Dialysis industry fear tactics harm vulnerable patients
As an elected representative, it’s my job to ensure Californians are able to receive the best, most-affordable health care available to them. From this principle was born Assembly Bill 290, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a few weeks ago.
The bill, designed to rein in a profiteering scheme that preys on dialysis and drug rehabilitation facility patients, prevents third-party health care providers from inflating charges for patient care to health insurance companies. These costs are then passed on to consumers through higher health care premiums.
These third-party health providers financially benefit from overcharging patient medical costs to health plans. They even talk patients into signing up for health insurance they cannot afford over using public programs like Medicare and Medi- Cal.
The dialysis industry adamantly opposed AB 290 (spending at least $2.5 million in opposition) and, after the bill’s passing, is now pursuing an extreme strategy — deploying fear tactics against vulnerable patients in order to force policymakers to bend to its will.
One nonprofit in particular that provides financial assistance to dialysis patients, the American Kidney Fund, is leading the charge by willingly turning its back on California patients. Following the signing into law of AB 290, the AKF has taken drastic steps to dodge the new law.
First, AKF sent a letter to 3,700 of its California patients in late October, falsely claiming that the new law stops it from offering financial assistance to patients, and, thus, it has no choice but to leave the state when the law takes effect.
Continuing its fight to defy the law, the AKF announced that it has filed a lawsuit in federal court to overturn the law. This lawsuit is nothing more than a gross attempt to allow the nonprofit to keep doing the bidding for its two biggest corporate funders.
In truth, there is nothing in AB 290 that forces AKF to leave California and stop providing financial assistance on Jan. 1, or any date thereafter. The law simply prohibits the dialysis corporations from inflating charges for patients who receive financial assistance from AKF — charges which can run as much as four times higher than the cost of treatment.
In reality, the American Kidney Fund is abandoning patients, leaving them with just weeks to figure out their medical and financial futures because California’s rules no longer financially benefit AKF, nor their multibillion- dollar corporate funders, DaVita and Fresenius. AKF is a major beneficiary of the dialysis corporations’ profiteering, receiving more than $240 million from the two corporations, accounting for nearly 80% of its revenue.
I made several amendments to AB 290 during the legislative process in an effort to protect patients. Perhaps the most significant change involved delaying the ban against excessive charges for patients receiving financial assistance by two years. This delayed implementation was meant to give the industry time to adjust to the law and for patients to smoothly transition into other coverage.
AKF is deliberately and cruelly jeopardizing patients by unnecessarily leaving California’s dialysis patients behind. AB 290 does not prevent the dialysis industry from continuing to provide financial assistance to patients who need it. But by abruptly announcing its departure from California, the AKF has made clear that it is prioritizing politics over patients.
Actions by the American Kidney Fund and the massive dialysis corporations that fund them have hurt health care consumers for years by driving up health care costs for all purchasers. They now are directly harming the very people they supposedly exist to protect. While the organizations’ past actions don’t leave us surprised by this most recent ploy, it’s still a slap in the face to patients who rely on life-sustaining treatment.
Playing a high-stakes game of chicken when patient lives are on the line is a despicable act for any organization. But when a “charitable organization” abandons the very people they promised to protect their corporate funders, that’s the epitome of betrayal.