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DPC Comments to CMS Sound Alarm on Workforce Shortages

2024-08-22T14:11:27+00:00August 20th, 2024|Categories: Article, Comment Letter, Innovation, Medicare Advantage, Promote Financial Security, Protect Patient Care|

In our comments responding to Medicare’s annual ESRD Payment Rule, DPC took the government to task over payment updates that lag increases in labor costs and failure to effectively cover new drugs for dialysis patients. The proposed rule grants a net increase in the base rate of only 0.8% during a year in which wages, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, rose 4.2%. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission estimates a margin of zero for dialysis facilities in 2024, with many rural and low-volume facilities in the red. This occurs at a time in which a Supreme Court decision has emboldened [...]

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DPC Asks Medicare Officials to Reverse Pruritis Drug Fiasco

2024-06-27T14:45:47+00:00June 12th, 2024|Categories: Advance Patient Choice, Article, Increase Quality of Care, Innovation, Protect Patient Care, Treatment Options|

In a letter to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) asked for a “do-over” in the rollout of Korsuva, a drug that treats ESRD-related pruritis. Medicare makes an add-on payment for new drugs that expires after two years, leaving uncertainty about how providers can offer such drugs to patients when that period ends. This uncertainty discouraged nephrologists from prescribing the medication. Empirical research has found a prevalence of moderate to severe pruritis among dialysis patients of 33 percent, but Korsuva has been dispensed to fewer than one percent of patients. In the letter, several DPC [...]

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DPC’s Letter to Hon. Jonathan Blum, Principal Deputy Administrator for CMS, on New Drugs in the ESRD PPS

2024-06-27T14:42:14+00:00June 11th, 2024|Categories: Advance Patient Choice, Comment Letter, Increase Quality of Care, Innovation, Protect Patient Care, Treatment Options|

June 11, 2024 The Honorable Jonathan Blum Principal Deputy Administrator Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services 200 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, DC  20515 Re:  New drugs in the ESRD PPS Dear Principal Deputy Administrator Blum: In our comments on the 2024 ESRD payment rule, we expressed our concerns about how patients experienced the rollout of Korsuva, the drug that treats ESRD-related pruritis. We noted that the prescribing behavior of nephrologists has amounted to, in effect, a de facto embargo of the medication. Empirical research has found a prevalence of moderate to severe pruritis among dialysis patients of 33 percent, but [...]

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DPC Seeks Information on Patients’ Experience With Itching

2024-04-24T16:12:21+00:00April 24th, 2024|Categories: Advance Patient Choice, Article, Increase Quality of Care, Innovation, Medicare Advantage, Treatment Options|

A couple of years ago, a new drug was approved to treat ESRD-related pruritis. Medicare approved an additional payment for the drug Korsuva for a period of 2 years. But, because of the short expiration date, very few nephrologists prescribed the medication, so even fewer dialysis facilities dispensed the drug. As a result, Korsuva never took hold to become the standard of care for pruritis. We’d like to know (1) Have experienced pruritis? (2) If so, did your clinicians tell you about Korsuva? We would like to convey patients’ experiences as we ask for Medicare to revisit coverage: what it’s like [...]

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The Trouble With Bundles

2024-03-29T01:09:12+00:00February 19th, 2024|Categories: Increase Quality of Care, Innovation|

This op-ed was written by Jackson Williams, DPC Vice President of Public Policy, and originally published on AMJC's website: www.ajmc.com/view/contributor-the-trouble-with-bundles. Payment bundling is a technique aimed at increasing efficiency and reducing low-value care during a treatment episode.In recent years, it has expanded from prospective payment systems (PPS) centered upon a discrete treatment to encompass broader episodes of care surrounding such treatments. For the most part, policymakers and patient advocates have viewed these bundles as a benign form of cost containment. But a spate of new developments—including evaluation reports relating to CMMI Institute episode-based payment demonstrations and stories of patients unable to [...]

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DPC Expresses Outrage at CMS Indifference to Dialysis Patient Suffering

2024-03-29T01:09:15+00:00October 31st, 2023|Categories: Article, Dialysis Funding, Improve Access to Care, Increase Quality of Care, Innovation, News, Staffing Shortages|

On October 27, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its final rule updating payment rates and policies under the end-stage renal disease (ESRD) prospective payment system. This rule fails to address two serious problems currently facing dialysis patients, which DPC raised in its comment letter: workforce shortages and lack of access to innovative treatments. DPC’s statement on the Rule is available here.

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Dialysis Patient Citizens Responds to Disappointing Final CMS Rule That Will Harm Patient Healthcare

2024-03-29T01:09:15+00:00October 30th, 2023|Categories: Dialysis Funding, Innovation, News, Press Release, Staffing Shortages|

WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 30, 2023) - Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC), the nation’s largest patient-led, non-profit advocacy group for dialysis patients, released the following statement in response to the final rule issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) which only increases Medicare reimbursements for dialysis treatment centers by 1.6% and fails to properly fund access to new therapies. “The End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) final rule released on Friday paints a chilling picture of an agency that is completely indifferent to the suffering of dialysis patients,” said DPC President Andrew Conkling. “The regulation acknowledges the heartbreaking stories from [...]

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Medicare Must Increase Access to Improvements in Dialysis Care

2024-03-29T01:09:16+00:00October 6th, 2023|Categories: Advance Patient Choice, Innovation, Patient Stories in the News, Private Insurance Coverage, Treatment Options|

For people who live with a chronic illness, one of the most powerful words in the English language is hope. As a more than 20-year dialysis patient with end-stage renal disease, otherwise known as kidney failure, hope is a driving force in my life. My condition may never be cured, but new treatments are under development that could ease my symptoms. Every day, I hold out hope that a new, revolutionary treatment is around the corner that could help me and thousands like me live a more comfortable life. Unfortunately, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is becoming a [...]

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Medicare Policy Proposal Jeopardizes Care for Those on Dialysis

2024-03-29T01:09:16+00:00September 8th, 2023|Categories: Access to Transplant, Article, Dialysis Funding, Improve Access to Care, Innovation, Medicare Advantage, Policy Issues, Staffing Shortages, Treatment Options|

CEOs of 3 kidney care organizations explain flaws in CMS' recent reimbursement proposal. In recent years, lawmakers have turned their attention to advancing health equity and creating opportunities for the improvement of historically underserved communities—and rightly so. The urgent need for such improvements is dramatically apparent for people who have end-stage renal disease (ESRD), or kidney failure. While people of all races and ethnicities develop chronic kidney disease (CKD) at similar rates, ESRD disproportionately impacts people of color. Black Americans make up 13% of the US population, but the disparities are evident when one considers that they account for 35% of Americans with [...]

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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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