Advocates from the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) and the American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP) are meeting with representatives, senators, and their respective staffs today, March 20th, to urge Congress to support KidneyX, a public-private partnership to accelerate innovation in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of kidney diseases.
Policy
March 14, 2019
In a potentially game-changing exchange yesterday at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex M. Azar, II, stated that a preliminary HHS Office of the Actuary analysis indicates that the savings generated by averting dialysis would be greater than the cost required to extend coverage for immunosuppressant drugs. While noting that any potential savings would be “specific to the design of any actual policy,” the Secretary underscored that HHS is “very focused on ways we can incentivize toward transplantation.”
March 3, 2019
On Monday March 4th, Secretary Alex M. Azar II delivered a speech at the 6th Annual Kidney Patient Summit outlining both KidneyX and the strategic pillars of establishing an HHS-wide approach to comprehensive kidney care. ASN released a statement from ASN President Mark E. Rosenberg, MD, FASN, congratulating Secretary Azar and HHS on implementing this bold plan to better serve kidney disease patients and confirming ASN’s commitment to work together to achieve this goal.
February 28, 2019
In a joint press release in June 2018, ASN, ERA-EDTA, and ISN publicized that the current number of people who suffer from kidney diseases worldwide has reached over 850 million.
February 15, 2019
The Living Donor Protection Act of 2019, a longstanding priority of the ASN Policy and Advocacy Committee and the larger kidney and transplant community, has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives and Senate by Representatives Jaime Herrera-Beulter (R-WA) and Jerry Nadler (D-NY), and Senators Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) and Tom Cotton (R-AR).
February 13, 2019
In a bold move up the ladder of electronic health record (EHR) interoperability, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released two proposed rules February 11 designed to allow patients access to their own records and data – particularly via apps – and provide strong deterrents to those who would block data.
February 4, 2019
The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) and other members of the kidney community met with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex M. Azar II and other top HHS officials in a roundtable on Friday, February 1 to discuss value-based kidney care transformation.
January 31, 2019
The All of Us Research Program, a groundbreaking research effort funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has officially enrolled over 100,000 core participants. The effort looks to collect data from one million individuals on their health, habits and location to look for patterns that may affects one’s health with the goal of accelerating research and developing personalized and highly effective health care.
January 31, 2019
The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) submitted comments to Medicare on its Medicare Advantage and Part D Drug Pricing Proposed Rule on January 25. ASN objected to segments of the proposed rule that remove protections from the “six protected classes of drugs” in Medicare Part D.
January 30, 2019
The Kidney Health Initiative (KHI) recently released a new website to inform the community about its mission, objectives, and membership. The new site also showcases the publications from completed projects since the formation of KHI in 2012.
