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 cut.
These cuts are dangerous and a serious threat to patient access to quality care. Facilities will likely have to reduce staff hours for important staff such as social workers and in so doing diminish quality of care. Further, Dialysis providers will not have the means to expand and meet rising demand at a time when dialysis patient populations continue to grow rapidly. Finally, providers will likely have to close some facilities, resulting in decreased access to treatments for patients.
Please take a few moments to use the information provided here to contact your Members of Congress and express you outrage. They need to hear from you about how these cuts will jeopardize not only the quality of your care, but also your access to treatment as many facilities are likely to close with such a reduction in payment. Otherwise, they will assume this is not harmful.
Go online and take action!
Send a letter! Easily customize a pre-written letter with your story and click send. Then, follow up with a phone call! We’ll give you the number and the talking points.
