ARCHIVE
LEGISLATIVEAs of last Thursday, June 5, 1997, the Senate budget passed without the $200,000 we asked for kidney disease prevention. However, the House budget had passed earlier with the $200,000 slotted for the Senate Renal Plan/kidney disease prevention programs. The differences between the Senate and House budgets will be negotiated during a Community Health Appropriations Conference Committee meeting that will convene in two weeks.
Please continue your advocacy efforts, this time, by contacting your district Representative and Senator and telling them to encourage their colleagues on the Conference Committee to keep the $200,000 for the State Renal Plan/kidney disease prevention programs in the Department of Community Health budget the House passed. Review the enclosed information. Most of it is repeated from the last 'Legislative Alert' with a few word changes. Since time is of the essence please contact your legislators as soon as possible.
Background
Last year the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan (NKFM) received funding ($50,000) from the "diabetes line" of the state budget to begin implementation of the State Renal Plan/kidney disease prevention programs. This year the governor's budget decreased funding (-$775,000) to the "diabetes line" where NKFM received its funding.
This puts kidney disease prevention programs in a very vulnerable position. No funding; no programs. In the last "Legislative Alert" the goal was to have our legislators correct the governor's budget by:
1) Guaranteeing $200,000 funding for the State Renal Program/kidney disease prevention programs and,
2) Restoring the "diabetes line" in the budget by reinstating $775,000 that was cut in the governor's budget and adding $200,00 to further prevent kidney disease.
Through all the advocacy work you have done, both Senate and House budget bill have restored the diabetes line, but as mentioned above, the Senate bill did not include the additional $200,000 we need for kidney disease prevention. We need to contact our legislators now to ensure that the additional moneys will be in the state budget. Letters or calls need to be received by June 24, 1997.
Take Action
Please write your Representative or Senator asking them to encourage the Conference Committee members to put the $200,000 for kidney disease prevention in the Department of Community Health budget. If you don't have time to write, call. If you are not sure who your legislators are, please reference the Citizen's Guide to State Government booklet, which you should have received in the mail. (If you have not received a copy, please call Sally Joy at the NKFM at 1-800-482-1455.) We have enclosed a sample letter. The addresses for legislators are listed below:
Address for ALL Representatives Address for ALL Senators
The Honorable (full name) The Honorable (full name)
State Representative State Senator
State Capitol State Capitol
P.O. Box 30014 P.O. Box 30036
Lansing, MI 48909-7514 Lansing, MI 48909-7536
Please send a copy of your letter(s) or a list of who you called to the NKFM.
Thank you for your time and effort.
|
|
Primary Care Physicians Found to Withhold Dialysis Or Delay Its Initiation BLUEFIELD, WV and BROOKLYN, NY...Primary care physicians withhold dialysis from patients with end-stage renal disease three times more frequently than patients under the care of nephrologists, according to investigators from West Virginia University, who presented their findings at the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) annual meeting in early November. The study found that primary care physicians withheld dialysis in 22% of patients with ESRD, whereas patients under the care of a nephrologist had dialysis withheld only 7% of the time. |
In related news, a study from researchers at the State University of New York at Brooklyn has found that patients cared for by no-nephrologists are substantially sicker when dialysis is first initiated and require mote than twice as many days in the hospital to initiate dialysis ass patients who are under the care of nephrologists prior to reaching end-stage renal disease.
In this study-which was also presented during the November ASN meeting-researchers studied 139 patients who were beginning maintenance dialysis. Subjects were sorted into one of three groups:nephrologist, non-nephrologists physicians, or no medical care, depending on the extent of medical care received during the three years immediately preceding initiation of hemodialysis.
Patients who had been cared for by a nephrologist required, on average, a 12-day hospital stay at the initiation of dialysis. Those cared for by a non-nephrologist physician required a 25-day length of stay.
According to the researcher, the study was undertaken because some
managed care programs restrict referral to subspecialists, and they
wanted to determine if there was a relationship between the quality
if medical care received and the severity of the kidney disease at
the initiation of uremia therapy.
Dialysis & Transplantation, Vol 26, Number 2-Febuary 1997.
President Bill Clinton signed the Kassebaum-Kennedy healthcare reform bill
(a) In General. The Secretary of the Treasury shall, to the extent practical, include with the mailing of any payment of a refund of individual income tax made during the period beginning on February 1, 1997, and ending on June 30, 1997, a copy of the document described in subsection (b). (b) Text of Document. The Secretary of the Treasury shall, after consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and organizations promoting organ and tissue (including eye) donation, prepare a document suitable for inclusion with individual income tax refund payments which- (1) encourage organ and tissue donation; (2) includes a detachable organ and tissue donor card; and (3) urges recipients to-
|
|
Pinnacle Disease Management, Inc. is prepared to launch a renal disease management organization (DMO) in California that will provide a variety of health care services as well as applied research, outcomes and information management, continuos quality improvement, and point of care disease management coordination. Patient care services will be provided through a network of over 50 dialysis facilities throughout California. The DMO is currently pursuing the necessary regulatory approvals. Company officials say the coverage area accounts for one-third of dialysis patients in California. In northern California, participating providers are Satellite Dialysis Centers, Redwood City, and New West Dialysis Clinics, Sacramento; in southern California, California Kidney Centers, Riverside; CliniShare Dialysis (a subsidiary of UniHealth), Chatsworth; Premier Dialysis, Los Angeles; Scripps Dialysis Centers, San Diego; and Ushawl (a subsidiary of Salick Healthcare), Los Angeles. As many as 100 nephrologists are expected to join the network's affiliated independent practice association (IPA) by year-end. Executive director of the organization is Joseph A Leveque, MD. Leveque, 36, received his MD from the University of Texas Medical School, Houston, in 1987, and his certification in internal medicine from UCLA in 1990. He also received an MBA from the Wharton School in 1992. "Aggressive early medical intervention in high-risk patients can result in treatment costs one-tenth those of ESRD. It is a clinical and economic imperative to address renal disease early, before it progresses to the complicated and costly end-stage condition," said John A. Robertson, MD, a Riverside-based nephrologist actively involved in the formation of the IPA. "Our network is focused on creating these significant and achievable quality and cost improvements, and we are willing to assume the financial risk associated with this costly disease so we can restore clinician control over medical decisions." "Traditional HMO utilization management may limit early access to vital treatment options, leading to even larger future patient care costs," said Norman Coplon, MD, a San Francisco Bay area nephrologist involved in the network's formation. "An integrated disease management approach creates a partnership between physicians, patients, and insurers." Pinnacle Disease Management Inc. is headquartered in San Meteo, Calif. |
President Bill Clinton signed the
Kassebaum-Kennedy healthcare reform bill which included the
Donor Card Insert Act. The language as reported in the
Congressional Record, Is as follows: SEC.371. ORGAN AND
TISSUE DONATION INFORMATION INCLUDED WITH INCOME TAX REFUND
PAYMENTS.