Policy and Politics News

The following is a statement from Kidney Care Partners in response to an interim final rule issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, regarding dialysis companies providing premium assistance for individual marketplace plans either directly, or through a third party.

The following is a statement from American Kidney Fund President and CEO LaVarne A. Burton in response to an interim final rule issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, regarding dialysis companies providing premium assistance for individual marketplace plans either directly, or through a third party. 

Every year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services updates payment policies related to end-stage renal disease. CMS does this through rulemaking, which covers items such as how much Medicare will pay for dialysis treatments as well as other key program items (e.g., setting quality measures through the Quality Incentive Program).

You just laid the last brick and turned on the lights at your new dialysis clinic. Before you start hiring staff and having an open house, there is one more thing to do: have your clinic surveyed and approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to treat Medicare patients.

The most recent results from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Star Rating System (the “refresh”) for dialysis providers were released in October. Depending on how you interpret the information, several providers claim they offer the best dialysis care in the country.

The 21st Century Cures Act was approved by the Senate Dec. 7 by a vote of 94-5. The legislation, which addresses funding for the National Institutes of Health, and makes regulatory changes to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, also includes a provision that would allow end-stage renal disease patients to choose Medicare Advantage plans. The bill passed through the House of Representatives on Nov. 30 by a 392-26 margin.

In the U.S. kidney policy world, one of the most noteworthy and controversial events of recent months was the introduction of S. 3090/H.R.5942:: the Dialysis Patient Access to Integrated-care, Empowerment, Nephrologists, Treatment, and Services Demonstration Act of 2016 (aka, the PATIENTS Act). Briefly, the bill seeks to establish an ESRD-specific model of coordinated care not unlike that of the ESRD Seamless Care Organizations (ESCOs), which begins year two of implementation in 2017, but differing on several fronts, including less restrictive geographic requirements and more flexible partnership requirements.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a supplemental New Drug Application for Relypsa Inc.’s Veltassa (patiromer), which removes the boxed warning regarding the separation of Veltassa and other oral medications from the label. The updated label recommends patients take Veltassa at least three hours before or three hours after other oral medications. This information is now detailed in the dosage and administration section and the drug interactions section of the label. Data from the Veltassa drug-drug interaction program has been added to the Clinical Pharmacology section of the label.

CHICAGO – Nephrology is a small specialty compared to areas like oncology and cardiology. Yet  it has a set of databases that may be the envy of the health care community. Three major data sources––the U.S. Renal Data System (the oldest); the Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (DOPPS just celebrated its 20 anniversary this year), and the PEER Group, supported by major dialysis providers––all provide detailed understanding of how kidney disease is being treated, how clinicians are succeeding (or failing) at meeting quality goals, and how much it is all costing the Medicare-funded program. The three databases were featured in a session during the American Society of Nephrology’s Kidney Week.

CHICAGO – The Nephrologists Transforming Dialysis Safety (NTDS) Initiative aims to do in three years what the renal community has failed to do in decades: reduce the infection rate in dialysis clinics to zero.