Kidney Care Partners Applauds MedPAC

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Kidney Care Partners Applauds MedPAC for Recommending 1.2% Increase in Medicare Dialysis Benefit Reimbursement Rate

Thu Mar 1, 3:11 PM ET

To: POLITICAL EDITORS

Contact: Jennifer Lawson of Kidney Care Partners, +1-703-548-0019

WASHINGTON, March 1 /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 applauded MedPAC for recognizing the essential link between continued quality improvement and inflationary adjustments in Medicare's payments.

MedPAC also pointed out in its report that facilities that closed during 2005 disproportionately affected African Americans and patients who rely on both Medicare and Medicaid for their care. By recommending a 1.2 percent composite rate update for dialysis services for 2008, the Commission is recognizing shortfalls in funding for dialysis care between the Medicare reimbursement level and the actual cost of providing life-saving dialysis services, a concern that is prevalent among kidney care advocates and an increasing number of Members of Congress. The dialysis community is currently the only provider group within Medicare without an automatic annual update to account for inflation. Inflation adjustments account for regular increases in costs of drugs, lab tests and other services associated with dialysis. Adequate and stable reimbursement is critical to ensuring patient access to high-quality care.

"Kidney Care Partners is pleased that MedPAC is taking this crucial step toward safeguarding the care of Americans with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), also known as kidney failure," said Edward Jones, M.D., Chairman of Kidney Care Partners. "The kidney community is committed to overcoming the challenges before us with regard to the growth of ESRD prevalence and shortfalls in funding. We thank MedPAC for assisting us in this effort and look forward to working with Congress on this important issue."

Each year, more than 100,000 Americans are diagnosed with End Stage Renal Disease and require dialysis or a kidney transplant in order to survive. Today, approximately 400,000 patients in the United States are living with kidney failure, and that number is expected to double in the next decade due to a dramatic rise in diabetes -- the number one cause of kidney disease -- as well as high blood pressure. Twenty million other Americans -- or approximately one in nine -- have some form of kidney disease and are at risk of developing kidney failure absent some form of disease management education or preventative care.

On Tuesday, Senator Kent Conrad (news, bio, voting record) (D-ND) and Representatives John Lewis (news, bio, voting record) (D- GA) and Dave Camp (news, bio, voting record) (R-MI) introduced the Kidney Care Quality & Education Act to help shore up this critical benefit. This legislation establishes patient education and disease management programs to inform patients about how to identify and manage kidney disease and how to prevent kidney failure. The legislation also establishes a three-year Continuous Quality Improvement Initiative that would reward quality improvements based on measures developed in cooperation with the kidney care community and that would link a three-year update to clinical performance.

The Kidney Care Quality and Education Act -- S. 691 in the Senate and H.R. 1193 -- builds upon the previously introduced Kidney Care Quality & Improvement Act from the 109th Congress.

KCP's members include: Abbott Laboratories, 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, Fresenius Medical Care North America, Genzyme, Medical Education Institute, National Kidney Foundation, National Renal Administrators Association, Northwest Kidney Centers, Renal Advantage Inc., Renal Physician's Association, Renal Support Network, Roche Laboratories, Satellite Health Care, U.S. Renal Care, Watson Pharma, Inc.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20070301/pl_usnw/kidney_care_partners_applauds_medpac_for_recommending12__increase_in_medicare_dialysis_benefit_reimbursement_rate