Indiana Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment (POST)

During the 2013 session of the Indiana General Assembly, House Enrolled Act 1328 was passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Pence.  The bill establishes the framework for use of the Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment (POST) form and requires the Indiana State Department of Health to develop the official form and place it on the department's website.  The law becomes effective July 1, 2013, and it is expected that the ISDH will have a form available on its website that day.

The initiative to adopt the POST form in Indiana was born from a national effort, started in Oregon, to develop a new and more effective approach to end of life care planning.  The form captures a patient's treatment preferences in specific medical orders that health care providers can act upon.   A POST form "is built upon conversations between patients, loved ones, and health care professionals, during which patients can determine the extent of care they wish to receive."   A patient may elect to execute a POST form as a result of the conversations and guidance concerning end of life care, and those care preferences then become medical orders that are carried out by health care providers.
A POST form, once properly executed, results in the creation of medical orders that by law are actionable across all medical settings.  As with any new health care treatment tool, it will take time and communication for health care providers to implement use of POST within their own facilities and amongst health care settings.

For your information, IHCA has developed the following summary of the POST law along with some practical and operational considerations.  IHCA will continue to update its members on the implementation of POST as information becomes available. Read More.

The remainder of this article is located in the Members Only section of the IHCA website. To request access to that section, click here. If you have already assigned yourself a password but have difficulty logging in to the Members Only section, please contact Kate Vaulter at kvaulter@ihca.org.