Policy and Politics News

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released a document that provides responses to the questions and issues about the Dialysis Facility Compare Star Rating System raised by the ESRD community.

CMS implemented the Low Volume Payment Adjustment (LVPA) to compensate dialysis facilities that provided a low volume of dialysis treatments, had high costs, and appeared necessary for ensuring access to care. The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA) required the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study the LVPA. On March 1, 2013, the GAO published their findings. They looked at:

If at first you do not succeed, try, try again.

I know it is hard to believe, but the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) is now in its eighth year of existence and this year there are more ways to play. Before we get to the details of participation, let’s consider what’s at stake:

Healthcare workers, including dialysis clinic staff, must be vigilant about identifying patients with a travel history to an Ebola-affected country and recognizing symptoms of the disease, according to a health advisory for healthcare workers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Healthcare workers must also isolate patients who report a travel history to an Ebola-affected country and who are exhibiting Ebola symptoms in a private room with a private bathroom and implement standard, contact, and droplet precautions.

Recent policy and guideline changes related to the care of patients with kidney failure have not created racial disparities, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

In Part I of this two-part State of the States series on the status of state kidney programs, we provided NN&I readers with information on the history of their development. In 1990, a survey of 22 state kidney programs was conducted on their financial status and services they provide. We recently sent the same survey, with several additional questions, to the 15 state kidney programs that exist today to obtain updates. Our goal was to compare the answers from the programs today with the information from the 1990 survey and to identify areas of strengths and current and future challenges.

The Medicare entitlement for dialysis and transplantation, long sought by the renal community, was passed in late October 1972. As an unanticipated obligation for Medicare, it was unwelcome. Still, the CRD (Chronic Renal Disease) Group that was formed to set it up worked hard to get it done before the July 1 deadline. Unfortunately, their consultations with nephrologists (me included) revealed we didn’t know the difference between health care and health care policy. They paraphrased our conversations into proposed regulations that couldn’t work.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, is throwing his weight behind efforts to increase home dialysis training payments for 2015, but the renal community wants it to be “new money” injected into the ESRD Program.

Dialysis Clinic Inc. has signed an agreement with cloud-based care management technology company RoundingWell to use their patient engagement and care management platform, designed to increase effective communication between patients, dialysis providers, andthe interdisciplinary team.