Learn how an innovative company is contracting with insurers to educate patients about decision-making around advanced illnesses.
My guest Tracy Brubaker is the COO of Vital Decisions, a company founded by Dr. Jessica Zitter to focus on changing the way people with advanced illness receive care by encouraging advance care planning. She shares how Vital Decisions contracts with insurers to provide education and counseling to their clients and the impact they are having on end-of-life care. Learn more about Vital Decisions at the website:
This episode includes:
- What inspired the creation of Vital Decisions
- How Vital Decisions works with insurers to educate their clients and guide them through advance care planning at no cost to the patient
- Why Vital Decisions chooses Masters level clinicians as their team members
- How team members initiate and structure conversations about end-of-life issues
- The two most common motivations for people to decide to complete their advance directives
- 60-70% of Vital Decisions clients complete their paperwork and have conversations with the important people in their lives
- Benefits to patients and insurers: fewer inpatient and ER visits, less unwanted aggressive treatment, and lower costs at end of life
- How the My Living Voice program helps healthy individuals easily complete an advance directive online at no cost
- How the Guided Living Voice program educates patients and their families about palliative care
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Workshop on Top Lessons for Living from Those at the End of Life – sign up now to get the early discount rate!
- Register here for FREE Life Class with Suzanne O’Brien (and me!) on September 3rd!
- Previous interview with Dr. Jessica Zitter
- My Living Voice from Vital Decisions
- Subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Stitcher Radio
- Check out the Series I’ve recorded in the past here
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