Policy to Support Shared Decision-Making
With the widespread recognition of the inefficiency and high cost of the U.S. health care system, policy makers in many states and the federal government are searching for effective ways to improve the quality of health care and reform its delivery.
Now that the benefits of patient decision aids and shared decision-making have been clearly demonstrated, many policy makers advocate shared decision-making as a means for both providing more patient-centered care and reforming the health care delivery system.
Fostering Routine Use of Decision Aids
To support greater uptake of informed shared decision-making, advocates encourage the adoption of policies that foster the routine use of patient decision aids to guide a process of informed and involved decision making. In particular, policy leaders are endorsing the idea of payment for approved decision aids and additional physician consultation time in cases where a patient is facing a decision about whether to undergo a specified preference-sensitive treatment.
Legislative Advances
The Foundation has championed such policies by convening discussions among key stakeholders and supporting the education of lawmakers by experts in shared decision-making. Through the Foundation’s efforts and those of many other advocates of informed medical decision-making, lawmakers have begun to establish legal standards supportive of the shared decision-making process. One state legislature has passed legislation that endorses shared decision-making—and serves as a model for legislators of other jurisdictions. To learn more about the legislation and its history, click here.
Suggested Reading:
Rethinking Informed Consent: The Case for Shared Medical Decision-Making
by Jaime Staples King and Benjamin Moulton
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