As of January 1, 2016 Medicare began paying for advance care planning conversations. Payments for these services from 2016 through 2019 totaled more than $340 million but a new Office of Inspector General (OIG) report with brief found $42.3 million of those payments did not comply with requirements for the services. Specifically, most providers failed to identify how much time during the face-to-face visit was spent on discussions of advance care planning. OIG recommended to CMS more education to providers on documentation and time requirements for advance care planning discussions, recommended Medicare Administrative Contractors work to recoup the identified overpayments and instruct providers on identifying, reporting, and returning any overpayments, and finally that CMS outline when multiple advance care planning services are appropriate, and the documentation required to support these services.
