Section 442.5.

When a health care provider makes a diagnosis that a patient has a terminal illness, the health care provider shall, upon the patient's request, provide the patient with comprehensive information and counseling regarding legal end-of-life care options pursuant to this section. When a terminally ill patient is in a health facility, as defined in Section 1250, the health care provider, or medical director of the health facility if the patient's health care provider is not available, may refer the patient to a hospice provider or private or public agencies and community-based organizations that specialize in end-of-life care case management and consultation to receive comprehensive information and counseling regarding legal end-of-life care options.

(a) If the patient indicates a desire to receive the information and counseling, the comprehensive information shall include, but not be limited to, the following:

(1) Hospice care at home or in a health care setting.

(2) A prognosis with and without the continuation of disease-targeted treatment.

(3) The patient's right to refusal of or withdrawal from life-sustaining treatment.

(4) The patient's right to continue to pursue disease-targeted treatment, with or without concurrent palliative care.

(5) The patient's right to comprehensive pain and symptom management at the end of life, including, but not limited to, adequate pain medication, treatment of nausea, palliative chemotherapy, relief of shortness of breath and fatigue, and other clinical treatments useful when a patient is actively dying.

(6) The patient's right to give individual health care instruction pursuant to Section 4670 of the Probate Code, which provides the means by which a patient may provide written health care instruction, such as an advance health care directive, and the patient's right to appoint a legally recognized health care decisionmaker.

(b) The information described in subdivision (a) may, but is not required to, be in writing. Health care providers may utilize information from organizations specializing in end-of-life care that provide information on factsheets and Internet Web sites to convey the information described in subdivision (a).

(c) Counseling may include, but is not limited to, discussions about the outcomes for the patient and his or her family, based on the interest of the patient. Information and counseling, as described in subdivision (a), may occur over a series of meetings with the health care provider or others who may be providing the information and counseling based on the patient's needs.

(d) The information and counseling sessions may include a discussion of treatment options in a manner that the patient and his or her family can easily understand. If the patient requests information on the costs of treatment options, including the availability of insurance and eligibility of the patient for coverage, the patient shall be referred to the appropriate entity for that information.

(Amended by Stats. 2009, Ch. 140, Sec. 94. Effective January 1, 2010.)