree with the point of view held by Dr. Byock who leads a team that treats and counsels patients with advanced illnesses: “This is a hard time in human life. But it’s just a part of life. Collectively, as a culture, we really have to acknowledge that we’re mortal,” Dr. Byock said. “Get over it. And start looking at what a healthy, morally robust way for people to die looks like.”
Dale Carnegie once said “Prepare for the worst that can possibly happen” then “calmly try to improve upon the worst.”
I think that we should put some thought today into how we what to die, to maintain some control of our last days. I have deeper understanding of how working with my end-of-life colleagues could help us live a better life. Attorney Craig Andreoli an estate planning expert, Stephanie Ethe long term insurance specialist and Jean Summit-Riker life coach can help us plan and ask ourselves the hard questions now so that we’re better prepared for death.
Jean Summit-Riker said “Life is a journey we all travel, but the choice to take the path to peace and happiness is yours alone.” I think this is our chance to collectively leave a legacy to our children and grandchildren and show them that it is important to prepare for death and that is possible to do it gracefully.
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