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Health Insurance Marketplaces Under Affordable Care Act Are Open For Business: What Does It Mean For Kidney Patients?

2024-03-29T02:08:08+00:00October 10th, 2013|Categories: Article, Promote Financial Security|Tags: |

On October 1, online health insurance exchanges went live. Here's what dialysis patients should know about the Affordable Care Act (also known as ACA or "Obamacare"): Health insurance sold in the ACA exchanges is for people who do not (or will not after January 1) have health insurance provided by Medicare or an employer-sponsored health plan. Kidney patients who have received a transplant and whose Medicare coverage has ended/will end soon will want to explore receiving coverage through an ACA exchange plan. Pre-existing conditions will not be a barrier to purchasing an exchange plan. DPC staff is researching whether, for [...]

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Promoting Care Coordination for Dialysis Patients

2024-03-29T02:08:08+00:00October 10th, 2013|Categories: Advance Patient Choice, Article, Care Coordination|

Federal policymakers have long grappled with the problem of better coordinating care for Medicare beneficiaries. As the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has noted, "Gaps exist in care coordination in fee-for-service Medicare because of the fragmentation of service delivery, the lack of tools to help communicate across settings or providers, and the lack of a financial incentive to coordinate care." Part of the problem is that the Original, or fee-for-service, Medicare largely froze in place mainstream medical and insurance practices as they stood in 1965, when the program was created. Many health policy thought-leaders believe that the problem of uncoordinated care has been [...]

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Kidney Care Partners’ Quality Initiative Spurs 25 Percent Improvement In Mortality Rates for Dialysis Patients Within the First 90 Days Of Treatment, 13.6 Percent Improvement In First Year

2024-03-29T02:08:09+00:00October 10th, 2013|Categories: Article, Increase Quality of Care|

Kidney Care Partners' PEAK (Performance Excellence and Accountability in Kidney Care) quality improvement initiative spurred a 25 percent reduction in mortality rates for dialysis patients in the first 90 days of treatment and a nearly 14 percent reduction during the first year, according to an analysis of data prepared by Brown University*. Launched in 2009, the PEAK Campaign was a voluntary community initiative designed to highlight proven practices with the goal of improving the rate of survival of kidney failure patients new to dialysis. Available data at the time indicated that overall survival rates for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) [...]

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Dialysis Advocates Oppose Cuts in Washington, DC

2024-03-29T02:08:09+00:00October 8th, 2013|Categories: Article, Dialysis Funding|Tags: |

We still need your help letting your Members of Congress know that you strongly disagree with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid's (CMS) proposed 9.4% cut to dialysis treatment funding. Earlier this month we had an extremely successful Fly-In here in Washington, DC. A Fly-In, if you aren't familiar with the term, is a focused event that invites individuals to Washington, DC, to meet with key elected officials on Capitol Hill who need to be informed on a specific issue by the people who are personally impacted. Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC), American Kidney Fund (AKF) and Renal Support Network (RSN) welcomed [...]

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Stop the Cuts to Dialysis Treatment Reimbursement

2024-03-29T02:08:57+00:00July 23rd, 2013|Categories: Dialysis Funding|

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency responsible for Medicare, just released a regulation that proposes to reduce Medicare funding for dialysis treatments by 9.4%. Please take a few moments to express your outrage to your Members of Congress. Otherwise, they will assume that the cuts are not harmful. If you would like to express your concern to your members of Congress electronically, simply follow the links in the flyer.  If you would like to send a physical letter to your members of Congress contact DPC at (866)-877-4242 to receive our sample letter and your legislators' contact information. Ask your [...]

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CMS Proposes Devastating Cuts to Dialysis Payments

2024-03-29T02:08:57+00:00July 19th, 2013|Categories: Article, Dialysis Funding, Take Action|

URGENT: Protect your dialysis care! Urge your Members of Congress to prevent a kidney care crisis! The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) just released a regulation that proposes to reduce Medicare funding for dialysis treatments by 9.4%. The American Taxpayers Relief Act (the fiscal cliff deal) mandated CMS to adjust the price it pays for dialysis to reflect the recent change in usage of certain anemia management drugs. However, no one in the kidney community expected CMS to propose such a dramatic and potentially devastating cut. Please take a few moments to express your outrage to your Members of [...]

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California Medicaid Coverage for Nutritional Supplements Restored

2024-03-29T02:08:57+00:00July 19th, 2013|Categories: Article, Improve Access to Care, State Advocacy|

The recently-signed 2013-2014 California budget included a full restoration of Medi-Cal coverage for nutritional supplements for dialysis patients. This change will take effect May 1, 2014. Dialysis patients require access to quality care including physician visits, prescription medication, dialysis treatments and a proper nutritional regimen in order to maintain their health and avoid hospitalization. DPC is pleased to see this coverage restored for California's 53,000 dialysis patients.

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