Letter To The Editor

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This was in our paper.  Let's read it and then I'll pick it apart....

Protect Kidney Care

Kidney care providers and dialysis facilities have made tremendous strides over the past few years in improving health outcomes despite reductions in federal funding.  In honor of World Kidney Day on March 14, I visited Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. to talk to members of Congress about this very issue.
More than 30 million Americans are living with kidney disease, and more than half a milllion with kidney failure (also known as End Stage Renal Disease, or ESRD). 
Members of Congress including our own Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers play an important role in ensuring adequate payments for dialysis so hundreds of thousands of Americans can continue to receive quality dialysis care.
Recent cuts to Medicare by Congress will slash reimbursements for dialysis treatments, impacting the level of care our centers will be able to provice.  Changes to the bundled payments, by which dialysis providers are paid for the multitude of services they provide, could also have a negative impact.
I hope your readers will urge Cantwell, Murray and McMorris Rodgers to protect patient access and our ability to deliver quality kidney care.

Social Worker

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have made tremendous strides over the past few years in improving health outcomes .   Really? What?


More than 30 million Americans are living with kidney disease.  So, anyone with less than 100% function is counted here?  30 MILLION?  there are only half a million (maybe) on dialysis.  And that is WHO Medicare pays for.  That is why these dialysis facilities what MORE MONEY when the CEO makes 29 million a year.  That is almost 1 million for everyone who thinks they may have kidney disease.

Ask Congress for more money?  Hell no!  When the CEO makes a mere $100K a year I'll ask my Congressmen for more money for dialysis facilities where currently I'm bringing my own Lidocane because I guess they can't afford it.  I'll get a hold of my congressmen alright!  I'll tell them NOT to give more money to Medicare when we have an extra $29,000,000 in the CEO's bank account.

I will tell my Congressmen to ask "Why are the cost of anti-rejection drugs so high"  and hit it from that angle.  Not just who is going to pay for them.... why are they so high in the first place.  And I don't take the whole "research" thing as a good answer.