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Kidney Communi­ty Blocks Threats to Charitable Assistance and Dialysis Funding in California

2024-03-29T01:13:35+00:00March 18th, 2019|Categories: Article, Charitable Premium Assistance, Dialysis Funding, State Advocacy|Tags: |

By Megan Hashbarger, Director of Congressional and State Relations, Dialysis Patient Citizens Dialysis Patients Citizen’s (DPC) mission is to improve dialysis citizens’ quality of life. As a result, we have played an important role in increasing patient access to: health insurance coverage, care coordination, medications and innovative therapies. While we work hard to improve public policies for patients, sometimes we are put on defense to protect our previous hard-fought victories. One of the most important tools for protecting patient choice and access to insurance coverage is the ability of charities to provide financial assistance in helping dialysis patients purchase insurance [...]

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Insights from the Dialysis Patient Citizens 2018 Patient Survey: Patients’ Priorities for Quality Measures and New Innovations in ESRD Care

2024-03-29T01:13:35+00:00March 11th, 2019|Categories: Article, Innovation, Quality Incentive Program, Treatment Options|Tags: |

By Jackson Williams, Director of Regulatory Affairs and General Counsel, Dialysis Patient Citizens Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) thanks everyone who completed its 2018 Patient Survey. It is another way to make your voices heard. We use our patient survey to get your input on current issues and to convey your opinions to policymakers in Washington, DC. This year, our survey included questions on two recent developments in Washington: Medicare’s “Meaningful Measures” Initiative: In early 2018, Medicare officials announced plans to reduce the number of quality measures it uses to hold health care providers accountable. This meant that for dialysis care, [...]

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2018 Midterm Election Wrap-Up

2024-03-29T01:13:35+00:00February 22nd, 2019|Categories: Article, Care Coordination, Charitable Premium Assistance, Medigap Coverage|

By Megan Hashbarger, Director of Congressional and State Relations, Dialysis Patient Citizens This past November, America held its 2018 midterm elections. We call it a midterm election because it is held between the four-year cycle of Presidential elections and is often seen as a reflection of the country’s temperament towards the President’s agenda. This cycle saw big wins for Democrats but also some solid victories for Republicans. While Democrats picked up over 40 seats and retook the majority in the House, Republicans held on to and increased their majority in the Senate. The only thing clear now is that for [...]

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Assembly Bill 290 Threatens Dialysis Quality and Access for Patients Living in California

2024-03-29T01:13:36+00:00February 19th, 2019|Categories: Article, Charitable Premium Assistance, Dialysis Funding, Improve Access to Care, State Advocacy|

Receiving dialysis treatment three times a week is critical to survival for the 70,000 patients in California with End-Stage Renal Disease, or kidney failure. Unfortunately, this access to treatment is being threatened with California Assembly Bill 290 (Woods), which may disrupt the provider network dialysis patients rely on and lower the quality of care they depend on. This legislation is similar to Senate Bill 1156, which was defeated by dialysis patients and vetoed by California Governor Jerry Brown last year. Specifically, we are concerned that AB 290 will cut reimbursement rates private insurance companies pay to cover dialysis care. These reimbursement rates [...]

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NIH Seeks Volunteers to Help Cure Diseases and Solve Health Problems

2024-03-29T01:13:36+00:00February 13th, 2019|Categories: Article, Treatment Options|Tags: |

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is looking for volunteers to participate in the All of Us program, which is a research initiative that tracks the health of U.S. participants. The initiative is not centered around a specific disease or population. Instead, it is intended to accelerate research and improve a large assortment of health conditions by evaluating the impact of lifestyle, environment and biological makeup on health and disease. Participants may elect to help by filling out surveys, sharing electronic health records, getting a physical, sharing fitness tracker data, providing blood and urine samples, and more. The hope is [...]

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Happy Holidays and DPC’s Top 10 Accomplishments of 2018

2024-03-29T01:13:36+00:00December 19th, 2018|Categories: Advance Patient Choice, Article, Care Coordination, Charitable Premium Assistance, Dialysis Funding, Get Involved, Medicare Advantage, Medigap Coverage, Take Action, Transplant Donor Protection|Tags: |

Dialysis Patient Citizens wants to wish you and your family a Happy Holiday, as well as a safe and healthy New Year. We also want to take this opportunity to share with you our Top 10 list of accomplishments for 2018, which would not have been possible without your support. Thank you for helping us elevate the dialysis patient voice with policy makers. We are extremely grateful for all of your efforts, and we look forward to our continued collaboration in 2019 as we work together to improve dialysis patient quality of life.

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The Lame Duck Congress

2024-03-29T01:13:36+00:00December 5th, 2018|Categories: Article, Care Coordination|

The 115th Congress has three remaining weeks to conduct business before the new Congress is sworn in on January 3, 2019. With so many outgoing Members and with Democrats taking over control of the House, some speculated Congress would get a lot accomplished during this lame duck session. That, however, does not appear to be the case. Last week, following the passing of President George H.W. Bush, Congress quietly passed a spending bill, which will keep the government running through December 21, 2018. In order to avert a government shutdown, they will need to pass another spending measure before then—right now the biggest contingency [...]

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Medicare Adds Transplant Measure to ESRD Quality Improvement Program

2024-03-29T01:13:37+00:00November 18th, 2018|Categories: Access to Transplant, Article, Quality Incentive Program|

On November 1, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its final annual rule updating payment policies for the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Prospective Payment System and the ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP). Among new quality measures to take effect beginning in 2022 is Percentage of Prevalent Patients Placed on a Transplant Waiting List (PPPW). This measure was already scheduled to be reported for individual clinics, beginning next year, on CMS’ Dialysis Facility Compare website. Adding it to the QIP means that facilities can be penalized if the percentage of their patients waitlisted for transplant is below [...]

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California Residents Vote Against Proposition 8 to Protect Dialysis Patients’ Access to Care

2024-03-29T01:13:37+00:00November 7th, 2018|Categories: Article, Dialysis Funding, State Advocacy|

With a 62 percent majority vote, California residents voted against proposition 8, which could have had devastating consequences for dialysis patients’ access to care if passed. DPC is grateful for all of the patients and advocates who spoke to their friends, family, and peers about the dangers of this flawed ballot initiative. We will continue our work to elevate the voice of individuals with kidney disease, as we fight for patients' rights and continued access to quality care. There are over 84,0001 individuals in California with kidney failure. If proposition 8 had passed, many dialysis facilities would have faced potential closure, [...]

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Medicare Threat to Vascular Access Centers Delayed

2024-03-29T01:13:37+00:00November 6th, 2018|Categories: Article, Dialysis Funding, Improve Access to Care|

Last month we reported that the Centers for Medicaid Services (CMS) was proposing to cut reimbursement for vascular access centers effective January 2019. We’re pleased to report now that CMS is delaying any cuts as it studies the matter further. In recent years, CMS has pushed for “site-neutral payments,” meaning that Medicare pays the same for procedures regardless of whether they are performed in a doctor’s office or a more costly hospital setting. Specifically, this means paying at the lowest rate. In the case of vascular surgery for dialysis access, CMS proposed to pay the “office-based” rate, which would not suffice to keep [...]

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