Dialysis Patient Citizens News
Congressional Update Call This Thursday
We would like to help you become more involved in dialysis patient advocacy by inviting you to attend our patient ambassador call this Thursday to get an update from Washington, D.C., learn more about our patient ambassador program and learn about our other advocacy opportunities. If you are already one of our patient ambassadors, we look forward to hearing from you and hope you are able to join! Join us Thursday, September 20 at 3:00 PM Eastern for an important and exciting update from Washington, DC. Tune in [...]
US Department of Labor Protects Living Organ Donors
The US Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division published an opinion letter last week stating that surgery for people who donate an organ qualifies as a “serious health condition” under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The letter may provide reassurance to individuals that are considering donating a kidney, but are concerned about losing their jobs due to being away for surgery or post-surgery care. About the Family and Medical Leave Act The FMLA allows “eligible employees of covered employers” the ability to take 12 [...]
CALL TO ACTION – Contact California Governor to Oppose SB 1156
Last week, the California Assembly voted in favor of passing Senate Bill 1156. If this bill is enacted into law, many dialysis facilities will face potential closure leaving patients to: Scramble to find new dialysis facilities for their treatment 3 times a week and Potentially travel much farther to receive their life-saving treatments Senate Bill 1156 has now moved onto the desk of California Governor Jerry Brown, who has until the end of September to act on the bill. This is your last chance to prevent this [...]
DPC Comments on Annual Medicare ESRD Rule
Dialysis Patient Citizens sent its comment letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expressing concerns and providing feedback on its End-Stage Renal Disease Prospective Payment System and Quality Incentive Program proposed payment rule (CMS-1691-P). The letter was informed by results from Dialysis Patient Citizen’s 2018 membership survey and focused on the following areas: Quality incentive program and the meaningful measures framework Transitional drug add-on payment adjustment and payments to reward innovation Request for information on price transparency Our hope is that by addressing these [...]
DPC Supports Improved Access to Private Insurance for Patients
Currently, dialysis patients are restricted to 30 months on private insurance coverage before having to go into Medicare. The House of Representatives recently proposed extending this length of time by three months, which is estimated to save Medicare $344 million. Access to private insurance is critical for dialysis patients, and we are very appreciative of the House’s efforts to improve that access. Read our letter below in support of this proposal: Dear Leader McConnell, Minority Leader Schumer, Chairman Hatch, and Ranking Member Wyden: As America’s largest patient-led [...]
Action Needed for Potential Senate Bill 1156 Vote on Monday
Dialysis Patient Citizens is requesting your support of kidney failure patients by urging your legislator to oppose Senate Bill 1156 (Leyva). If this bill is enacted into law, many dialysis facilities will face potential closure leaving patients to: Scramble to find new dialysis facilities for their treatment 3 times a week and Potentially travel much farther to receive their life-saving treatments Your support is critical in ensuring lawmakers are educated and reminded about the struggles patients with kidney disease will face if this bill is passed. The [...]
Elevate the Voice of Patients with Kidney Disease
Our 2018 Annual Membership Survey is live, and it will remain open until Friday, August 10. This survey takes your input as a patient with kidney disease and helps to shape our public policy agenda and patient education priorities for the next year. In addition to determining Dialysis Patient Citizen's priorities, we regularly communicate survey results to state and federal level policy makers, so they will better understand your needs, experiences, and preferences. As a result, your feedback is crucial. Therefore, this year we will be awarding $100 gift [...]
California Lawmakers Considering Bill That Would Close Dialysis Centers
State legislators in California continue to consider legislation, which we believe would harm dialysis patients by ultimately limiting their access to their life-saving treatment. This legislation, which is being pushed by the labor union, Service Employees International Union, would cut reimbursement rates for patients on private insurance to Medicare/Medi-Cal levels, which are already below the actual cost of care. This will cause many facilities across California to close and leave patients scrambling to find their needed care. Last month, we were able to get almost 16,000 people in [...]
Annual Medicare ESRD Rule Highlights Innovation and “Meaningful Measures”
Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed what they called “innovative changes” to the payment rule for the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) program. The rule includes a “proposal to address new renal dialysis drug and biological costs and foster innovations in treatment by incentivizing new therapies for patients on dialysis and a proposal to reduce facility-related documentation burden.” It contains the first changes to the ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP) since last year’s announcement of CMS’ “Meaningful Measures” Initiative. Funding for Dialysis The proposed [...]
