Increase Quality of Care Archives - Page 11 of 16

DPC Board Members to Serve on Three Technical Expert Panels

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:33+00:00April 7th, 2015|Categories: 5-Star Ratings, Access to Transplant, Treatment Options|

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regularly schedules technical expert panels (TEPs) to advise the agency on quality measures. In the words of CMS, a TEP is “a group of stakeholders and experts who provide technical input…on the development, selection, and maintenance of measures for which CMS contractors are responsible.” CMS is contracting with the University of Michigan Kidney Epidemiology and Cost Center (UM-KECC) to host a TEP on the Dialysis Facility Compare star rating system. While the complete roster of participants is not public yet, we are pleased to announce that DPC Interim President Jack Reynolds was selected [...]

Urge Your Members of Congress to Take Action During National Minority Health Month

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:33+00:00April 7th, 2015|Categories: Care Coordination, Dialysis Funding, Medicare Advantage|

April is National Minority Health Month, an issue of vital importance for dialysis patients since even greater health disparities are reflected in the dialysis patient community. For example, African Americans are 3.5 times more likely to develop kidney failure than non-Hispanic white Americans, Hispanic Americans are 1.5 times more likely and Native Americans are 1.7 times more likely. Asian Americans are also more likely to develop kidney failure. Click here to urge your Members of Congress to co-sponsor the Chronic Kidney Disease Improvement in Research and Treatment Act (S. 598 and H.R. 1130), which includes a key provision supporting research on kidney health [...]

Permanent Medicare Physician Payment Increase Passes Congress

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:33+00:00April 7th, 2015|Categories: Dialysis Funding, Medigap Coverage|

Congress recently passed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, also known as the permanent “doc fix” bill. The bill passed the House of Representatives 392-37 and the Senate 92-8, with strong bipartisan support. The White House has announced President Obama’s intent to sign the bill into law. Those who voted in favor of the bill felt it was necessary to permanently replace the current Medicare physician payment formula. In 1997, Congress passed a formula known as the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, which unexpectedly dictated regular pay cuts for doctors. In 2003, many in Congress began to fear that the [...]

What are Dialysis Patients’ Priorities for Quality Information? Insights from DPC Patient Survey

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:33+00:00March 11th, 2015|Categories: 5-Star Ratings, Article, Quality Incentive Program|

After the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its plans to release the Dialysis Facility Compare star rating system, DPC began to discuss with its membership what would make such a rating system successful. The two areas that DPC’s Board Members, Patient Ambassadors and membership all rated highest were 1) staff respect/listening and 2) patient education. Staff Respect/Listening: This topic compresses two questions from the annual Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) questionnaire that Medicare requires dialysis patients to complete. It was even more apparent during our focus group discussions of our survey responses how upset [...]

Urge Your Members of Congress to Co-Sponsor the Chronic Kidney Disease Improvement in Research and Treatment Act!

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:33+00:00March 11th, 2015|Categories: Care Coordination, Dialysis Funding, Medicare Advantage|

Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD), Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) were joined by Representatives Tom Marino (R-PA), John Lewis (D-GA) and Peter Roskam (R-IL) in introducing the Chronic Kidney Disease Improvement in Research and Treatment Act (S. 598/H.R. 1130) to improve the health of kidney patients. If passed, this bill would provide access to Medicare Advantage (MA) plans for dialysis patients. This bill would also enhance current research efforts related to chronic kidney disease (CKD) by: Requiring the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to calculate the overall cost of CKD care, ensure that federal funding for CKD research is appropriate relative to [...]

DPC Elevates Patient Priorities with Medicare Regarding Dialysis Facility Compare Star Ratings

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:34+00:00February 18th, 2015|Categories: 5-Star Ratings, Comment Letter, Quality Incentive Program|

Elena Balovlenkov, R.N. Technical Lead for Dialysis Facility Compare Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services 7500 Security Boulevard Mail Stop S3-02-01 Baltimore, MD 21224 Dear Elena: To meet your timeline for raising issues to be brought before the DFC Star Rating TEP, DPC recently conducted a survey of our active patient volunteers asking them to identify priority items for quality measures to be included in both DFC star ratings and the QIP. Per the advice of the Kidney Care Quality Alliance (KCQA) consultant on quality measures, we developed a lengthy list of subjects for measures, and asked patients to choose [...]

Department of Health & Human Services Announces Pay-for-Performance Goals

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:34+00:00February 4th, 2015|Categories: Article, Quality Incentive Program|

The US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) recently announced goals for shifting the traditional fee-for-service Medicare payment model to a pay-for-performance model. In a pay-for-performance model, payment is based on the quality rather than quantity of care provided. One HHS goal is to tie 30% of fee-for-service Medicare payments to quality through alternative payment models like Accountable Care Organizations or bundled payments by the end of 2016, and 50% by the end of 2018. The dialysis community has a unique history in this area. Dialysis providers did not used to receive an annual update in their Medicare payments, but [...]

Insights with Jack: Accidental Advocate

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:34+00:00February 2nd, 2015|Categories: About DPC, Dialysis Funding, Get Involved, Patient's Voice|

By Jack Reynolds, DPC Board Member and Patient Ambassador As it is Ground Hog Day, I thought I would come out of my winter hole and blog once more. March is only four weeks away, and it will be time to visit Washington, D.C. and another chance for Dialysis Patient Citizen Ambassadors to bring our issues and concerns to our elected Congressional Representatives and Senators. Although I have made this journey many times since 2005, I am not a “natural” political advocate; and in fact, if not for a social worker, I may have never become a dialysis citizen at large [...]

DPC Joins Patient Groups in Commenting on the Standardized Readmission Ratio for Dialysis Facilities

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:34+00:00December 22nd, 2014|Categories: Comment Letter, Quality Incentive Program|

Dialysis Facility Compare Star Ratings Draw First Challenge to CMS Quality Measures Under Data Quality Act

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:34+00:00December 16th, 2014|Categories: 5-Star Ratings, Press Release|

Skewed geographic distribution of star ratings demonstrates program’s flaws, says Dialysis Patient Citizens WASHINGTON, D.C. (Dec. 16, 2014) — Dialysis Patient Citizens has filed the first challenge to a CMS quality program under the Data Quality Act, contending that the agency’s Dialysis Facility Compare (DFC) star ratings methodology fails to satisfy federal requirements for objectivity and utility in presenting information to the public. The day after being served with the complaint, CMS conceded it should have conducted cognitive testing of this system on consumers, reversing a position the agency had defended for nearly four months. “We felt this challenge was necessary in light of CMS’ continued refusal to [...]

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