Death panels are a big, vicious and effective lie. The Republican members of Congress who have subscribed to this lie are scum.
However, Amy Sullivan is wrong. In Oh, Those Death Panels she claims to have found proof of the utter hypocrisy of the Republicans with respect to the Big lie of death panels.
She hasn't. The centerpiece of her blog entry is a quotation that is taken out of context. According to her blog entry the provision applies to all terminally ill patients. It doesn't.
The earlier provision referred to the payment to a hospice medical director or employee for a consultation with a terminally ill patient. The very title of the section is Coverage of Hospice Consultation Services
I've checked the comments here and at Amy Sullivan's blog entry and can't find anyone else who has noticed this.
This isn't the smoking gun. For one, I'm not sure that this provision became law exactly as quoted here. It didn't show up in a google search. Someone else should check this.
What's worse, Sullivan's quotation is taken out of context as it applies to this debate - it refers to terminally ill people getting information from hospice doctors or employees so they can decide if it is appropriate. Sullivan leaves out any mention of hospice.
Here's the quotation taken from Amy Sullivan's blog:
"The covered services are: evaluating the beneficiary's need for pain and symptom management, including the individual's need for hospice care; counseling the beneficiary with respect to end-of-life issues and care options, and advising the beneficiary regarding advanced care planning."
I googled part of the quote "The covered services are: evaluating the" and only found 5 links. To me, this means that I've got right source for her quotation.
It's a link to Thomas, the Libary of Congress search engine http://tinyurl.com/...
Here's the whole section from Thomas. Note the title of the section and the source of the quotation in the conference agreement. Emphasis added.
----------start quotation----------
Coverage of Hospice Consultation Services (Section 512 of the Conference Agreement and Section 512 of the House Bill).
Present Law
Current law authorized coverage of hospice services, in lieu of certain other Medicare benefits, for terminally ill beneficiaries who elect such coverage.
House Bill
Coverage of certain physician's services for certain terminally ill individuals would be authorized. Persons entitled to these services would be individuals who have not elected the hospice benefit and have not previously received these physician's services. Covered services would be those furnished by a physician who is the medical director or employee of a hospice program. Services would include evaluating the individual's need for pain and symptom management, counseling the individual with respect to end-of-life issues and care options, and advising the individual regarding advanced care planning. Payment for such services would equal the amount established for similar services under the physician fee schedule, excluding the practice expense component. The provision would apply to consultation services provided by a hospice program on or after January 1, 2004.
Senate Bill
No provision.
Conference Agreement
The conference agreement provides coverage of certain physician's services for certain terminally ill individuals. Beneficiaries entitled to these services are those who have not elected the hospice benefit and have not previously received these physician's services. Covered services are those furnished by a physician who is the medical director or employee of a hospice program. The covered services are: evaluating the beneficiary's need for pain and symptom management, including the individual's need for hospice care; counseling the beneficiary with respect to end-of-life issues and care options, and advising the beneficiary regarding advanced care planning. Payment for such services equals the amount established for similar services under the physician fee schedule, excluding the practice expense component. The provision would apply to consultation services provided by a hospice program on or after January 1, 2005.
-----end quotation ---------
So this consultation doesn't apply to all terminally ill patients. Basically, its a way for the hospice to get paid for talking to patients and seeing whether hospice care makes sense.
There's no doubt in the world that the Republicans supported the voluntary once every 5 year end-of-life consultation but you can't prove hypocrisy by using an earlier provision that's very difference in terms of timing and population.
There's the also the issue of why this error wasn't caught in any of the comments here or at Amy Sullivan's blog.
My guess is confirmation bias. There's a world of evidence out there. Some of which fits with what we already believe in and some of which doesn't. Stuff that fits gets a much easier pass than stuff that doesn't.
I'm not sure why I looked up the quote. Probably because it was just too good to be true. I had the advantage of just getting burned by a quotation which I posted about and then had to correct.