I am back from Washington, DC with the Dialysis Patient Citizens protesting the cuts proposed by CMS to dialysis patients.
This is what Dialysis Patient Citizens wrote about the DPC gathering in DC last week. It summarizes it so very well. I don’t think they’ll will mind if I plagiarize their work…
Over 70 patients and family members and over 60 dialysis facility staff from 49 states (including AK and HI) were on Capitol Hill yesterday. We met with Members of Congress to express opposition to the proposed 9.4% cut to the Medicare dialysis program. We were able to talk to 212 offices! Wow!
My friend Jim Myers and I had a chance to meet and chat. Here’s a pic of Jim with one of his Senators in Congress. On Twitter you can join the effort using #StopESRDCuts and by liking the DPC Facebook page.
Our first meeting was with Robert Vega from Rep. Kenny Marchant’s (R-Tx) office. Here’s pics of that (More later)
© 2013 DevonTexas
About DevonTexas
I am a person with ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease) which means my kidneys don't work. Forty or so years ago that would have been a death sentence but today there is Dialysis which means I could be hooked up to a machine that would clean my blood as the kidneys should. Three days a week, I went to a dialysis center and had too very large needles stuck in my arm to remove and replace my blood as it passed through a process where it was cleaned and the fluid was removed, a process taking a little over four hours each time.
In November 2017, I received a kidney transplant from a deceased donor. My life went into overdrive. With a "new" functioning kidney, I no longer had to go to a dialysis center and my days were not open to be lived rather than recovering from dialysis which meant dialyzing for three days and resting for 4 days a week. I work full-time and often 50 hours per week. It is something I never imagined. I highly recommend it! HeeHee
I want to advance knowledge about dialysis and transplant so that others can learn from my experience and mistakes. We shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel, eh? There is so much to be learned and experienced about our predicament. There are vast resources available to support us and enrich our lives but many patients don't know about them. There are also many issues that we have to deal with whether we want to or not. So I blog about them in www.DevonTexas.com
All comments are confidential until I approve them. If you don't want your comment public, let me know and I will respect that. So, feel free to leave a comment.
I also blog in LegacyTales in WordPress if you are interested in the ramblings of a Old Man. Give a peek and let me know what you think. https://legacytales.wordpress.com/
Enjoy.
I am back from Washington, DC with the Dialysis Patient Citizens protesting the cuts proposed by CMS to dialysis patients.
DevonTexas 
Devon, thanks for the mention. Posted everywhere! Can’t wait to read more about your experiences. Will be posting mine later today, be sure to check them out. Some great pix of you!
I guess I am opposed — reluctantly — but I was shocked last year when Medicare was way behind on payments and I got a bill for $240,000 for three months of dialysis. I realize Medicare doesn’t pay the whole bill, but that statement helps explain how my Germany-based dialysis company logged $7 billion profit in one quarter last year, and why exhorbitant prices are charged for things like syringes and for drugs that I don’t think I get. Dialysis is a growth industry even with the prospect of subsidy cuts.
What is billed and what is paid are two different things. Current payment is about $258 per session. This cut will put the payment to about $230. Hardly sufficient when you consider they are bundling medications into that.
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