Dialysis Patient Citizens News
For New Kidney Failure Patients Under 65: Is Medicare or an Exchange Plan the Better Insurance Option?
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) patients who progress to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) before the age of 65 now have a new health insurance option—exchange health plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Non-elderly patients who do not have, or will not be continuing, employer-sponsored insurance may be better off in an exchange plan depending on their financial circumstances. The reason for this is that the Affordable Care Act is more generous than Medicare in providing extra financial assistance to low-income individuals. Medicare Programs for Low-Income Patients Patient advocates [...]
DPC Thanks California for Reinstating Nutritional Supplement Coverage
Ms. Pilar Williams, Chief Medical Supplies & Enteral Nutrition Benefits Branch, Pharmacy Benefits Division California Department of Health Care Services P. O. Box 997413, MS 4604 Sacramento, CA 95899-7413 Re: Proposed Policy Changes to Medi-Cal Enternal Nutrition Products Benefit Dear Ms. Williams, On behalf of the more than 50,000 people on dialysis in California, Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) would like to thank you and the state of California for restoring Medi-Cal coverage of enteral nutritional supplements for dialysis patients. With 30,000 members nationwide, DPC works to improve [...]
DPC Encourages Coverage of Renal Dialysis in Exchange Plans
Hon. Marilyn Tavenner, Administrator Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Department of Health and Human Services Hubert H. Humphrey Building 200 Independence Ave, SW Washington, D.C. 20201 Re: Coverage of Renal Dialysis in Exchange Plans Dear Administrator Tavenner: Dialysis Patient Citizens, America’s largest patient-led organization representing dialysis patients, is comprised of more than 26,000 dialysis and pre-dialysis patients and their families. We seek to ensure the patient point of view is considered by policy makers. We are writing to express our concerns about language we found in [...]
Giving Tuesday: What Can We as Dialysis Patients Give?
By James Myers, DPC Patient Ambassador On the website for the Polycystic Kidney Foundation, there is an announcement about Giving Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013. It says you can give one of three ways: your voice, your time or your dollars. As a dialysis patient, I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any money. But two things that I have a lot of are voice and time, and I am more than happy to lend those to the cause of defeating PKD. I can honestly say [...]
HOPE Act Signed Into Law
After tireless efforts by DPC and others in the kidney community, President Obama signed the HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act into law on November 21, 2013. The HOPE Act was introduced with strong bipartisan support in the House of Representatives by Rep. Lois Capps and Rep. Andy Harris and in the Senate by Sen. Barbara Boxer and Sen. Tom Coburn. The HOPE Act legalizes the research of transplanting HIV positive organs into HIV positive recipients. If this research proves this practice to be effective, the organ supply in the [...]
Exciting Changes to the Patient Ambassador Program
DPC has revised the Patient Ambassador program to offer participants a better overall experience. To give Patient Ambassadors increased flexibility, Ambassadors will now have more of a choice over which actions they take. Prior to 2014, Ambassadors received two suggested actions to take each month. Starting in 2014, Ambassadors will receive many more possible actions to take on a bimonthly basis without any obligation to complete them all. Instead, Ambassadors will earn reward points for each action they take. The greater the time commitment and effort required to [...]
Patient Outcry Draws a Two-Year Reprieve From Dialysis Cuts
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) acknowledged patient concerns by delaying for two years its planned cut to the Medicare End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) program. The Medicare agency’s decision didn’t give dialysis patients everything we asked for, but it does mean that nearly $2 billion slated to be cut from kidney care in 2014 and 2015 will remain available to treat patients. However, it also means that patient advocates must be vigilant for any signs that access to care is shrinking as providers anticipate cuts [...]
Apply for DPC’s 2014 World Kidney Day Fly-in
Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) is holding our 2014 World Kidney Day Fly-in from March 11 through March 13 in Washington, DC. Are you ready to join the nation’s top patient advocates in Washington, DC and talk to your legislators directly about the issues that affect dialysis patients? If so, be sure to apply! We are looking for kidney disease patients who are passionate about dialysis advocacy. Before applying, you must first enroll in DPC’s Patient’s Ambassador Program. Preference will be given to applicants who have volunteered for [...]
CMS Releases Final Rule on 9.4% Cut to Medicare ESRD Program
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) just released a final rule on the proposed 9.4% cut to dialysis funding. The final rule made the following changes: The payment rate for dialysis services will remain the same in 2014 and 2015. The proposed 12% cut to dialysis was delayed until 2016 and will be phased in over 4 years. There will be a 50% increase in the home dialysis training payment. In response, DPC released the following statement: DPC appreciates the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ [...]
