The Obama Administration is soon scheduled to release the proposed 2016 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, which determines what and how much providers can bill for health care services. The administration can choose to compensate providers for offering voluntary counseling services to patients and families about end-of-life care options, and I strongly urge it to do so. It is an important first step.

As a heart surgeon, I have seen countless instances where patients near the end of life undergo aggressive medical interventions in order to prolong the inevitable. Yet most people, when asked, say they would want to spend their final days at home, without pain, comfortable with family and friends, and not hooked up to multiple machines in the hospital. We simply must do better and help ensure that a patient receives the health care that they want near the end of their life.

Americans are living longer than ever, and children are increasingly helping aging parents and grandparents manage multiple chronic conditions. This new reality has more and more people thinking about new models of end of life care, and has sparked a national conversation about how we can all live well, until the very end.

I’m encouraged to see that this important issue has reached the halls of Congress, where legislators in both the House and Senate are pursuing bipartisan ways to improve the care patients receive near the end of life. One policy option being considered is reimbursing providers for discussing treatment options and care preferences with patients and their families. I wholeheartedly support this idea, and there is an immediate opportunity to make it happen.

Read more at Forbes.