jill dougherty with more details from the white house. reporter: hi, tony. this will affect almost all hospitals in the united states because almost all hospitals in the united states do participate in medicare and medicaid, and that is the legal way that they are that the president is now issuing that memorandum for hhs to issue the new rules. and here is how it would work. any hospital that is receiving medicare or medicaid funding must allow patients to decide who can visit them. that s number one. then they must prohibit discrimination based on a variety of characteristics and that can include sexual orientation and gender identity and finally it would guarantee all patients advanced directives and that would be such as who can make health care decisions if the patient isn t able to do it. and tony, as you mentioned some of this was sparked by that case, janice langben and her partner lisa pond. they ve been together for 17 years. partner lisa developed an
she was a pretty quiet person. she d be pretty shocked at all the, you know, the outpouring of support that we re getting. even at the time of her death her memorial was overflowing because lisa touched so many people s lives that now it s another chance to celebrate who she was. janice langben was forced to sit in a waiting room while her partner of 17 years died from an aneurism. it was a situation many gays and lesbians face and it was her case that helped inspire president obama to take action. an order from the president will change the relatives-only visitation policies at hospitals, and it will allow patients to decide who has visitation rights and who can consult on same-sex partners.