Officials talk kidney health
HHS makes stop at AdventHealth Orlando site
Federal health officials on Friday made a stop at AdventHealth Orlando, a comprehensive transplant center and the only one to offer a living donor kidney transplant program in the region, to highlight a new care model for Medicare beneficiaries who have endstage kidney disease.
The new model, announced on Friday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, encourages participating providers to invest in and build their home dialysis programs. It also financially rewards clinicians and facilities that have higher rates of kidney transplants. The new initiative is a shift from the current practices that put less emphasis on home dialysis and encourage patients to go to a dialysis center, the agency said.
“Supporting more organ transplants and better kidney health has been such a priority for the Trump administration and for me personally,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, adding that transplant centers and kidney patients have faced special challenges during COVID-19.
Having to travel to dialysis centers for their treatment potentially exposes those with end-stage kidney disease to illnesses like COVID-19, agency officials said to highlight the new model’s aim for more home dialysis.
“Medicare beneficiaries with kidney failure are eight times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19 than Medicare beneficiaries in general. Some COVID-19 patients are suffering serious kidney injury, which could lead to health challenges down the road,” said Azar, as the poorly-controlled pandemic has infected nearly 6.7 million Amercians and killed nearly 198,000.
The country continues to report the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world, ahead of India, which has had 5.2 million cases. Officials also announced that the administration is “significantly expanding” support for living organ donors by providing them compensation for lost wages, child care and elder care.
“We believe that there are many potential donors who would like to donate an organ to a family member, a friend or a stranger, but cannot afford the loss of income
incurred during the required weeks out of work for the needed transplant and the recovery time,” said Tom Engels, administrator of Health Resources and Services Administration. “This rule changes all that.”
In Florida, nearly 5,000 people are currently on a kidney transplant list, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.
The National Kidney Foundation supported the new payment model Friday and said that it “will dramatically increase the ability of patients to access kidney transplant and home dialysis, which are essential steps toward improving patient centric kidney care.”
“Home dialysis can also provide a patient with more freedom and flexibility to live life on their own terms. Although kidney transplant and home dialysis are preferred by most patients,
both are underutilized,” the national nonprofit said in a statement.
The model will take effect in January and the agency will choose the participating providers. About 120,000 people — one-third of Medicare beneficiaries with end-stage kidney disease — will be enrolled in the program, which is expected to save Medicare $23 million over five years.
The announcement comes a little more than a year after the Trump administration launched the Advancing American Kidney Health plan to improve care for patients with kidney disease and reduce health-care costs.
The Trump administration’s plan, which has received bipartisan support, aims to reduce the number of Americans developing end-stage kidney disease by 25% by 2030 by raising awareness and better education; have 80% of new patients with end-stage kidney disease receive dialysis at home or receive a transplant by 2025; and double the number of kidneys available for transplant by 2030.
The plan also calls for improving the performance of Orange Procurement Organizations, or OPOs, which act as a matchmaker between the donor and the transplant institutes.
End-stage kidney disease occurs when chronic kidney disease reaches an advanced stage. The condition is not reversible and the two treatment options for patients are dialysis or a kidney transplant.
About 20 percent of dollars in traditional Medicare — $114 billion a year — are spent on Americans with kidney disease, according to federal officials. In addition, each year, Medicare spends about $89,000 per dialysis patient and less than half, $35,000, for a transplant patient, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
While more than100,000 American who begin dialysis to treat end-stage renal disease each year, one in five will die within a year, according to CMS.