AHLA Session on Advance Care Planning

On April 8, 2009, at 1:00 p.m. EDT, the American Health Lawyers Association will offer a one-hour teleconference, Honoring Our Patients and Capturing Lost Opportunities: The Financial, Legal, and Practical Benefits of Advance Planning, for a fee of $30 (either member or non-member). Materials for the session will be available on April 1st.

This is the description of the call-in session, which is sponsored by AHLA's Public Interest Committee:

Now, more than ever, healthcare providers and patients have an interest in advance directives.

During this period of economic uncertainty, advance planning can offer precious clarity and increased healthcare efficiency, and yet most Americans have not exercised this valuable right.

Public awareness on this subject has increased in recent years, providing the perfect opportunity for providers to encourage their patients to execute an advance directive. * * *

These are the topics to be covered:

• Improvements in the quality of care when the patient's wishes are known.

• The hospital's continuing legal obligation to inform their patients about advance directives.

• The economic benefits of advance directives for the community.

• Tools and methods for communicating with your patients.

Teleconference participants will also receive a DVD of AHLA's just-released educational video, Loving Conversations: One Family's Story About the Importance of Advance Healthcare Planning.

This video will be extremely helpful in facilitating conversations between you and your client or the healthcare provider and her patient.

The DVD provides the viewer with a dramatic look at the difficult decision making process that a family must undergo when a loved one has no advance directive.

By offering the call-in course, AHLA will show support for National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) which will be on Thursday, April 16, 2009. NHDD is an annual effort to encourage patients to express their wishes regarding healthcare, and to encourage providers and healthcare facilities to respect those wishes, whatever they may be.

Presenters include:

• Nathan A. Kottkamp, Esq., Chair, National Healthcare Decisions Day, of McGuireWoods LLP, Richmond, VA

• Lisa D. Vandecavey, of Botsford Health Care Continuum, Farmington Hills, MI

• Thomas W. Coons (Moderator), of Ober/Kaler, Baltimore, MD

Registration information is available online here; and a printed registration form (PDF, which can be faxed) is available here.