Members of kidney care and health equity organizations serving Western and Central New York met on Tues., Dec. 10 with district staff from the office of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer to call for urgent action to preserve access to medications for people on dialysis.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are planning to move coverage of oral-only drugs for dialysis patients out of Medicare Part D and into a a bundled payment to dialysis providers. The bipartisan Kidney PATIENT Act (HR 5074 / S. 4510) would prevent this change.
The meeting was organized by the National Minority Quality Forum Action Network, (NMQFAN), which is especially concerned that the change will make it harder for patients to receive appropriate Phosphate Lowering Therapies (PLTs).
"Bundled payments, by their nature, create financial disincentives for patients to have access to all therapies available," according to NMQFAN. "With the bundle already stretched thin, dialysis providers will now be forced to find resources for PLTs. This risks: Interfering with patient-doctor shared decision-making and moving to protocol-based treatment; Restricting patient access to new treatments, which may further limit the ability to effectively manage the disease even with medical innovation."
"The clock is running out for dialysis patients – most of whom are from minoritized, rural, and low-income communities – who rely on Medicare Part D coverage for PLTs to reduce their risk of death," NMQFAN President Gary A. Puckrein, PhD, previously noted. "Transferring coverage of PLTs into the ESRD bundle will only exacerbate the health disparities that already exist in our society."
NMQFAN has a online form for contacting elected officials about the Kidney PATIENT Act at https://www.votervoice.net/NMQF/Campaigns/117787/Respond.
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