NxStage Submits Comments to CMS to Fix Reimbursement for Home Hemodialysis Training

LAWRENCE, Mass.—NxStage Medical, announced that it submitted public comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding its Proposed Rule for the Changes to the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Prospective Payment System for 2013.

NxStage's comments call for CMS to correct the current insufficient and inequitable payments for home hemodialysis (HHD) training—making this life-changing modality more accessible to Medicare patients suffering from ESRD.

The company calls for these changes based upon:

• Recognition by experts of the limitations of conventional modalities in addressing specific health conditions;
• Clinical data supporting superior patient outcomes with more frequent HHD vs. conventional dialysis;
• Multiple third-party surveys showing that nephrologists and other healthcare professionals would choose HHD most often for themselves if faced with ESRD; and
• A Congressional mandate for CMS to develop policy that encourages more patients to be treated in the home setting.

"The current Medicare payment system doesn't provide adequate reimbursement for patients to be trained on HHD and represents an unintended injustice to those patients who wish to perform HHD," said Joe Turk, president, North America, NxStage Medical. "The status quo is inconsistent with the Congressional mandate to bring patients home and is a huge factor in Medicare ESRD patients' limited access to more frequent HHD. This issue can and should be addressed to allow patients better access to this life-changing therapy, that so often leads to longer, healthier lives for patients who require dialysis to live."

A copy of the submission can be found at http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=CMS-2012-0080-0053.