DaVita Premium Services

[Tío Riñon]

I just received a call from a representative of this department.  He didn't leave any specific information other than a message asking me to call back.  Evidently they are open 8 am - 5 pm, Mon.-Fri., mountain time.

Is this a new name for the Help Desk or their Pharmacy?  Has anyone else received a call/message from them (844-875-3121)?

[Michael Murphy]

 :After a quick internet search DaVita is having its service department contact  Medicaid patients to enroll in private insurance plans instead of Medicaid, they do this by having organizations pay the premiums and reimburse the organization for the cost.  Private insurance plans pay considerably more than Medicaid.  I had private insurance until 18 months ago.  At that time Aetna was paying about $1500 a treatment.  Then I was moved to Medicare after 33 months on Dialysys the treatment cost dropped to about $350 a treatment clearly there is a financial benefit to keeping patients on private insurance as long as possible.

[Simon Dog]

There have been suits over this exact issue, for example, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/02/business/unitedhealthcare-sues-dialysis-chain-over-billing.html

The suits were over dialysis companies actually paying the premium for private insurance.  Perhaps DaVita has found a way around this.

Shifting gears a bit, there was an effort on the part of DaVita (I think) to start a chain of concierge-style premium dialysis clinics that would provide a more pleasant atmosphere with extra non-medical services.  This was to be available on a monthly fee basis (insurance or Medicare would continue to pay for dialysis, the patient would pay a monthly fee for premium services).    I wonder if this may have been what they were talking about?

[Michael Murphy]

My understanding is that while the dialysis companies can’t pay insurance premiums they donate money to charitable organizations that then pay the premiums.  I know Fresinius does this and I am sure Davita does the same thing.  Google davita premium service and see what you get.