Advocacy and Public Policy
Shaping Public Policy for Nephrology Health Professionals
ASN promotes the highest quality care by serving as the professional organization informing health policy in kidney disease. Click on the magnifying glass to search by keyword or follow links at the left for more information.
ASN Input on OPTN Ethical Evaluation of Multiple Listing White Paper
ASN supported the OPTN and the Ethics Committee''s emphasis on "revising policies that entrench [health disparities]" but respectfully urged OPTN and the committee to focus their efforts to achieve this goal by reforming other aspects of the system to reduce inequities, particularly inequities in accessing multiple listing.
- Posted Tuesday, March 28, 2023 @ 1:58 PM
ASN Recommendations on OPTN Organ Offer Filter Opt-Out Proposal
ASN enumerated numerous potentially positive outcomes deriving from this proposal and detailed recommendations to avoid potential unintended consequences, such as ensuring transparency regarding programs'' organ offer filters in patient-friendly formats and monitoring for inadvertent separation of centers into conservative and aggressive centers, to prevent divides in access from deepening.
- Posted Tuesday, March 28, 2023 @ 1:38 PM
ASN and more than 30 organizations representing kidney patients, caregivers, and health professionals urge Congressional leadership to increase FY24 funding for the NIH, NIDDK, and establish a Special Statutory Funding Program for Kidney Research
In the letter, ASN and the kidney community are requesting the committees include an increase of $3.4 billion for NIH, no less than $168 million for NIDDK, and $150 million per year over 10 years for a Special Statutory Funding Program for Kidney Research to ensure continued support for people living with kidney diseases, investment in kidney research, and innovation to accelerate the development an artificial kidney.
- Posted Friday, March 24, 2023 @ 4:27 PM
ASN and NKF urge the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network to remove race from the Kidney Donor Risk Index
ASN and NKF firmly believe that race has no place in clinical algorithms used to evaluate organ suitability and request that OPTN share a plan for developing and a deadline for implementing a race-neutral KDRI equation.
- Posted Monday, March 20, 2023 @ 1:30 PM
ASN Calls on OPTN to Clarify Plans for Living Kidney Donor Prioritization
ASN urges OPTN to immediately clarify how OPTN envisions prioritizing living donors. ASN implores OPTN to continue to honor commitments to ensure rapid access to a kidney to prior living kidney donors and extend that commitment to future living kidney donors, should the donors ever need a kidney transplant themselves.
- Posted Thursday, March 16, 2023 @ 2:32 PM
NKF & ASN comments on AHRQ''s report-
In the letter, ASN and NKF reiterate their commitment to the final report released by the NKF-ANS joint Task Force on Reassessing the Inclusion of Race in Diagnosing Kidney Diseases that recommended a race-free approach to the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equation as well as the use of cystatin-C to confirm estimate kidney function. ASN and NKF applaud AHRQ for its synthesis of key literature on the impact of healthcare algorithms on racial and ethnic disparities in health and healthcare. ASN and NKF also expressed agreement with AHRQ''s list of mitigation strategies and pledge to collaborate with the greater medical community to promote awareness of the potential risk associated with the use of race in algorithms. Finally, ASN and NKF stressed that more urgent work remains to remove the inappropriate use of race throughout kidney medicine, particularly regarding the Kidney Donor Risk Index/Kidney Donor Profile Index and Cystatin C Implementation.
- Posted Tuesday, March 14, 2023 @ 4:10 PM
ASN Calls on CMS to Collect Pre-Waitlisting Data and Improve the 2728 Form
In the letter, ASN urges CMS to revisit the classification system of the ICD-10 structure, clarify laboratory testing prior to dialysis, and calls for discussion with the kidney community about how to capture data relating to issues such as housing insecurity, transportation barriers, and indicators of social economic status. ASN also urges CMS to engage in a broader evaluation of all the possible tools it has at its disposal to collect data on pre-transplant referral and evaluation, data on demographics and social determinants of health, and data at the dates of referral for transplant and dates of transplant evaluation.
- Posted Tuesday, March 14, 2023 @ 10:56 AM
ASN and more than 40 organizations urge Congress to support people living with chronic diseases by increasing funding for the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)
The NIAMS Coalition, with support from ASN, is urging appropriators to include $732 million in the fiscal year 2024 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bills highlighting the need for continued research initiatives and opportunities.
