As we pass the two-year anniversary of the world shutting down and shifting how we look at health and health care, it is important to reflect on how this virus disproportionately impacted certain disease populations — such as individuals living with chronic kidney disease (CKD), kidney failure and transplant—who are particularly vulnerable. Click here to…

The impact kidney disease has on patients and our health care system cannot be understated. To put it in perspective, there are more than 37 million people in the United States with kidney disease. This is roughly equivalent to the entire population of California. Even worse, more people will die from kidney disease this year than breast or prostate cancer….

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how we approach health care in the United States in myriad ways, especially for vulnerable populations. In highlighting the trust that patients place in their dialysis facilities to provide safe and effective care under these challenging circumstances, the pandemic provides a new context and a new opportunity to reevaluate longstanding…

Nearly 20 members of Congress signed a letter urging President Joe Biden to allocate $25 million for KidneyX in the executive budget for the 2023 fiscal year. “For KidneyX to meet its full potential and continue to foster the development of technologies, such as a wearable or implantable artificial kidney and xenotransplantation, the federal government must increase…

A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) and Larry Bucshon (R-IN) is asking the Biden administration to direct $25 million to the public-private KidneyX initiative in the president’s next budget proposal. Kidney Care Partners praises the funding push. “This critical funding for KidneyX is an important step toward addressing existing barriers…

As people who have lived with kidney failure for years, we know all too well the numerous daily challenges confronting anyone living with this disease. Beyond the immediacy of arranging necessary and frequent dialysis care, there are many other life-changing issues with which those with kidney failure must contend: Will I still be able to work…

CMS finalized changes to a mandatory end-stage renal disease payment demonstration focused on using home dialysis and kidney transplants as a way to ease socioeconomic disparities in a final 2022 ESRD payment rule Friday (Oct. 29), and the agency also raised dialysis facilities’ pay rates by more than $2 than it had proposed. Click here…

When COVID-19 first began sweeping through our country last year, it quickly became apparent that minority groups were affected at frighteningly disproportionate rates. According to the CDC, Black Americans more frequently test positive for the coronavirus, have been more likely to be hospitalized with severe illness than White Americans, and die at greater rates. In fact, literature on the pandemic…

Quality improvement is a broad term as it applies to health care, and as a major payer for the End-Stage Kidney Disease Program, CMS has tinkered with efforts to influence clinical performance and reduces costs. Most recently, criticism has been leveled at the agency concerning the management of the ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP), a…

Initially launched in 2005, Kidney Care Partners is set to re-launch its Kidney Care Quality Alliance through which the organization will continue developing quality measures to improve care for patients receiving dialysis. Click here to read the full article on the Healio Nephrology News & Issues website.