The medical society also said that physicians are not licensed to provide legal advice in areas such as pain or symptom management, and that they may not know what they are supposed to be communicating to patients under certain provisions, while still being subject to penalties.
Although the medical society might object to requiring any such talk, both Dr. Flansbaum and Dr. Edwards said that, realistically, the law should be requiring palliative care to be offered sooner in the disease process and to a broader group of patients, such as those who have chronic life-limiting conditions such as heart failure.
“By the time you're invoking palliative care in terminal patients, you're behind the curve,” said Dr. Flansbaum.