Possible Solutions for Kidney Dialysis
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- Written by: Super User
(Post-update: 'Save the Billionaires (or not)' Walk in Omaha Nebraska May 6th, 2023!)
For years this site has been a tinderbox with all the various problems highlighted in kidney dialysis and I was content to keep the site up and go my way. Then along came the announcement of a book. It put a log on that tinderbox, but no flames yet. Then along came this article - ignition.
It brought me back to a day in 2012 when we were in the Colorado Senate Health and Human Services committee for the renewal of a Colorado state bill. I was answering questions after my testimony. At about 11:15 of this video, State Senator (R) Kevin Lundberg basically stated that it was ironic we didn't need tech certification when it was mostly nurses giving dialysis treatments back in the old days. I think I gave him a good answer, but I really wanted to tell him what I thought the root of problem was - a for-profit system that was putting their bottom line ahead of patient care! But I bit my lip since we had an uneasy alliance with the large for-profit dialysis companies DaVita and Fresenius, they were also backing the bill at that point (they were against it in 2007).
So for more than twenty years I've felt uneasy that only band-aids seem to be being put on this kidney dialysis field of medicine - not real fundamental change that I can see! What kind of fundamental change would I like to see? I mentioned it in these two blogs: Blog #5 and Blog #6. Bottom line, break them up - and care cooperatives are looking very, very promising!
I've spent years screaming about the problems in kidney dialysis (plenty of ammo). Maybe it is time to do some screaming about the way it could be!
More info:
Fact Sheet
Scandals-articles, etc...
Dialysis Treatment - A Punch in the Kidneys
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- Written by: Super User
Dialysis Treatment – A Punch in the Kidneys
April 2, 2008
Here’s a fact that may surprise you: kidney failure is the one disease that you can get coverage for – from the Federal Government - no matter what.
For this reason, after 30 months of treatment by a private insurer, dialysis facilities bill Medicare regardless of whether the patient is over 65 or financially stable. For those with kidney failure (End Stage Renal Disease) due to diabetes or other causes, having a machine take over the complicated (and therefore expensive) task of cleaning their blood several times a week allows them to live.
MSP extension: For several years, various groups have been pushing for an extension of the Medicare Secondary Payment time frame from 30 months to 42 months, claiming in part it is a denial of patients rights to force them onto Medicare if they want to retain private insurance. Kidney Care Partners (KCP) - a coalition of drug manufacturers, dialysis providers, health care professionals and patient advocates formed in 2003 - are pushing for the Medicare Secondary Payment extension as well as other “quality of care improvements for renal disease.” (The House of Representatives approved the MSP extension in August 2007 when it voted to pass the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act, which Bush later vetoed. See our piece on S-CHIP.)
Sounds good, yes?
Not so fast.
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