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DPC Advocates Take Congress by Web Storm

2024-03-29T01:10:12+00:00September 21st, 2021|Categories: Article, Care Coordination, Get Involved, Improve Access to Care, Medigap Coverage, News, Patient Ambassadors, Policy Issues, Promote Financial Security, State Advocacy|

DPC held its annual Congressional Advocacy Day on September 21st, which was another great success! More than a hundred and fifty DPC Patient Ambassadors, Board members, staff and dialysis partners participated in nearly 200 Congressional meetings throughout the day to lobby on two important federal bills that would provide greater financial security and improve the quality of life for dialysis patients: The Jack Reynolds Memorial Medigap Expansion Act (H.R. 1676) would expand guaranteed issue rights to Medicare supplemental health insurance policies, known as Medigap, to all End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) patients under age 65 in every state. Access to [...]

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2021 Annual Survey Last Call!

2024-03-29T01:10:13+00:00August 26th, 2021|Categories: 5-Star Ratings, Access to Transplant, Article, Care Coordination, Charitable Premium Assistance, Dental Coverage, Dialysis Funding, Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage, Innovation, Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, Medigap Coverage, Patient's Voice, Protect Patient Care, Quality Incentive Program, Take Action, Transplant Donor Protection, Transportation Services, Treatment Options|Tags: |

24 hours remain to complete our survey. Make sure to complete your survey for a chance at one of 10 remaining $100 gift certificates. Our 2021 Annual Membership Survey is live, and it will remain open until Friday, August 27. Your feedback helps to shape our public policy agenda and patient education priorities for the next year. This year we ask that both patients and caregivers take our survey. Rest assured your responses will remain completely anonymous. We only share the overall survey results with state and federal level policy makers, so they will better understand your needs, experiences, and [...]

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It Works When We Work Together – 2021 State Legislature Recap

2024-03-29T01:10:14+00:00July 19th, 2021|Categories: Advance Patient Choice, Article, Medigap Coverage, State Advocacy, Transplant Donor Protection|

Nearly two years ago, DPC expanded its advocacy footprint to establish a state advocacy program to complement our ongoing federal efforts and in response to states increasing their role in health care policy and the delivery system which impacts dialysis patients’ access to quality care. While Congress continues its work through the remainder of 2021, a majority of state legislatures have already adjourned for this calendar year. Forty-six (46) state legislatures hold annual regular sessions and four states (MT, ND, NV and TX) hold biennial regular sessions, meeting every other year. Working with a number of our Patient Ambassadors throughout [...]

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Both Sides of the Aisle Agree – We Need to Help Kidney Patients

2024-03-29T01:10:15+00:00June 9th, 2021|Categories: Advance Patient Choice, Dialysis Funding, Improve Access to Care, Increase Quality of Care, Innovation, Medicare Advantage, Medigap Coverage, Protect Patient Care|

On June 8, 2021, Senators Benjamin Cardin (D-MA) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) re-introduced The Chronic Kidney Disease Improvement in Research and Treatment Act (S.1971), a bipartisan, bicameral bill designed to not only raise awareness of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD), but also improve understanding and access to treatment for patients, which includes the Jack Reynolds Memorial Medigap Expansion Act. The latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more that 1 in 7 US adults (about 37 million people) have CKD and that as many as 9 out of 10 of those adults [...]

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DPC Advocates Help Push State Legislation Forward

2024-03-29T01:10:16+00:00April 20th, 2021|Categories: Advance Patient Choice, Article, Medigap Coverage, State Advocacy, Transplant Donor Protection, Uncategorized|

State legislatures are in high gear during spring, and efforts by state legislators to support dialysis patients are in full swing this month. We’ve already had several legislative victories on living organ donor protection bills, while Medigap expansion legislation for the ESRD population has been introduced in multiple states. With support from multiple DPC Patient Ambassadors and Board Members sharing their personal stories on these two policy issues, DPC is making robust arguments for states to actively help improve the quality of life for End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) patients. Kentucky, New Jersey, Maryland and Washington legislatures have already passed [...]

