Dialysis Patient Citizens News
Congressional Corner: Two Transplant Bills Introduced in Congress
By Carrie L., Director of Congressional and State Relations Recently, two bills relating to kidney and organ transplants have been introduced in Congress. Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois and Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi introduced the Comprehensive Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage for Kidney Transplant Patients Act of 2013 (S. 323) in the Senate, and Congressman Michael Burgess and Congressman Ron Kind introduced a companion bill (H.R. 1325) in the House. If passed, these bills will extend Medicare immunosuppressive drug coverage for kidney transplant patients under 65 years old [...]
Update: Dialysis Care Coordination Moves Forward!
By Jessica N., Director of Public Affairs As I highlighted last fall, DPC has been busy working with other kidney community organizations and the federal government on a new and improved way to provide care to dialysis patients. As part of recent health care reform efforts, Medicare has been developing new ways to coordinate care for various patient groups and they just came out with their dialysis specific program! Medicare, or more specifically the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), released the official blueprint for this new [...]
DPC Highlights CMS Proposed Rule Including Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programs
Via Electronic Submission Acting Administrator Tavenner Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Department of Health and Human Services P.O. Box 8016 Baltimore, MD 21244 Re: CMS-2334-P: Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Programs, and Exchanges: Essential Health Benefits in Alternative Benefit Plans, Eligibility Notices, Fair Hearing and Appeal Processes for Medicaid and Exchange Eligibility Appeals and Other Provisions Related to Eligibility and Enrollment for Exchanges, Medicaid and CHIP, and Medicaid Premiums and Cost Sharing Dear Acting Administrator Tavenner: Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) appreciates the opportunity to comment on the [...]
Congressional Corner: February 2013
By Carrie L. Director of Congressional and State Relations As it has been mentioned in previous blog posts, World Kidney Day is a great opportunity to get out in the community and raise awareness about kidney disease. For us here at the DPC office, this means inviting some of our most active Patient Ambassadors from around the country to join us in the nation’s capital. On World Kidney Day, the Patient Ambassadors will meet with their Members of Congress to talk with them about the policy issues [...]
From the Welcome Desk At DPC: Who Are You Going to Call? Hint Not the Ghostbusters
By Stephen C., Policy Assistant Hello all! This week I want to talk about something that I’ve been asked about quite a bit. Lots of folks have been calling me to find out how to submit complaints to their dialysis centers. Obviously, we care about patients and want to make sure that they are receiving the best possible care. But when it comes to individual patients at individual centers, we just don’t have the resources to get involved in every case at the local level. If you have [...]
Dash of Sage: World Kidney Day is Rapidly Approaching
By Sage B., Grassroots Manager This week I am working on World Kidney Day (WKD) materials to help people organize events, contact their lawmakers and educate the public on issues that dialysis patients face. And it reminds me of an old story from my former life as a domestic violence advocate: In the 1970’s the domestic abuse movement was basically made up of private citizens who were willing to open their homes to victims of domestic abuse. Unfortunately, aside from these very brave individuals, domestic abuse was still [...]
Inside the Intern’s Mind: Introduction
Megan Sturman By Megan S., Education Intern Hello everyone! My name is Megan Sturman, and I am excited to announce that I am the new education intern here at The DPC Education Center (The Center)! I grew up in Waldorf, MD., a small city just outside of Washington, D.C. I will be graduating this May, from Salisbury University earning my B.S. in Public Health with a minor in Sociology. One of the reasons I decided to pursue a degree in public health was because I [...]
DPC Comments on Medicaid Advantage Drive Times
January 24, 2013 Jonathan Blum Deputy Administrator and Director for the Center of Medicare Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Department of Health and Human Services Room 314G 200 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20201 Re: Medicaid Advantage Drive Times for ESRD Patients Dear Mr. Blum: On behalf of more than 24,000 Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) members and over 400,000 end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients currently on dialysis, thank you for your leadership at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). As the nation’s largest patient-led organization [...]
From the Welcome Desk at DPC: January Edition
By Stephen C., Policy Assistant Hello all! This week, I wanted to let you know about an exciting opportunity that I can help you out with. As you hopefully already know, World Kidney Day is coming up on March 14th. You might ask, “What is World Kidney Day?” To give you the general idea, here is its stated mission: “The mission of World Kidney Day is to raise awareness of the importance of our kidneys to our overall health and to reduce the frequency and impact of kidney [...]
Dialysis Patient Citizens Announces Our New Sister Organization The DPC Education Center
By Tony B., Director of Research and Information Today we are excited to announce the creation of a new sister organization The DPC Education Center (The Center). The new organization, which is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, will work together with DPC to advance their shared mission of improving the quality of life of all kidney disease and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. The Center is dedicated to improving kidney patients’ quality of life and reducing the occurrence of ESRD through education and by developing awareness of [...]
Dash of Sage: Resolutions
By Sage B., Grassroots Manager Welcome to the New Year! I’m excited to say that my sneakers are no longer decorative objects in my closet. Instead, they are decorating my entry hall- hmmm enough about me! My other resolution is to ensure that Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) remains responsive to its members. And on that front, I’m making a bit more headway. As you may know, one of DPC’s core programs is the Patient Ambassador program. In this program DPC provides support to Ambassadors as they advocate for [...]
Congressional Corner: Over the Cliff – Then Quickly Back Up Again
By Carrie L., Director of Congressional and State Relations Well, we went over the fiscal cliff. And then, just hours later a deal was struck, a few hours late but a deal to bring us back from the brink nonetheless. The 112th Congress concluded its tumultuous, and gridlocked 2 years by passing a deal to avoid massive tax hikes for the middle class and a 27% decrease in payments to Medicare providers on New Year’s Day. Unfortunately, cuts to the Medicare ESRD program were still included in the [...]
Seasons Greetings
If you are reading this, we all survived the Mayan apocalypse or you had a well-stocked shelter with built in internet access. Either way, all of us here at DPC and with the Patient’s Voice want to wish you happy holidays. Our office will be closed until January 2nd, and new posts (hopefully sent in by Voice readers) will resume shortly after.
Congressional Corner: A Year of DPC Advocacy Successes!
By Carrie L., Director of Congressional and State Relations As 2012 comes to an end, DPC has a lot to celebrate and a lot to look forward to. DPC staff and most importantly our members, have achieved so much this year, bringing awareness to kidney disease issues both in Congress and in their communities! Patient Ambassadors held dozens of kidney and dialysis awareness events across the country in support of World Kidney Day and other events throughout the year. Patient Ambassadors taught members of their churches and civic [...]
Dash of Sage: Introduction
An icebreaker activity at the recent board meeting. Can you tell what it is? By Sage B., Grassroots Manager Hi Voice readers! My name is Sage and I recently joined DPC as the Grassroots Manager, which means that I will work with many of you personally to influence state and national kidney disease policies. Each month I will keep you up to date on what we are doing at the local level and share inspiring stories of our patients in action. Thank you for joining me [...]