We are at an exciting crossroads for improving the way we help adults live well with serious illness. Since Massachusetts joined the National POLST Paradigm in 2017, the MA MOLST (Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) Advisory Committee has been working diligently to bring our serious illness and MOLST process into compliance with the national standard.…

Greater Lynn Senior Services (GLSS), an Honoring Choices Community Partner, helps seniors and individuals living with disabilities connect to needed care on the North Shore, including Russian speaking adults and families.  GLSS staff were already using the Honoring Choices Russian Health Care Proxy to help adults choose a Health Care Agent, but needed its “sister…

Adults diagnosed with a serious advancing illness may experience considerable stress, resulting not only from living with a serious illness but from the complexities of making personal and medical decisions. The Honoring Choices Partners, who routinely engage adults in care planning conversations, experience first-hand the power of conversations to ease stress, build trust, and help…

Join us for an exclusive conversation and screening of “End Game,” the Netflix documentary, on Monday March 18, 2019, 5:30-7:00pm, Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA, 101 Huntington Avenue, 12th Floor, Prudential Center, Boston, MA.  This event is co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care and Honoring Choices Massachusetts, in collaboration with End Well Foundation.…

Honoring Choices has joined forces with the Age Friendly, Dementia Friendly and health care leaders across New England, to support more livable communities for healthy living, and improve access to health care information and equitable care. Thanks to a grant from Tufts Health Plan Foundation, Honoring Choices is bringing together key leaders in Massachusetts (MA),…

The Honoring Choices Health Care Planning Ambassadors start powerful health care planning discussions with consumers anywhere they live, work and gather. Our free Getting Started Tool Kit includes a Massachusetts Health Care Proxy, available in 10 languages, so adults can choose a trusted person as their Health Care Agent,  and complete a Health Care Proxy document…

Since January 1, 2016, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has provided reimbursement for clinicians to engage patients in advance care planning discussions with the goal of providing improved patient-and family-centered care for Medicare beneficiaries. The two reimbursement codes enable Medicare patients to make informed care decisions to improve healthy aging and to plan…

Patient Portals can be powerful tools that offer patients 24/7 secure access to view their medical information and manage their health care decisions from their computer or phones. However we found in a recent survey that not all portals are “created equal”. Patient Portals, provided by  physician’s offices, hospitals and health systems, offer their patients user-friendly sections…

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 1.5 million people in the US get sepsis and more than 250,000 die from it each year. Without timely treatment, sepsis can rapidly lead to tissue damage, organ failure and death. It is also a leading cause for hospital re-admissions. Healthcentric Advisors, an…

The Getting Started Tool Kit has become a Massachusetts favorite to complete your Health Care Proxy, a Personal Directive (Living Will) and start a planning discussion with your family and care providers. Now you can listen & watch short videos to make your own health care plan. The Getting Started Tool Kit video series, like the…