Dialysis patient lobbies D.C. for funding

[Bill Peckham]

If it were up to me we'd leave things as they are until after the elections in 2008.
 

That is probably the best way to go right now.  So people should write their Washington Reps and Senators not to take action on current legislation.

What we also need is independent research from say, the RAND Corporation, to analyze for us patients the various ESRD bills before Congress--what are the true costs, what are the pros and cons, benefits and risks.

Maybe the Renal Support Network (RSN) would be willing to pay for such an independent study.  As it stands right now, most of the "facts" come from the "Caring Kidney" lobby--not a disinterested party.
 

The Bill the Senate is putting forward does not have any dialysis provisions - it funds kid healthcare for 6 months so we'll be talking about these same issues in the spring when Congress is facing another deadline. One new item of interest though ... I'm hearing that there is a provision that would require EGHPs to report their charges to CMS if Medicare is secondary - this should provide more confirmation of what the census survey showed. However, rather than showing the mean charges we'll know the entire range. Wonder how the big providers will spin this to be a patient fairness issue? Nooo ... daylight burns.

Zach I'm really curious ... what is your understanding of RSN's size, source/amount funding? And give me ballpark guess on the cost of a Rand study. I'll be on an RSN conference call tomorrow I could bring it up too. I was already thinking Lori should ask a documentary film maker to do a Frontline story on dialysis reimbursement. If only a documentary film maker would volunteer to lead the project. Know anyone?

[Zach]

I was already thinking Lori should ask a documentary film maker to do a Frontline story on dialysis reimbursement. If only a documentary film maker would volunteer to lead the project. Know anyone?

Only if I could get some of that funding.