Researchers and Journalists Call Out Poorly Performing Organ Procurement Organizations
Recent research and journalism has highlighted significant variations in the ability of regional Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) to obtain donor organs for transplants. An analysis by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania rated 35 of 58 OPOs, and identified the best performers among them the OPOs serving Utah and Southern Idaho; Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Delaware; the Finger Lakes region of New York; Wisconsin; and Nebraska. The poorest performing were those serving the New York City region; Southern California; Kentucky; and North Carolina. The New York City [...]
Facts About the Dialysis De-Funding Campaign in California
The Dialysis De-Funding Campaign is sponsored by two labor unions that seek to represent workers at dialysis clinics. Rather than try to unionize dialysis facility employees through elections, they are trying to punish dialysis providers through policies that cost them financially in order to gain voluntary recognition. The three cutback proposals are likely to affect access to care by leading to facility closures, restricting access to private insurance, and decreasing services available from facilities. The Dialysis De-Funding Campaign consists of three measures: Senate Bill 349: Regulates staffing and [...]
Media Coverage Increases on Kidney Health
Kidney Month has passed yet the coverage on kidney health is continuing well into April. DPC is pleased to report the publication of several letters to the editor in response to our advocacy day in support of the Dialysis PATIENTS Act. Our advocates have been published in the states of Washington, Alabama, Kansas and New Hampshire with many more pending publication. This continued media coverage is a great step toward moving this legislation across the finish line to help countless dialysis patients across the country. Andrew Conkling – [...]
Kidney Month Wrap Up
This year World Kidney Day was also on International Women’s day. Global organizers took this as an opportunity to focus on women’s health and kidney disease. It’s only appropriate that we feature three courageous women who shared their story with media to spread awareness of kidney disease. Joyce Lane from Tennessee shared her story of living with Bright’s disease, also known as glomerulonephritis, a condition where the kidney’s glomeruli (filters) are damaged and unable to adequately clean waste from the blood. This condition is inherited and Joyce [...]
DPC Hosts Successful Advocacy Day
It was a cold and rainy Tuesday, when dialysis patients, family members and healthcare providers descended on Capitol Hill to meet with legislators about expanding coordinated care efforts. This was a record setting year for the advocacy day, beginning with the application process which saw over 150 applicants and ending with the number of meetings held, 142. This was the largest patient advocacy day DPC has hosted since September 2013 in response to the drastic proposed funding cuts for dialysis. The weekend was very busy, but our [...]
Spending Bill Ensures Dialysis Patients Can Access Life-Saving Care
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Advocates for dialysis patients are pleased that the federal spending bill which funds the government through March 23rd includes several provisions that will help people with kidney failure, or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), gain access to life-extending dialysis treatments. The bill includes language from the Medicare Part B Improvement Act of 2017 (H.R. 3178), which was introduced July 7 of last year by Reps. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Ways & Means [...]
Dialysis PATIENTS Act Update
It’s a New Year but our work to expand integrated care is far from complete! The Dialysis PATIENTS Act has soared to 142 co-sponsors, which is more than double the number of co-sponsors for the previous version of this legislation in 2016. This overwhelming support, coupled with recent data on the success of the ESRD Seamless Care Organizations signals the readiness to expand integrated care programs for dialysis patients nationwide. If you haven’t sent messages to your Members of Congress, there is still time! Please take a moment [...]
Record Number of Applicants for our 2018 Advocacy Day
Before the holidays, we opened our application for our 2018 Advocacy Day. It is apparent that advocacy is part of many ESRD patients’ New Year’s resolutions because we received almost 150 applications to attend our advocacy day! This is a record number of interested members willing to have their voice heard by legislators on behalf of ESRD patients across the nation. If you missed the deadline, but advocacy is still a part of your New Year’s resolutions there are still ways to get involved! Visit our kidney action [...]
CMS Releases Proposed Payment Rule for 2018
On June 29, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its proposed Annual Payment Rule for the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Program to govern dialysis services furnished beginning January 1, 2018. The proposed rule also makes minor changes to the ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP). This year’s rule includes an increase to the base rate, replacing QIP measures as well as including social risk factors in the QIP scores. CMS says the ESRD proposed rule is “one of several rules for 2018 that reflect a [...]