KidneyTalk for the week of February 19th

This week's KidneyTalk is with Glenda Payne who  works for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as an educator and surveyor. One aspect of the conversation is misleading - both Glenda and Lori state that the Conditions for Coverage require that the facilities tell dialyzors about other options for treatment, options beyond conventional dialysis. At the 16 minute mark Glenda says that under patient rights facilities have to tell people about all treatment options. That's not exactly right. The Conditions of Coverage require the facility tell their patients about all the options available through their facility.

This is a significant difference because if the facility does not offer a modality - for instance more frequent home hemodialysis - then the conditions of coverage do not require the facility to bring it up. There is a new version of the Conditions for Coverage floating around but after this KidneyTalk was recorded CMS decided to punt the new Conditions for Coverage to next year, which because of the upcoming election will likely mean that the entire process will start over.