Wednesday Journal
Life-sustaining dialysis care
October 29, 2024
Dialysis treatments, while essential, are also often a tiring process for patients with end-stage renal disease or kidney failure. As a nephrologist, it is my job to ensure that the 12-15 hours patients spend in the dialysis chair each week are as easy as possible. A Supreme Court decision, however, could make it much harder for them to access life-sustaining dialysis care.
Before 2022, longstanding policies allowed patients on dialysis to keep their private insurance for just over two years while transitioning to Medicare. Unfortunately, we’ve seen insurers change up the rules and limit dialysis access, ultimately driving patients with kidney failure off their private insurance.