State Advocacy Archives - Page 6 of 8 - Dialysis Patient Citizens

DPC Calls on Regulators to Investigate Insurer’s Renal Care Coverage Limitations

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:31+00:00October 9th, 2015|Categories: Article, Promote Financial Security, State Advocacy|Tags: Health Insurance Exchange|

Kidney advocates are reacting to an alarming trend in the commercial insurance industry: insurers are increasingly writing language into policy documents that attempt to exclude or limit coverage of renal care. DPC is alerting regulators at both the state and federal levels to the harm these limitations could have on patients and asking them to enforce the numerous laws that prohibit health plans from discriminating against people with ESRD. Federal law guarantees that ESRD patients may keep their private insurance coverage for up to 30 months before enrolling in Medicare. The law also requires that health plans cannot differentiate between [...]

DPC, Kidney Patient, Testify at Hearing on Surprise Medical Bills

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:31+00:00October 9th, 2015|Categories: Article, Legal Defense, Promote Financial Security, State Advocacy|Tags: Health Insurance Exchange|

DPC Policy Director Jackson Williams and Pittsburgh kidney patient Janice Nathan were among witnesses at a hearing held by Pennsylvania’s insurance commissioner on “surprise medical bills.” These are bills received from physicians who are outside of an insurer’s provider network even though they work inside facilities that are in-network. Janice Nathan’s primary care doctor recommended that she receive a cardiac stress test. Ms. Nathan checked her insurer’s provider directory and found an in-network facility to get the test. But when she received a cardiologist’s bill for $325—much more than the $50 co-pay she expected—she learned that the cardiologist who read [...]

DPC Assists Grassroots Efforts to Secure Level Medicaid Funding in Alabama

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:31+00:00September 30th, 2015|Categories: Article, Medicaid, State Advocacy|

DPC has been hard at work on the state level fighting to ensure continued access to quality patient care, most recently in Alabama and North Carolina. In Alabama, patients fought to maintain Medicaid funding for outpatient dialysis, which the state was considering moving to local hospitals instead, in a potential effort to close the state budget shortfall. Patient advocates quickly took action and contacted their state legislators to encourage alternative revenue generating measures to close the budget gap as opposed to eliminating Medicaid funding. Thankfully, the state legislature responded by passing a budget with new revenue generating policies. The potential [...]

Letter to Oregon Insurance Commissioner Emphasizes Importance of Private Insurance
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Letter to Oregon Insurance Commissioner Emphasizes Importance of Private Insurance

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:32+00:00September 16th, 2015|Categories: Article, Charitable Premium Assistance, Comment Letter, Improve Access to Care, Promote Financial Security, State Advocacy|Tags: Health Insurance Exchange|

Regence and Moda, two private insurance plans in Oregon, recently made changes to their 2016 plans that would negatively affect ESRD patients. Specifically, after three months of coverage, any out-of-pocket payments patients make for dialysis treatment will no longer count towards their out-of-pocket maximums. This appears to be an effort to pressure dialysis patients to drop their private coverage and enroll in Medicare. DPC’s letter to the Oregon Insurance Commissioner calls attention to this discriminatory move. Medicare plans do not include an out-of-pocket maximum amount, while most private insurance plans do. Statistics also show that patients with Medicare plans are [...]

Patients Work on Advocacy at Home During Congressional Recess

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:32+00:00September 16th, 2015|Categories: Get Involved, State Advocacy, Take Action|

While Congress was in recess during the month of August, DPC Patient Ambassadors used this opportunity to engage their legislators at home. Patient Ambassadors attended meetings with congressional staff, hosted facility tours and wrote letters to the editor in support of The Chronic Kidney Disease Improvement in Research and Treatment Act (H.R. 1130, S. 598). Facility tours and meetings took place all across the country. Specifically, Bob L. from Oregon, Kathy S. from Ohio, Jim M. from Indiana and Arthur G. from Pennsylvania hosted their legislators at dialysis facilities and shared their stories to encourage support of the kidney bill. [...]