Has the ACA Expanded Medicare’s Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage for Kidney Transplant Recipients?
By Jim Myers, DPC Patient Ambassador. I had a conversation with my doctor last week. (My nephrologist, Dr. Vavilala, we call him Dr. V). He asked me if I had heard anything during my last trip to Washington, D.C. about an extension of coverage through the ACA to kidney transplant patients of the immunosuppressive drug coverage beyond the 36 month period that currently exists. This rang a bell in the back of my brain, so I decided to check it out. Every transplant patient or transplant candidate [...]
HOPE Act Moves to White House to be Signed into Law
The U.S. Congress took an important step Tuesday evening with House passage of the HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act, which will allow research on donation of organs from deceased HIV-infected donors to HIV-infected recipients. Having been passed by the Senate in June, the bill is now positioned to move to the White House to be signed into law. The HOPE Act modernizes outdated federal law to reflect the current medical understanding of HIV infection and to allow for scientific research. For patients living with HIV, deceased [...]
How Engaged Are You?
Meshia Adams By Meshia Adams, DPC Patient Ambassador If you asked me if I was an engaged patient, I would tell you yes. I can tell you what my last lab values are; I am compliant with taking my medications and see my doctors on a regular basis. I consider myself to be a responsible patient who is closely involved in my healthcare needs. I haven’t always been active in my care or engaged as a patient. In the beginning, I was in a state [...]
Extension of Florida’s Managed Medical Assistance (MMA) Waiver
Justin Senior State Medicaid Director Agency for Health Care Administration 2727 Mahan Drive, MS #8 Tallahassee, Florida 32308 Re: Extension of Florida’s Managed Medical Assistance (MMA) Waiver (Project Number 11- W-00206/4) Dear Mr. Senior: Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) appreciates the opportunity to provide the Agency for Health Care Administration with comments on extension of the managed care waiver. As America’s largest patient-led organization representing dialysis patients, DPC’s membership consists of more than 26,000 end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients and their families. We seek to ensure the [...]
Health Insurance Marketplaces Under Affordable Care Act Are Open For Business: What Does It Mean For Kidney Patients?
On October 1, online health insurance exchanges went live. Here's what dialysis patients should know about the Affordable Care Act (also known as ACA or "Obamacare"): Health insurance sold in the ACA exchanges is for people who do not (or will not after January 1) have health insurance provided by Medicare or an employer-sponsored health plan. Kidney patients who have received a transplant and whose Medicare coverage has ended/will end soon will want to explore receiving coverage through an ACA exchange plan. Pre-existing conditions will not be [...]
Promoting Care Coordination for Dialysis Patients
Federal policymakers have long grappled with the problem of better coordinating care for Medicare beneficiaries. As the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has noted, "Gaps exist in care coordination in fee-for-service Medicare because of the fragmentation of service delivery, the lack of tools to help communicate across settings or providers, and the lack of a financial incentive to coordinate care." Part of the problem is that the Original, or fee-for-service, Medicare largely froze in place mainstream medical and insurance practices as they stood in 1965, when the program was created. [...]
Kidney Care Partners’ Quality Initiative Spurs 25 Percent Improvement In Mortality Rates for Dialysis Patients Within the First 90 Days Of Treatment, 13.6 Percent Improvement In First Year
Kidney Care Partners' PEAK (Performance Excellence and Accountability in Kidney Care) quality improvement initiative spurred a 25 percent reduction in mortality rates for dialysis patients in the first 90 days of treatment and a nearly 14 percent reduction during the first year, according to an analysis of data prepared by Brown University*. Launched in 2009, the PEAK Campaign was a voluntary community initiative designed to highlight proven practices with the goal of improving the rate of survival of kidney failure patients new to dialysis. Available data at the [...]
Dialysis Advocates Oppose Cuts in Washington, DC
We still need your help letting your Members of Congress know that you strongly disagree with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid's (CMS) proposed 9.4% cut to dialysis treatment funding. Earlier this month we had an extremely successful Fly-In here in Washington, DC. A Fly-In, if you aren't familiar with the term, is a focused event that invites individuals to Washington, DC, to meet with key elected officials on Capitol Hill who need to be informed on a specific issue by the people who are personally impacted. Dialysis [...]
Act Now! Protect the Medicare ESRD Program!
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 [...]