Only about one-third American adults have set up advance directives for end-of-life care, according to a report from University of Pennsylvania researchers published in Health Affairs.
 
Only 36.7% of the 795,909 people analyzed in the research finished an advanced care directive, including 29.3% with living wills, according to the research.
 
In January 2016, Medicare started “reimbursing doctors for counseling beneficiaries about advanced-care planning, something many patients may not know,” NAHC states.
 
“The findings provide benchmarks for gauging future policies and practices designed to motivate completion of advance directives, particularly among those people most likely to benefit from having these documents on record,” the report’s abstract states.