FORT WORTH (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
Sep 9, 2009 3:39 pm US/Central
Medicare Backlog Causing Dialysis DilemmaA backlog of government inspections is causing frustration for those who need life-giving dialysis.....
More than 20 kidney dialysis centers in Texas have been waiting months for the necessary certification to treat Medicare patients.
The U. S. Renal Care Center in west Fort Worth has been waiting more than a year.
Linda Bryant is a patient at the center off Cherry Lane. "For me and for many others, dialysis is a life-saver," Bryant said, "because with kidney failure, your kidneys are not working to cleanse your blood."
She is one of only four patients to use the state-of-the-art facility, which opened in the spring of 2008.
The clinic can only treat patients who have private insurance because its Medicare certification is caught up in red tape.
"We've been told there is a shortage of inspectors and that it may take as long as two years before they can come by and inspect," Dr. Lee Anderson with USRC said.
Without the inspection and certification, Medicare will not reimburse any of the center's claims.
"It is a financial drain for the operator of this company, and a major inconvenience for patients in this area." He said.
As the clinic struggles to stay open, others that are Medicare certified are overflowing with patients. Many are forced to operate three dialysis shifts per day to accommodate the patient load.
"If we had the Medicare certification, we would have a substantially larger number of patients here." Anderson said. "It is unfair to the patients who have to drive farther."
"Somebody who lives three or four blocks over and they have to pass a dialysis center because they have Medicare and the centers not certified, and they have to go downtown, that has to be very frustrating," said Bryant, who has private insurance.
Don Gonzalez knows that frustration too well.
The 73-year-old lives only a few blocks from the center in west Fort Worth, but as a Medicare patient he has to go to another side of town for dialysis.
"We're getting up there in age," Gonzalez said, "If it ices up, it's easier to get here then down there."
http://cbs11tv.com/local/health.care.dialysis.2.1173309.html
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