Advocacy & Public Policy

Learn more about the Advancing American Kidney Health initiative in an exclusive ASN webinar held Wednesday, July 24, 2019. Hear an overview of the Executive Order launching the initiative, hear an overview of the forthcoming new payment models, and discuss the report from the office of Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation.

The White House and Department of Health and Human Services on July 10, 2019, unveiled the Advancing American Kidney Health initiative. President Trump signed an Executive Order launching the initiative.

The initiative seeks to:

• Prevent kidney failure through better diagnosis, treatment, and preventative care.
• Increase affordable alternative treatment options, educate patients on treatment alternatives, and encourage the development of artificial kidneys.
• Increase access to kidney transplants by modernizing the transplant system and updating counterproductive regulations.”

“For patients with kidney diseases across America, today's executive order represented a game changer. For the president and the entire federal government to show this kind of interest in people with kidney diseases – particularly kidney failure – is completely unprecedented. It's a game changer,” said American Society of Nephrology (ASN) President Mark E. Rosenberg, MD, FASN.

The Executive Order directs Medicare to develop and test payment models, partially unveiled today, to encourage preventive kidney care and increase use of home dialysis and kidney transplantation. The president also directed his administration to develop a process to deliver an artificial kidney to patients and increase the efficiency of the organ transplant system. In a statement released by HHS, the administration outlined three goals in this area:

• Reducing the number of Americans developing kidney failure by 25% by 2030.
• Ensuring 80% of new kidney failure patients in 2025 either are receiving dialysis at home or are receiving a transplant.
• Doubling the number of kidneys available for transplant by 2030.

As for payment models, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Centers announced the creation of the Kidney Care First (KCF) and Comprehensive Kidney Care Contracting (CKCC) Graduated, Professional, and Global Models that will build upon the existing Comprehensive End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Care (CEC) Model structure.