At 5:00 p.m. today, a rule on Medicare will be considered in DC that could affect patients’ access to home hemodialysis (HHD). [b]We can help ensure that patients can get training for and access to HHD if we make some noise this morning, and be sure to mention HHD–not just dialysis or ESRD.[/b]
Can you please help by:
Calling your key contacts in these areas immediately. *(Michigan is key-but patients from anywhere are powerful)
Key issues are:
1)* Keep Patient HHD Training out of any broader ESRD bundle. WHY? Because a one-time “patient event” (e.g., training) is included in an ongoing bundle of routine services, so payment for HHD training would be spread across all dialysis treatments in all locations in the US. This would essentially mean there is NO reimbursement for this resource-intense, critical service!
2)* Consider an HHD Pilot (similar to the ABCD bill from the prior Congress)
3) Specifically allow the Secretary to adjust payment for new therapy options/patterns of care
You have a chance to make a difference for dialyzors across the US if you take action today! (WHEN YOU CALL, PLEASE POST & LET US KNOW).
Dori Can you give us the name or # of the bill that is being voteing on? I went the site you linked us with but did not see what I should say to my person in DC
thanks
Bob O’Brien
[QUOTE=Dori Schatell;15189]Hi y’all,
At 5:00 p.m. today, a rule on Medicare will be considered in DC that could affect patients’ access to home hemodialysis (HHD). [b]We can help ensure that patients can get training for and access to HHD if we make some noise this morning, and be sure to mention HHD–not just dialysis or ESRD.[/b]
Can you please help by:
Calling your key contacts in these areas immediately. *(Michigan is key-but patients from anywhere are powerful)
Key issues are:
1)* Keep Patient HHD Training out of any broader ESRD bundle. WHY? Because a one-time “patient event” (e.g., training) is included in an ongoing bundle of routine services, so payment for HHD training would be spread across all dialysis treatments in all locations in the US. This would essentially mean there is NO reimbursement for this resource-intense, critical service!
2)* Consider an HHD Pilot (similar to the ABCD bill from the prior Congress)
3) Specifically allow the Secretary to adjust payment for new therapy options/patterns of care
You have a chance to make a difference for dialyzors across the US if you take action today! (WHEN YOU CALL, PLEASE POST & LET US KNOW).[/QUOTE]
Dori Can you give us the name or # of the bill that is being voteing on? I went the site you linked us with but did not see what I should say to my person in DC
thanks[/QUOTE]
Hi Bob, great question! There is no bill number. This is just general Medicare language. So, when you call, just say, "When you discuss Medicare language…". This will probably be rolled into a larger spending bill.
I saw that the your site wants support for “The Kidney Care Quality and Education Act 2007 (S. 691, H.R. 1193)” is this something all together different? Plus I went to First Gov web site and could not find anything on votes today, is it me ?
Dori
What have you heard on the vote? I watch cspan everyday both cspans. And I saw nor did I hear of a vote on the subject. Was the vote a committee vote or house or senate vote? From seeing how the house and senate work, votes seem never to happen on time. I went to first gov. web and to try and find anything, could not find anything. How did you hear of the vote and did the folks on this board who are in dialysis pt groups know of the vote?
Hi Bob, I’ll let you know when I get any updates. There wasn’t a vote, per se, because there isn’t a bill yet. So, this was just intended to be a discussion of Medicare language that would be attached to some bill (no-one even yet knows which one). This means that there may be another chance to weigh in if/when new Medicare ESRD bundling language does get attached to a bill and there really is a vote.
I get my information from the Coalition for Dialysis Patient Choice, (http://www.dialysischoice.org/), which has some folks who keep a much closer track on these things than we are able to do (or interested in doing, generally, unless they directly affect home dialysis).
UPDATE: Currently, home dialysis training has been taken out of the current working language (!!!), and any vote has been postponed until next week. Input from the community truly does help! We’ll keep you posted…
Dori
Thanks for the update and I will go the site
Thanks
bob obrien
[QUOTE=Dori Schatell;15202]Hi Bob, I’ll let you know when I get any updates. There wasn’t a vote, per se, because there isn’t a bill yet. So, this was just intended to be a discussion of Medicare language that would be attached to some bill (no-one even yet knows which one). This means that there may be another chance to weigh in if/when new Medicare ESRD bundling language does get attached to a bill and there really is a vote.
I get my information from the Coalition for Dialysis Patient Choice, (http://www.dialysischoice.org/), which has some folks who keep a much closer track on these things than we are able to do (or interested in doing, generally, unless they directly affect home dialysis).[/QUOTE]
I just went to (http://www.dialysischoice.org/) and saw something that has puzzle me since I got into the home program. Am I permitted to copy and paste from the site to here and see if a get an answer to my puzzlement?
bob obrien
Sure, Bob, go ahead. You can tell that the site is both static and out of date–it still lists Aksys as a member, and that company went under months ago! So, I was just pointing to the site to give some folks some background about the group, but truly it’s pretty informal at this point.
Oh, also, another UPDATE: As of right now, the Medicare language includes no MSP extension and no bundling. This could still change, since it ain’t over 'til it’s over, but so far, there are no major changes.