MedPAC is an independent federal organization that was established by Congress for advice on issues affecting the Medicare program. Chapters devoted to end-of-life care appeared in recent major reports (MedPAC, 1998, 1999) including, in 1999, recommendations for the Medicare program and the Department of Health and Human Services, more broadly. They directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services to

• make end-of-life care a national quality improvement priority for Medicare+Choice and traditional Medicare;

• support research on care at the end of life and work with nongovernmental organizations as they (1) educate the health care profession and the public about care at the end of life and (2) develop measures to accredit health care organizations and provide public accountability for the quality of end-of-life care;

• sponsor projects to develop and test measures of the quality of end-of-life care for Medicare beneficiaries, and enlist quality improvement organizations and Medicare+Choice plans to implement quality improvement programs for care at the end of life; and

• promote advance care planning by practitioners and patients well before terminal health crises occur.

As yet, neither the Congress nor the Secretary has responded to these MedPAC recommendations.

A variety of professional and trade organizations, consumer groups, pharmaceutical companies, and others have taken positive steps related to palliative and end-of-life care, only the most prominent of which are touched on here. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is the main professional organization for practicing oncologists. In 1998, it took two important steps. First, ASCO published a position statement on cancer care during the last phase of life (ASCO, 1998), outlining the role of the oncologist, identifying impediments to achieving the best care, and recommending solutions. The details of the position statement flow from the belief that “it is the oncologists’ responsibility to care for their patients in a continuum