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New Year, New Administration Brings Changes to Medicare’s Kidney Demonstration Projects

2024-03-29T01:10:16+00:00April 14th, 2021|Categories: Article, Care Coordination, Dialysis Funding, Medicare Advantage, Protect Patient Care, Quality Incentive Program|

2021 was supposed to mark the beginning of three new Medicare programs to demonstrate innovations in kidney care, but a last-minute decision from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation has suspended two of them. This action unfortunately leaves about 50,000 dialysis patients with a nine-month gap in extra assistance they were receiving from a successful program that expired March 31. Here is the rundown on the current landscape of Medicare demonstration projects that impact dialysis patients. Demonstration projects are used by Medicare to test new models of care and/or new models of paying providers within Medicare’s traditional fee-for-service program. [...]

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DPC Advocates Advance Dialysis Patient Issues at the State Level

2024-03-29T01:12:00+00:00February 19th, 2021|Categories: Advance Patient Choice, Medigap Coverage, Patient Ambassadors, Patient's Voice, State Advocacy, Transplant Donor Protection|

Despite the ongoing pandemic and economic crisis, many state legislators recognize the added challenges faced by dialysis patients every day. Some have responded by introducing legislation to increased dialysis patient access to Medigap plans to help patients cover their 20% coinsurance expenses. Others are working to advance legislation to help increase the pool of living kidney donors. DPC would like to recognize some of the patient leaders who are elevating the patient voice by educating state legislators on the importance of these efforts. DPC Board Members Adrian Miller and Pius Charles Murray are pressing for passage of critical legislation in their [...]

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State Legislatures Introduce Bills that Would Positively Impact Dialysis Patients

2024-03-29T01:12:00+00:00January 22nd, 2021|Categories: Access to Transplant, Article, Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage, Medigap Coverage, State Advocacy, Transplant Donor Protection|

With the start of the new year, state legislatures throughout the country are beginning their legislative sessions with a flurry of new bills being introduced on a wide-ranging number of topics. While the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic impact will dominate much of the activity at state houses across the country this year, we are encouraged that some of the bills already filed this session would improve health outcomes for dialysis patients. Both Arizona and Kentucky have already introduced bills to expand Medicare supplemental insurance, or Medigap. This is significant because Arizona and Kentucky are two of the 28 states that [...]

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Happy Holidays and DPC’s Top Accomplishments for 2020

2024-03-29T01:12:01+00:00December 16th, 2020|Categories: About DPC, Article, Care Coordination, Legal Defense, Medicare Advantage, Medigap Coverage, State Advocacy, Take Action|

Dialysis Patient Citizens wants to wish you and your family a Happy Holiday, as well as a safe and healthy New Year. DPC offices will be closed for the holidays starting December 24 through January 1. We also want to take this opportunity to share our list of Top Accomplishments for 2020, which would not have been possible without your support. Thank you again for helping us elevate the dialysis patient voice with policy makers. We are extremely grateful for all of your advocacy efforts, and we look forward to our continued collaboration in 2021 as we work together to [...]

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In Rejecting Prop 23, California Voters Protect Patient Access to Care

2024-03-29T01:12:01+00:00November 10th, 2020|Categories: Article, Dialysis Funding, Improve Access to Care, State Advocacy|

California voters overwhelmingly opposed Proposition 23, a statewide measure that threatened dialysis patient access to care. It was the second ballot measure in California proposed by a labor union in the last two years and the second resounding defeat for the union, and this time by an even wider margin than in 2018. DPC was part of a broad and diverse coalition that included other patient advocacy organizations, dialysis providers and caregivers, and groups representing physicians, nurses, veterans and social justice communities that opposed this harmful measure because it threatened patients’ access to care and would have increased overall health care costs [...]

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