Dialysis Patient Citizens News
Inside the Intern’s Mind: Introduction
Megan Sturman By Megan S., Education Intern Hello everyone! My name is Megan Sturman, and I am excited to announce that I am the new education intern here at The DPC Education Center (The Center)! I grew up in Waldorf, MD., a small city just outside of Washington, D.C. I will be graduating this May, from Salisbury University earning my B.S. in Public Health with a minor in Sociology. One of the reasons I decided to pursue a degree in public health was because I [...]
DPC Comments on Medicaid Advantage Drive Times
January 24, 2013 Jonathan Blum Deputy Administrator and Director for the Center of Medicare Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Department of Health and Human Services Room 314G 200 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20201 Re: Medicaid Advantage Drive Times for ESRD Patients Dear Mr. Blum: On behalf of more than 24,000 Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) members and over 400,000 end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients currently on dialysis, thank you for your leadership at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). As the nation’s largest patient-led organization [...]
From the Welcome Desk at DPC: January Edition
By Stephen C., Policy Assistant Hello all! This week, I wanted to let you know about an exciting opportunity that I can help you out with. As you hopefully already know, World Kidney Day is coming up on March 14th. You might ask, “What is World Kidney Day?” To give you the general idea, here is its stated mission: “The mission of World Kidney Day is to raise awareness of the importance of our kidneys to our overall health and to reduce the frequency and impact of kidney [...]
Dialysis Patient Citizens Announces Our New Sister Organization The DPC Education Center
By Tony B., Director of Research and Information Today we are excited to announce the creation of a new sister organization The DPC Education Center (The Center). The new organization, which is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, will work together with DPC to advance their shared mission of improving the quality of life of all kidney disease and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. The Center is dedicated to improving kidney patients’ quality of life and reducing the occurrence of ESRD through education and by developing awareness of [...]
Dash of Sage: Resolutions
By Sage B., Grassroots Manager Welcome to the New Year! I’m excited to say that my sneakers are no longer decorative objects in my closet. Instead, they are decorating my entry hall- hmmm enough about me! My other resolution is to ensure that Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) remains responsive to its members. And on that front, I’m making a bit more headway. As you may know, one of DPC’s core programs is the Patient Ambassador program. In this program DPC provides support to Ambassadors as they advocate for [...]
Congressional Corner: Over the Cliff – Then Quickly Back Up Again
By Carrie L., Director of Congressional and State Relations Well, we went over the fiscal cliff. And then, just hours later a deal was struck, a few hours late but a deal to bring us back from the brink nonetheless. The 112th Congress concluded its tumultuous, and gridlocked 2 years by passing a deal to avoid massive tax hikes for the middle class and a 27% decrease in payments to Medicare providers on New Year’s Day. Unfortunately, cuts to the Medicare ESRD program were still included in the [...]
Seasons Greetings
If you are reading this, we all survived the Mayan apocalypse or you had a well-stocked shelter with built in internet access. Either way, all of us here at DPC and with the Patient’s Voice want to wish you happy holidays. Our office will be closed until January 2nd, and new posts (hopefully sent in by Voice readers) will resume shortly after.
Congressional Corner: A Year of DPC Advocacy Successes!
By Carrie L., Director of Congressional and State Relations As 2012 comes to an end, DPC has a lot to celebrate and a lot to look forward to. DPC staff and most importantly our members, have achieved so much this year, bringing awareness to kidney disease issues both in Congress and in their communities! Patient Ambassadors held dozens of kidney and dialysis awareness events across the country in support of World Kidney Day and other events throughout the year. Patient Ambassadors taught members of their churches and civic [...]
Dash of Sage: Introduction
An icebreaker activity at the recent board meeting. Can you tell what it is? By Sage B., Grassroots Manager Hi Voice readers! My name is Sage and I recently joined DPC as the Grassroots Manager, which means that I will work with many of you personally to influence state and national kidney disease policies. Each month I will keep you up to date on what we are doing at the local level and share inspiring stories of our patients in action. Thank you for joining me [...]
