Healio Nephrology News & Issues
Kidney groups call out US Supreme Court decision on DaVita, hospital employee health plan
July 1, 2022
Several kidney organizations have spoken out against the recent overruling of Marietta Memorial Hospital Employee Benefit Health Plan v. DaVita by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the lawsuit, DaVita claimed the hospital health plan discriminated against employees requiring dialysis.
As Healio previously reported, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that Marietta Memorial Hospital offered the same outpatient dialysis coverage to all employees, reversing the initial decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.
“The insurer practice at issue – shifting patients prematurely to Medicare – will exacerbate inequalities in access and quality care for an already vulnerable population. This ruling is a blow to promoting affordable patient choice and instead unfairly shifts costs to the American taxpayer,” John P. Butler, chair of Kidney Care Partners (KCP), said in a statement. “We feel this decision leaves patients with end-stage renal disease vulnerable to discriminatory and inequitable insurer practices, and in fact, is not consistent with the administration’s own goals on health equity.”