have had end-stage renal disease since 1968 and spent 12 years on dialysis until I was fortunate enough to receive a kidney transplant. (tell your story)

Individuals with kidney failure face a life-time of dialysis, if they are not fortunate enough to receive a kidney transplant. Because of the shortage of organs, most of the more than 400,000 Americans with kidney failure must receive dialysis treatments a minimum of three times a week. The two primary causes of kidney failure are hypertension and diabetes.

On February 27, 2007, Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) along with Representatives Dave Camp (R-MI) and John Lewis (D-GA) introduced a new bill called the “Kidney Care Quality and Education Act of 2007” (KCQEA 2007), bill numbers S. 691 and H.R. 1193 respectively. The bill is also support by Senator Barbara Boxer.

During the 109th Congress, a similar sounding bill called the “Kidney Care Quality and Improvement Act of 2005” had been introduced. Although there were 223 co-sponsors for both the House bill (H.R. 1298) and Senate bill (S. 635) combined, because the bill was not passed before the end of the 109th Congressional session, the bill language was updated and introduced under its new name and bill numbers.

The Kidney Care Quality and Education Act seeks to ensure that individuals with kidney disease have access to high-quality dialysis and education services.

The KCQEA 2007 contains provisions that are of importance to patients. A simple way for patients and patient advocates to remember these provisions is: HEART.

Home dialysis: seeking to understand the barriers to the adoption of different treatment modalities by patients.

Education: providing educational sessions for Medicare beneficiaries with Stage IV CKD to teach them how to slow the progression of the disease.

Awareness: creating public and patient education initiatives to increase awareness about CKD and to help patients learn self-management skills that prevent and control CKD.

Reimbursement: establishing a three-year Continuous Quality Improvement Initiative that would reward providers for quality improvement and outcomes. If the provider meets these goals, they receive a bonus.

Technicians: establishing a uniform training for patient-care dialysis technicians.

The bill has the strong support of the patient advocacy community and providers, including Renal Support Network, Kidney Care Partners, National Kidney Foundation, the American Kidney Fund, the American Nephrology Nurses Association, the Renal Physicians Association, Abbott Laboratories, Amgen, and Baxter Healthcare Corporation.

Congress made a commitment to help Americans in 1972 with this disease by providing Medicare coverage for dialysis treatments. Since that time, there have been many medical advances. Yet, the Medicare Program has failed to keep pace with these changes. Working together, we must act now to update the program to ensure better care for them and, in turn, improve their quality of life and rehabilitation.

I look forward to meeting you. Thank you so much for your interest and support.

Sincerely,

[Your name, address, telephone number, email address, and signature here]