AAKP provides various ways for you to stay in touch with what is going on in policy and regulatory issues with regards to kidney patients.

Nearly every aakpRENALIFE contains a Washington Report. Our web site at www.aakp.org now has a section titled Washington Report devoted to up-to-date information. Our Internet newsletters, Kidney Beginnings: The Electronic Newsletter and AAKP Renal Flash contain timely material on an "as needed" basis and we send AAKP Renal Flash Alerts via the Internet when action is quickly needed by patients. I encourage you to tune into these channels to learn as much as you can about legislation affecting your healthcare.

Congressional members have been on recess for the month of August and just recently returned after Labor Day. This was a time for members to go home and work in their district and campaign for upcoming elections. They left without much hope of us seeing a Medicare Prescription Drug bill enacted into law this year. This is important to note, as the House version of the Medicare Bill (H.R. 4954) had at one point proposed language that would have cut the reimbursement rate for home dialysis patients. AAKP was instrumental in getting this language removed in the final version sent to the Senate.

However, the House version did contain a provision, requiring a report by the General Accounting Office (GAO) on differences in the cost of dialysis in different settings. AAKP has strongly recommended that the GAO study also examine (1) the extent of geographic differences in the use of home dialysis and the reasons for these differences; (2) outcomes in in-center vs. home dialysis; (3) the importance of home dialysis options in rural areas; (4) the role of home dialysis in the future given the coming crunch in nephrologists and dialysis nurses; and (5) past Congressional interest in promoting home dialysis. It will not be until late September if we learn if a Medicare bill actually gets passed and sent to the President for signing.

Over the summer, AAKP was key in providing information to the General Accounting Office on other renal investigations that are currently underway. The investigations center on ESRD care in the United States with topics including: current patient care, reporting methods, grievance procedures, access to care, short vs. nocturnal or daily dialysis and patient outcomes. The GAO looks to AAKP for the patient perspective with regards to dialectic care in the United States .

Lastly, AAKP is pleased to announce that R. Alexander Vachon, PhD is the new public policy consultant for AAKP. Dr. Vachon works on legislative and regulatory issues for the Association.

Dr. Vachon is a seasoned public policy professional, whose expertise includes healthcare and disability issues. His background includes such Senate positions as a policy manager for the Chairman of the Senate Financing Committee and as a senior aide to Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Subcommittee on Health and to a former Senate Majority Leader, Senator Bob Dole. In these capacities, he has developed broad, bipartisan relationships in Congress, the Executive Branch, the Washington-based and national policy communities and among company and trade association representatives.

His legislative projects have included the 1993-94 healthcare reform, the Medicare provisions of the 1995 and 1997 Balanced Budget Acts (and subsequent 1999 and 2000 legislation); private market insurance regulation; and the Medicare anti-fraud and administrative simplification provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Act of 1996 (HIPPA). In BBA 97, his responsibilities included new patient education and prevention services for diabetic patients and in subsequent legislation provided staff work on coverage of immunosuppressive drugs for individuals with transplants.

Kris Robinson is AAKP's Executive Director

Washington Report, aakpRENALIFE, Vol. 18, No. 2, September 2002

Back