The Growing Concern for Kidney Disease
At least one in seven American adults are suffering from chronic kidney disease. That’s 37 million people and 15% of the entire adult population, which is why it’s no surprise that Medicare has been spending a good chunk of its annual budget—$114 billion to be exact—towards patients with kidney diseases.
But those numbers are still set to grow in the coming years, especially with an aging population just looming around the corner. So, every step was taken by the government towards helping people with chronic kidney disease definitely matters.
Trumps Signs an Executive Order for Modernizing Kidney Disease Care
With more than 37 million Americans suffering from chronic kidney disease, 726,000 of which are with kidney failure, the need for modernizing care for kidney disease patients has never been more important.
This is why President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order that will help finally improve the quality of care for kidney disease patients for the first time in decades.
What the Executive Order means for Kidney Disease Care
Being one of the biggest health problems in the country, it’s only high time that kidney disease is given the attention that it deserves. The executive order signed by President Trump is a huge step towards making kidney disease care better through improved treatments and better funding.
Although deemed ambitious, the executive order’s goal is to reduce the number of kidney failure patients to just 25% by 2030, double the number of available kidneys for transplant by 2030 and make sure that 80% of those who develop CKD in 2025 will have access to either a kidney transplant or home dialysis.
It also requires Medicare to explore different payment models to give patients a chance to take advantage of preventive kidney care, home dialysis, and kidney transplant.
Future of Kidney Care
These are huge but important steps that could change the landscape of kidney disease care altogether. Currently, more than 100,000 kidney disease patients start dialysis each year and another 100,000 are on the waiting list for a kidney transplant.
This is why the government is targeting the development of artificial kidneys and speeding up the process of kidney matching so more people can get transplants before their condition gets worse.
The executive order also aims to introduce home dialysis instead of facility-based dialysis, which is deemed more expensive and stressful for patients.
According to Avalere Health founder Dan Mendelson, “home dialysis isn’t a full replacement for traditional dialysis, and the large chains have been preparing for this evolution for years.” The option to have dialysis at home as opposed to visiting a facility will definitely have huge benefits, although it is expected to shake things up in the business world.
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