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 and NKF announce Public Awareness Initiative for Advancing American Kidney Health Initiative
The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) and the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) announced a new partnership with the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to work on the new Public Awareness Initiative outlined in the Executive Order on Advancing American Kidney Health. The goals are to enhance awareness of kidney disease, educate clinical professionals and spur innovation by entities serving the kidney disease community. The collaboration will provide education about the risks of kidney disease and promote the early detection, treatment and management of kidney disease to improve patient outcomes. This initiative will also share information to enhance awareness of the causes and consequences of kidney disease.
- Posted Thursday, November 14, 2019 @ 11:18 AM
ASN Calls for Transparent, Objective Organ Procurement Metrics
ASN urges the administration to expeditiously implement objective, transparent metrics to evaluate and improve organ procurement organization efforts, in support of the Advancing American Kidney Health initiative.
- Posted Monday, October 07, 2019 @ 11:52 AM
ASN's Recommendations for the Improvement of the ESRD Treament Choices (ETC) Model
ASN has evaluated the proposed ETC Model and identified "Essential Elements for Ensuring Success." The society outlines these recommendations in a comment letter to the Innovation Center of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Also, ASN joins the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) and the Renal Physicians Association (RPA) in a second comment letter outlining the five overarching issues the three organizations agree need to be addressed in the proposed rule.
- Posted Tuesday, September 17, 2019 @ 11:54 AM
Advancing American Kidney Health Initiative
The White House and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary on July 10, 2019, unveiled the Advancing American Kidney Health initiative. President Trump signed an Executive Order launching the initiative. The initiative seeks to: 1) Prevent kidney failure through better diagnosis, treatment, and preventative care. 2) Increase affordable alternative treatment options, educate patients on treatment alternatives, and encourage the development of artificial kidneys. 3) Increase access to kidney transplants by modernizing the transplant system and updating counterproductive regulations."
- Posted Wednesday, July 17, 2019 @ 10:53 AM
ASN Commends Senator Young for Introducing the Organ Procurement Optimization Act
On Tuesday, July 9, Senator Young (R-IN) introduced the Organ Procurement Optimization Act, legislation that aims to deliver more life-saving organs to patients by establishing clear, accountable metrics for organ procurement organizations (OPOs). There are currently nearly 100,000 Americans on the kidney transplant waitlist, and every day 13 Americans die waiting for a kidney transplant. Addressing this organ shortage is of paramount importance to ASN, a goal that requires objective data and clear accountability for organ procurement organizations (OPOs), which hold a critical position on the front line of organ donation. Senator Young's legislation would require standardized, objective, and verifiable metrics be established by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to assess the performance of OPOs, which are currently evaluated using metrics based on self-reported data. In a letter to Senator Young, ASN president Mark Rosenberg commended the Senator for introducing the legislation, noting that objective and verifiable metrics are necessary for the accurate evaluation of OPOs and that utilization of such metrics could lead to an improvement in the performance of OPOs and a significant increase the availability of kidneys for transplantation.
- Posted Tuesday, July 09, 2019 @ 6:53 PM
Advocating for Patient Access to EHRs
ASN has shared with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) its support for patient access to electronic health records (EHR) and interoperability between EHR systems with certain conditions to relieve clinician burden. Read the cautions ASN has raised with HHS regarding the proposed rules.
- Posted Tuesday, June 04, 2019 @ 12:08 PM
Improving Organ Procurement Metrics
ASN asks Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to adopt new objective data metrics for organ procurement organizations (OPOs), which hold a critical position on the front line of organ donation.
- Posted Wednesday, May 29, 2019 @ 4:02 PM
ASN Thanks Sponsors of Living Donor Protection Act
The Living Donor Protection Act of 2019, a longstanding priority of the ASN Policy and Advocacy Committee and the larger kidney and transplant community, has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives and Senate by Representatives Jaime Herrera-Beulter (R-WA) and Jerry Nadler (D-NY), and Senators Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) and Tom Cotton (R-AR). On February 15th, 2019, American Society of Nephrology (ASN) President Dr. Mark Rosenberg sent a letter to the lead sponsors of the legislation to commend their efforts to provide hope to the more than 700,000 Americans with kidney failure, including the nearly 100,000 people on the waitlist to receive a kidney...
- Posted Friday, February 15, 2019 @ 3:54 PM
ASN Fighting for the Six Protected Classes of Drugs
ASN is fighting proposed changes to the Medicare Part D program that would remove protections for the full range of six classes of critically important drugs - antidepressants, immunosuppressants, antipsychotics, antiretrovirals, anticonvulsants and antineoplastics. The society believes the proposed changes to Medicare Part D protected classes will make it more difficult for some transplant recipients to access the vital range of drugs used to prevent organ rejection.
- Posted Friday, January 25, 2019 @ 12:22 PM
Removing Unintended Consequences in Transplant Regulations
Responding to a Medicare proposed rule designed to relieve regulatory burden in healthcare, the ASN Quality Committee addresses the provisions relating to the process governing re-application for approval of transplant centers.
- Posted Tuesday, November 20, 2018 @ 3:26 PM