- Posted Monday, March 13, 2023 @ 1:26 PM
The Congressional Kidney Caucus sends a letter to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requesting that the Biden administration support KidneyX
In the bipartisan letter, members of Congress including, Rep. Larry Bucshon, Sen. Ben Cardin, Rep. Suzan DelBene, and Sen. Todd Young request that OMB include $25M in the president's budget for KidneyX to create a world without kidney disease.
- Posted Wednesday, February 01, 2023 @ 11:50 AM
ASN sends letter to Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) reaffirming its position that the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) and the OPTN contractor(s) have separate governance boards
In the letter, ASN urges HRSA to implement separate boards for the OPTN and any OPTN contractor(s), ensuring an optimally-functioning OPTN for the nearly 100,000 patients on the kidney transplant waitlist.
- Posted Monday, January 30, 2023 @ 10:43 AM
ASN Responds to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) Request for Comments on Hospitals Requesting Waivers for Organ Procurement Service Areas
ASN reiterated its call to CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to increase transparency regarding organ procurement organization's (OPO) process data as well as take every available step to work to increase patient access to kidney transplantation and ensure equity.
- Posted Friday, January 13, 2023 @ 2:14 PM
ASN & NKF send letter to FDA Commissioner Califf offering to help cultivate the growing interest in therapeutic development to benefit people with kidney diseases
In the letter, ASN and NKF discuss the need for therapeutic development and innovation to target kidney diseases and offer several approaches to ensure patients with kidney diseases receive valuable access to care.
- Posted Tuesday, November 08, 2022 @ 5:10 PM
Striving for Greater Equity and Quality in the Medicare ESRD Program
ASN advocates for steps to address greater equity in the Medicare End-Stage Renal Disease Program for both children and adults, increase quality efforts in home dialysis, support payment for innovation in kidney care, and bring balance to payments in the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency.
- Posted Monday, August 22, 2022 @ 5:34 PM
ASN Highlights it's Top 10 Transplant Policy Priorities
ASN urges HHS to create an office of Organ Transplant Policy and focus on 10 key priorities emphasizing Equity, Patient Care, and System Reform.
- Posted Thursday, August 11, 2022 @ 3:48 PM
ASN Responds to Health Resources & Services Administration''s (HRSA) Request for information regarding Ways to Strengthen and Improve the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN)
In the response letter, ASN highlights the need for separating the technology portion of the OPTN contract as a stand-alone contract, requiring OPTN contractors to have complete and accurate data readily available, and enforcing OPTN and contractor(s) have separate governance boards
- Posted Thursday, May 26, 2022 @ 11:23 AM
ASN and 50+ organizations request $30M in funding for the Pediatric Subspecialty Loan Repayment Program
The requested $30 million for the Pediatric Subspecialty Loan Repayment Program will lessen financial disincentives for pursuing pediatric specialty training, increase children's access to subspecialty care, and allow for shorter wait times and shorter travel distances to receive care
- Posted Thursday, May 19, 2022 @ 1:36 PM
ASN Calls on HHS Secretary Becerra to Renew COVID-19 Public Health Emergency
The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) unequivocally supports the renewal of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) and calls on the Biden-Harris Administration and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra to renew the PHE and prioritize the needs of individuals with kidney diseases. ASN urges the administration to maintain the PHE until the global pandemic has receded and the capabilities authorized by the PHE are no longer necessary.
- Posted Sunday, May 15, 2022 @ 11:32 AM
ASN and NKF urge National Government Services (NGS) to align its medical policies with recommendations from the NKF-ASN Task Force
In the letter, ASN and NKF request NGS to adopt the recommendations from the NKF-ASN Task Force, especially the recommendation to have increased, routine, and timely use of cystatin C for confirmatory assessment of kidney function.
- Posted Thursday, April 14, 2022 @ 11:31 AM
ASN Urges COVID Czar Jha to Protect People with Kidney Diseases
The American Nephrology Nurses Association (ANNA), the American Society of Nephrology (ASN), the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), and the Renal Healthcare Association (RHA), sent a letter to Dr. Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, thanking the Biden-Harris Administration for all of its work to ensure the health of all Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic—especially the 37 million Americans living with kidney diseases—and to congratulate Dr. Jha on his appointment to serve as the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator. The organizations urged Dr. Jha to keep people with kidney diseases and those that provide care in mind as the administration prepares for future COVID-19 variants and surges.
- Posted Friday, April 08, 2022 @ 3:27 PM