Policy and Politics News

SEATTLE — The House has authorized a $10 million infusion for the KidneyX Innovation Accelerator Project, Representative Suzan DelBene, D-Washington, announced here during the Innovations in Dialysis: Expediting Advances Symposium. DelBene is co-chair of the Congressional Kidney Caucus in the House.

HHS is holding its first webinar, open to the public today, that will provide details on its four new voluntary kidney payment models for the recently announced Advancing American Kidney Health initiative.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar II visited a Baxter research and development facility in Bloomington, Indiana earlier this week to show support for a $500 million investment pledged by the company to increase innovation and technology in the dialysis industry.

Nephrologists will likely see minor increases next year in payments for 14 of the 17 billable inpatient and outpatient dialysis services they provide; but the bigger news, according to an analysis of the proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for 2020, is a decision by CMS to table a plan to blend a number of evaluation and management codes that would have had a negative impact on physician pay.

We sit at a tipping point in the history of kidney care. This moment in time shares similarities to the early days of dialysis in the United States just before Medicare guaranteed coverage to patients with ESKD in the early 1970s.

CMS is offering $5 more per dialysis treatment and a bonus to providers if they use newer technology in their clinics in a proposed rule for the Prospective Payment System released on July 29.

Rep. Katie Porter of California is asking the Office of Inspector General of the HHS to rescind an advisory opinion for the American Kidney Fund’s Health Insurance Premium Program governing its practice of providing premium assistance to patients on dialysis and then conduct an investigation into whether dialysis providers and the AKF are pushing patients toward more expensive insurance options to increase dialysis center profits.

HHS released a proposed rule on July 10 that would provide incentives of up to 3% in adjusted payments to nephrologists and dialysis providers who improve the number of patients treated with home dialysis or who achieve a higher rate of kidney transplantation.

President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order today to launch Advancing American Kidney Health, a new initiative to increase earlier intervention in CKD, incentivize dialysis providers to direct more patients to home dialysis and increase the number of kidneys available for transplantation.

The California Senate Health Committee approved a bill on July 3 that would limit how much dialysis providers could charge private health plans if patients received premium assistance from groups like the American Kidney Fund.