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Subcommittee chair urges Medicare payment reforms to spur kidney‑care innovation
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Summary
At a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing, the subcommittee chair outlined the human and fiscal toll of chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease and urged changes to Medicare payment policy to encourage prevention, treatments and new devices.
The subcommittee chair opened a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing to press for changes to Medicare payment policy aimed at preventing chronic kidney disease and improving outcomes for people with end-stage renal disease, saying, "We must modernize Medicare coverage to better prevent and treat kidney disease as well as improve patients' outcomes."
The chair framed kidney disease as both a public‑health and fiscal problem. Citing prevalence and outcomes, the chair said "15 percent of American adults live with some form of CKD, and more than 800,000 patients live with ESRD," and noted many patients require multiple hours of dialysis each week and face limited survival—"almost 60 percent of patients die within 5 years of the starting dialysis," the chair said.
The hearing spotlighted the cost pressure on Medicare the chair described: although these patients account for roughly 1 percent of Medicare enrollees, the chair said kidney disease represents about 7 percent of Medicare spending. The chair added that diabetes and high blood pressure "together account for 75 percent of ESRD cases," framing prevention of those conditions as central to lowering future costs.
In outlining policy priorities, the chair urged the committee to support payment policies that "increase innovation in treatment and care delivery," and said Medicare payment rules should "reward also innovation," specifically calling out new drugs and medical devices as tools that could help manage complications of ESRD. The chair said such payment changes would both help patients and reduce long‑term taxpayer costs.
The hearing proceeded with the chair recognizing witnesses to testify and with a stated aim of gathering recommendations from experts and colleagues about how to align Medicare coverage and payment incentives with prevention and innovation goals. The chair said, "I'm interested to hear from you what your thoughts are," before moving to witness testimony.