From the Welcome Desk at DPC: November
By Stephen C., Administrative Assistant Hello all! I hope everyone’s doing well and you’re all ready for a wonderful (renal-friendly) holiday season. This week, I wanted to share my experience visiting the kind folks at ESRD Network 11 in Milwaukee for their annual meeting. I had a great time talking with nurses and patients about everything we do at DPC. I think my favorite moment during the whole event was when a nurse approached our table and asked me if we were doing anything about immunosuppressant drug coverage [...]
Changes are Coming to Kidney Transplant Allocation Policies
By Jessica N., Director of Public Affairs When DPC weighs in on policy proposals, we aim to speak on behalf of the people that we represent. This means that periodically we look to all of you to let us know how you feel about certain changes and how you think they will affect your care…and this is one of those times. Recently, the Organ Procurement Transplant Network (OPTN) and United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) released a proposal to change the way kidney transplants are allocated. The [...]
Congressional Corner: November, 2012 Election Results—Status Quo (sort of)
DPC staff excited to show off their voting stickers. By Carrie L., Director of Congressional and State Relations Well, the seemingly endless 2012 election is over, and the result is that not much has changed in Washington. President Barack Obama has been reelected to a second 4-year term and has returned to the White House to get back to business. He immediately faces several hugely important issues including the impending fiscal cliff, a combination of drastic spending cuts, tax increases and a reduction in the [...]
Health Reform Implementation Continues at the State Level
By Carrie L., Director of Congressional and State Relations I have the unenviable job of trying to make state health reform both easy to understand and interesting, but I have given it my best shot. In this article I will be discussing two topics that are important for kidney disease patients, essential health benefit benchmark plans and the formation of state-based health insurance exchanges. State governments and health reform boards have been busy over the past couple of months determining how they will deal with implementing the [...]
DPC Urges Nevada Commission of Insurance to Not Make Cuts for Patients’ Modality, Transportation, Care and Treatment
Scott J. Kipper Commissioner of Insurance State of Nevada 1818 E. College Parkway, Suite 103 Carson City, NV 89706 Dear Commissioner Kipper: As America’s largest patient-led organization representing dialysis patients, Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) works to improve the quality of life of all dialysis patients through education and advocacy. Today we are writing on behalf of the nearly 3,000 dialysis patients in Nevada to make sure that their health and interests are represented in the State’s essential health benefits plan. DPC is committed to improving patient health [...]
Congressional Corner: It’s An Election Year (Just in Case You Happened to Forget)!
By Carrie L., Director of Congressional and State Relations 2012 is a presidential election year if you couldn’t already tell from the myriad of ads streaming across your televisions, over your radios or filling your mailbox! So much is at stake in this election, and it is important that your voice is heard! Of course, the president is up for election as you and other voters determine who will lead our country and the executive branch of the government for the next four years. Also, 33 Senate seats [...]
Congressional Corner
By Carrie L., Director of Congressional and State Relations Hi my name is Carrie and I am the Director of Congressional and State Relations at DPC. Each month I will write about what is happening in Congress related to kidney patient issues and try to keep it interesting! What is Congress up to this fall? Well while you may hear in the news that Congress isn’t doing a whole lot, which is partially true, they are actually going to be tackling some tough issues that affect all of [...]
A Recent Meeting with CMMI
By Jessica N., Director of Public Affairs Hi, my name is Jessica and I am the Director of Public Affairs for Dialysis Patient Citizens. That means I create and coordinate the communications that come out of the DPC office, including the Patient Citizen that is on its way to your mailbox. I also work with our policy team on federal initiatives that impact dialysis patients, including changes to Medicare, the “bundle” and QIP and efforts to make sure all of you can take advantage of new policies [...]
DPC Comments on the Creation of Nephrology Specific Integrated Care Pilot Projects
Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) appreciates the opportunity to engage in ongoing dialogue and the continuous ability to provide feedback to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) on issues related to the improvement of care for chronic disease (CKD) patients. In our July 23, 2012 letter to CMMI leadership, we proposed several initiatives to consider as integrated care projects are considered. To further enhance our earlier statements, we have included timely data from our nationwide survey of patients with [...]