May 26, 2005 - The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) has made public their comments on CMS's proposed rule for ESRD Conditions of Coverage:

• Comments from the NKF on Conditions of Coverage - 13-page pdf file
  

May 17, 2005 - Another ESRD-related organization has made public their comments on CMS's proposed rule for ESRD Conditions of Coverage:

• Association of Dialysis Advocates Comments on Conditions of Coverage - 9-page pdf file
  

May 10, 2005 - More ESRD-related professional organizations have made public their comments on CMS's proposed rule for ESRD Conditions of Coverage:

• Renal Support Network (RSN) comments - 3-page pdf file
  
• Kidney Care Partners comments - 10-page pdf file
  

May 5, 2005 - Today is the last day for for concerned parties to provide their comments to CMS on their proposed rule for ESRD Conditions of Coverage. Comments that have been made public now include:

• American Kidney Fund Comments on ESRD Conditions of Coverage - 4-page WORD document
  
• American Association of Kidney Patients Comments on ESRD Conditions of Coverage - 17-page pdf file
  

May 4, 2005 - In February, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a rule that would modernize the Medicare End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) conditions for coverage by promoting higher quality care amongst dialysis facilities that want to participate in the Medicare program. CMS invited all concerned parties to comment on this proposed rule by May 5th.

Several ESRD-related professional organizations have prepared comments and posted them on their web sites:

• Comments on Conditions of Coverage for ESRD Facilities Proposed Rule from the American Nephrology Nurses Association web site.
  
• The Renal Physicians Association Comments on Proposed Rule - 16-page WORD document.
  
• National Association of Nephrology Technicians/Technologists (NANT) 1-page commentary (WORD document)
  

March 16, 2005 - The Southeastern Kidney Council/ESRD Network 6 has prepared a chart that is designed to compare the current Conditions for Coverage for ESRD services with those Proposed in the February 4, 2005 Federal Register. This chart follows the order of the current regulations and provides the proposed revised language. The Proposed Conditions include a reorganization of the Current conditions. In some cases, the Proposed conditions address multiple areas of the Current Conditions and are therefore listed twice in the Proposed column. This is based on the crosswalk provided in the proposed regulations, with some modifications/corrections. 71-page pdf file.

The American Nephrology Nurses Association (ANNA) is encouraging the renal/dialysis community to review the rules and to submit concerns and insights to CMS. Legislative/Regulatory Activities web page from the ANNA web site.

February 7, 2005 - The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a rule that would modernize the Medicare End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) conditions for coverage by promoting higher quality care amongst dialysis facilities that want to participate in the Medicare program. The proposed regulation is applicable to over 4,700 Medicare-approved renal dialysis facilities and over 325,000 patients with chronic kidney disease. In addition, the proposed regulation reflects important advances in dialysis technology and standard care practices because these requirements have not been revised in their entirety since 1976. Press release from CMS.

Medicare Program; Conditions for Coverage for End Stage Renal Disease Facilities; Proposed Rule. This document appeared in HTML format and as a 50-page PDF file in the Federal Register on February 4, 2005.

Comments must be received no later than 5 p.m. on May 5, 2005.

[Page reviewed on 06/20/05.]