You might be hearing a lot about what’s not happening in the nation’s Capitol right now but one thing that is happening is the BETTER Kidney Care Act—to expand care coordination opportunities for dialysis patients. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed the health of kidney disease patients at risk more than ever before, while also showing the many challenges to ensuring their continuity of their care. Here’s a first-person take on the issue from Felice Moore, of Indianapolis: I’ve been on dialysis for 19 years, but my experience with dialysis treatments goes back even further to 1989, before I received my first kidney transplant. After my first transplant [...]

This has been a difficult year for the medical community as we do everything we can to combat the spread of COVID-19 while protecting the most vulnerable patients. One especially vulnerable group right now is patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), in large part because they see so many different doctors. They need to regularly see a primary care physician and nephrologist, and go in for dialysis multiple times a week. Many also have other health conditions like diabetes alongside their kidney disease. Unfortunately, these treatments often are not properly coordinated, meaning extra doctors’ appointments, higher costs, and sometimes even [...]

Protecting patients in the U.S. has been at the top of the public mind since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. Since March, people both here in Missouri and across the rest of the country have been taking steps to help curb the spread of the virus and keep each other safe, particularly those with other health issues that make them more susceptible to contracting the virus and having serious health problems as a result. Even with all we’ve done so far, however, there is still more we and our elected officials can do to protect high-risk Americans. One group [...]

Since she was just three days old, my daughter has struggled with kidney failure. After over 30 years and three transplants, it’s become clear that more needs to be done to help kidney patients. Care coordination in particular needs a lot of attention. Without effective communication between doctors, things get harder for patients, and they can suffer serious health problems as a result. We’ve experienced this in my daughter’s care from the beginning. Medications and doses occasionally got mixed up when she was a baby, and recently a miscommunication between her doctors meant she was diagnosed with 40mg of one [...]