Partnership between HHS, ASN has power to ‘dramatically change’ kidney care
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KidneyX, a public-private partnership forged by HHS and the American Society of Nephrology, is uniquely poised to spur change in kidney care, Rachel L. Levine, MD, said.
“HHS is deeply committed to radically improving health across the country, and we look forward to critical public-private partnerships like KidneyX to help with that acceleration,” Levine, who serves as assistant secretary of health for the department and is a member of the KidneyX Steering Committee, told the audience at the virtual KidneyX Summit.
Potential of public-private partnerships
Along with the “American ingenuity” that can help ease the global burden of kidney disease in ways many countries cannot do alone, public-private partnerships provide further opportunity to lead developments in kidney therapies and disease prevention strategies, Levine said.
“Kidney X brings together the best of what the private sector can do: nimbly convene, redesign and implement innovative solutions that our greatest problem solvers are primed to do,” she said. “It also brings together the best our government can do across sectors to help implement massive grand-scale change. That’s the power of these partnerships. We can do things that neither can do alone.”
According to Levine, HHS is committed to improving the lives of patients with kidney disease as evidenced by its continued support of KidneyX and the various prize competitions aimed at developing novel therapies for kidney failure and addressing the unmet needs of patients (these include ReDesign Dialysis, the Patient Innovator Challenge, the COVID-19 Kidney Care Challenge and, most recently, the Artificial Kidney Prize competition).
Levine suggested the progress made by KidneyX proves that these types of programs and partnerships can effectively adapt to changes and develop solutions that benefit patients.
Advancement of equitable kidney care through policy change
“Moreover, many of the changes and innovations that HHS is leading toward focus on a key priority of the Biden administration and myself, which is health equity,” she said, defining health equity as the “consistent and systemic fair and impartial treatment of all individuals.”
She said this requires focusing on individuals who belong to underserved communities and groups that have been previously denied the ability to “attain their truest expression of health.” According to Levine, it is critical to consider broader equity needs that go beyond the holistic health of the individual. To this end, Levine cited efforts by CMS to reduce health equity gaps, such as providing Medicare patients with greater access to care by fixing payment rates, making changes to the ESRD Quality Incentive Program and modifying the ESRD Treatment Choices model.
“The changes in these policies would aim to encourage dialysis providers to decrease disparities in rates of home dialysis and kidney transplants among ESRD patients with lower socioeconomic status, making this the first model to directly address health equity. This is a major win for equity, for kidney disparities, and for the patients we care about most at this summit,” Levine said.
“As we foray into the next generation of KidneyX, I am hopeful that we can continue to inspire such critical changes to policy, programs and develop real-world solutions to the challenges kidney patients face every day. Together, I am hopeful and confident that we will continue to dramatically change care and health for this important group of patients.”
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Levine RL. Welcome to the KidneyX Summit. Presented at: KidneyX Summit; Sept. 9, 2021 (virtual meeting).
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