A California Bill Could Totally Disrupt The Dialysis Industry

HBO’s John Oliver took on the dialysis industry a couple of weeks ago, highlighting a pair of companies that have a near-monopoly on keeping your kidney functions going. Between them, these two businesses ― one based in Colorado and one in Germany ― control 70 percent of all the dialysis centers in the U.S. In 2015, they saw a combined $2.9 billion in profit, in no small part thanks to a 45-year-old Medicare amendment that guarantees dialysis coverage for everyone and costs the nation a full 1 percent of the federal budget each year.  But Oliver neglected to mention the biggest thing happening in dialysis reform: a state bill in California that could overhaul the way dialysis providers operate. The bill, introduced by state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), would do several things. It would establish minimum staffing levels, require that employees get 45 minutes to “transition between patients” ― in other words, to clean the equipment properly ― and require inspections to be conducted annually, instead of the current standard of once every six years. California dialysis center workers and patients rallied Tuesday in a show of support for the legislation. But Lara’s bill is opposed by a coalition of doctors, patients, and dialysis centers who claim it is redundant to existing safety measures, and who argue it will harm patients, close down centers, and make dialysis treatment harder to get. Accord...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news