Medicare Cuts for Dialysis Care Would Impede Quality Progress

Kidney Care Community Warning: Proposed Medicare Cuts for Dialysis Care Would Impede Quality Progress

Thu Jul 26, 11:41 AM ET

To: NATIONAL EDITORS

Contact: Alisann Fatemi, +1-703-532-9420, for Kidney Care Partners

WASHINGTON, July 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Kidney Care Partners (KCP) -- an alliance of patient advocates, dialysis professionals, care providers and manufacturers working together to improve quality of care for individuals with kidney disease and kidney failure -- today warned that proposed cuts to Medicare's End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) benefit, which pays for care for more than 300,000 Medicare beneficiaries with kidney failure, would impede quality progress in dialysis care. Congress is proposing to not fully fund this life-saving program.

"Proposing to not adequately fund a vital program that is widely regarded as being underfunded raises many serious questions and concerns from the kidney care community about the impact these proposed cuts will have on quality care." said Edward Jones, M.D., Chairman of Kidney Care Partners and a practicing nephrologist. "As a community, we are further troubled that Members of the House of Representatives are seriously contemplating cuts to a benefit that affects so many poor, elderly and minority patients."

Dr. Jones acknowledged that the patient education and disease prevention program contained in the package is a step in the right direction.

These cuts have been proposed despite a formal recommendation to Congress by the non-partisan Medicare Payment Advisory Committee (MedPAC) to account for inflationary adjustments in Medicare's payment for ESRD care. These adjustments would account for normal increases in labor costs, some patient services and medication-related supplies. Further, the proposed cuts ignore the strong and growing congressional support for the Kidney Care Quality & Education Act (H.R. 1193), introduced by Representatives John Lewis (DA-GA) and David Camp (R-MI), which establishes a three-year continuous quality improvement initiative to reward quality, provides an inflationary adjustment for three years tied to clinical performance, and initiates a robust patient education and disease prevention program. Currently, the bill has more than 100 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives.

"Medicare's ESRD program has helped to save and improve the lives of millions of Americans since it was created," concluded Dr. Jones. "Cutting this critical benefit now is simply incomprehensible."

Kidney Care Partners is a nationwide alliance of patients, doctors, patient advocates, dialysis professionals, providers and manufacturers working together to improve the quality of care for individuals with kidney failure.

Abbott Laboratories, Advanced Magnetics, Inc., American Kidney Fund, American Nephrology Nurses' Association, American Regent, Inc., American Renal Associates, Inc., American Society of Nephrology, American Society of Pediatric Nephrology, Amgen, Baxter Healthcare Corporation, California Dialysis Council, Centers for Dialysis Care, DaVita, Inc., DaVita Patient Citizens, Diversified Specialty Institutes, Fresenius Medical Care North America, Genzyme, Kidney Care Council, National Kidney Foundation, National Renal Administrators Association, National Renal Alliance, LLC, Northwest Kidney Centers, Renal Advantage, Inc., Renal Physician's Association, Renal Support Network, Renal Ventures Management, LLC Roche Laboratories, Satellite Health Care, U.S. Renal Care, Watson Pharma, Inc.

SOURCE Kidney Care Partners

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20070726/pl_usnw/kidney_care_community_warning__proposed_medicare_cuts_for_dialysis_care_would_impede_quality_progress