Texas attemps to offer access to quality dialysis care

Sep 18 2009

Local officials, physicians and patients in need of local dialysis care expressed encouragement over what appears to be a thawing of a certification logjam of dialysis facilities across the state of Texas, though remain concerned over 38 which still remain idling to many for more than a year – to the detriment of local jobs and patients in dire need of better access to quality dialysis care.

“The bottom line is that our federal and state officials have worked very well together to help initiate the critical certification process necessary to open 22 new dialysis centers across Texas, but 38 facilities are idling because the process itself has fallen behind the legitimate demand generated by the marketplace,” said Jess Hall, President of the Texas Division of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF). “Those being impacted by this phenomenon are local communities needing more available jobs in a high unemployment economy, and prospective patients themselves who need access to local dialysis treatment.”

Texas Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison – working with working with Dallas-area Representatives Michael Burgess (R-Lewisville), Louis Gohmert (R-Tyler), Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth), Ralph Hall (R-Rockwall), Jeb Hensarling (R-Dallas), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Dallas), Sam Johnson (R-Plano), Kenny Marchant (R-Coppell) and Pete Sessions (R-Dallas) – recently led a bipartisan Texas congressional delegation letter-writing effort to officials of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in Washington, D.C. spotlighting the fact that many local dialysis facilities were facing certification backlog delays of up to 18 months. “These delays cause severe challenges for Texas Medicare beneficiaries’ access to care, as well as threaten the viability of these facilities as part of the Texas economy,” warned their letter. Federal officials then worked with the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), resulting in the recent initiation of the certification process necessary to open 22 new dialysis centers across the state.

But local officials, physicians and those in need of dialysis treatment say the same rationale that helped initiate the certification process for the original 22 facilities is still applicable to the remaining 38 facilities – one of which is in Plano, Texas – and asked that the inspection process be expedited.

“Our responsibility as dialysis care providers is to meet the health care needs of our community,” said Kathy Baxley, facility administrator at DaVita Plano Dialysis Center. “Kidney disease and kidney failure are at epidemic levels, and we are able to help locally by providing state-of-the-art facilities and skilled labor to care for Plano’s citizens. But unfortunately, our hands are tied as we sit back and continue to wait.”

Ethel Powell, whose husband is currently on regular dialysis treatment at another facility in Collin County, said, “The Plano facility is close enough to our home that my husband would be able to drive himself for treatment three times a week. Instead, I have had to change my work schedule to be able drive him to and from a facility that is farther away for his care, which doesn’t make much sense.”

According to 2008 estimates, more than 32,000 Texans suffering from ESRD – also known as kidney failure – rely on dialysis to perform the life-saving function of filtering their blood when their kidneys are no longer able to do so. Dialysis treatments also improve patients’ health by removing excess salt and water from the body; helping to control blood pressure; and keeping a safe level of essential chemicals – such as potassium, sodium and bicarbonate – in the body.