WASHINGTON – Kidney Care Partners (KCP) – The ESRD rulemaking provides an opportunity to address health disparities among kidney patients – a disproportionate number of whom are minorities – when they reach kidney failure and become beneficiaries of Medicare’s End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) program, which pays for dialysis care.

The kidney community wants to ensure that the pathway to innovative therapies, to improve access, and care outcomes adequately pays for these new innovations within the bundle. To guarantee it is done in a way to address the additional care needs of higher acuity patients.

Further, KCP wants to ensure that CMS’s quality measures do not mislead or confuse patients and others when trying to make informed decisions of kidney care options, but rather, helps to educate them with relevant and helpful measures to ensure they are in fact choosing quality care.

KCP also appreciates CMS’ decision to refine the ESRD Treatment Choices (ETC) Model.  While the proposals require close review, we appreciate the Agency’s attention to finding ways to support patients from communities of color and recognition of the socioeconomic factors that present challenges to selecting home dialysis and qualifying for transplants.