DPC Writes to Montana state official, in support of a proposed rule allowing Medigap open enrollment for Medicare patients under the age of 65 with disabilities or ESRD

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:32+00:00July 9th, 2015|Categories: Comment Letter, Medigap Coverage, State Advocacy|

Brett O’Neill, Attorney Office of the Commissioner of Securities and Insurance Montana State Auditor 840 Helena Ave. Helena, MT 59601 RE: Medicare Supplements – ARM 6.6.507B, .507C, .507E, .511, .511A Dear Mr. O’Neill: As the nation’s largest patient-led organization representing dialysis patients, Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) works to improve the quality of life for all dialysis patients through education and advocacy. On behalf of our membership, and particularly on behalf of the over 750 dialysis patients in Montana, we are writing in support of the proposed rule allowing for open enrollment in Medigap plans for Medicare patients under the age [...]

Dialysis Patients Protest Proposed Cuts at Illinois State Capitol
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Dialysis Patients Protest Proposed Cuts at Illinois State Capitol

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:33+00:00May 26th, 2015|Categories: Article, Medicaid, State Advocacy|

Kathleen Haines being interviewed by a Springfield reporter. Dialysis patients and clinicians held a press conference at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield on May 26 to oppose cuts to Medicaid ESRD payments proposed by Governor Bruce Rauner. Two dialysis patients from central Illinois, Alan Cook and Kathleen Haines, represented Dialysis Patient Citizens at the event, which received coverage on Chicago and Springfield TV news broadcasts. More than 5,000 people, or approximately 30% of Illinois dialysis patients, use Medicaid as their primary or secondary insurance. But all ESRD patients benefit from Medicaid dollars since they shore up the [...]

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Crack Down on New Jersey Ambulance Companies that Fraudulently Bill Medicare

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:33+00:00May 14th, 2015|Categories: Article, State Advocacy, Transportation Services|

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is continuing a four-month crackdown on Medicare fraud in New Jersey. CMS has accused ambulance companies of fraudulently billing Medicare for transporting patients to non-emergency dialysis, chemotherapy and wound care. CMS found that these ambulance trips in New Jersey were twice the national average (from 2002 to 2011), and that the number of trips per patient was up approximately 60%. At least 11 ambulance companies report closing in recent months. The ambulance companies in New Jersey are now required to obtain pre-authorization from Medicare to transport a given patient, and many of [...]

DPC Urges Arizona to Maintain Medicaid Reimbursement for Dialysis

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:34+00:00February 27th, 2015|Categories: Comment Letter, Medicaid, State Advocacy|

Governor Doug Ducey 1700 West Washington St. Phoenix, AZ 85007 RE: Proposed Cuts to Medicaid Coverage Dear Governor Ducey, As America’s largest patient-led organization representing over 28,000 members, Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) works to improve the quality of life of all dialysis patients through education and advocacy. Dialysis is a life-sustaining care delivered to over 12,400 patients in Arizona who have End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), also known as kidney failure. For those with ESRD, receiving regular dialysis or a kidney transplant are the only treatments that allow patients to continue living. The number of individuals with kidney failure continues to [...]

Prior Authorization of Non-Emergency Ambulance Transportation to Begin for Dialysis Patients in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and South Carolina

Hannah Bracamonte2024-03-29T01:50:34+00:00November 13th, 2014|Categories: State Advocacy, Transportation Services|

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will begin implementing a prior authorization demonstration program for non-emergent ambulance transport of dialysis patients in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. CMS believes using a prior authorization process will help ensure services are provided in compliance with Medicare coverage rules, specifically that ambulance providers in those states must obtain documentation from physicians prior to the beginning of service. The requirement does not apply to hospital-based ambulances. CMS is taking these actions in response to instances of fraud in those three states. For example, one Pennsylvania fraud scheme involved more than $3.6 [...]

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