Dear Friend,

The American Kidney Fund appreciates the opportunity to work with thousands of advocates like you who have or are affected by kidney disease.

In 2019, we provided financial assistance grants to nearly 87,000 people through our charitable premium assistance, disaster relief and safety-net programs. We also screened over 12,000 people for kidney disease at health fairs and kidney action days across the country. Thank you for being our partner in the fight against kidney disease!

Legislative Activity

This past year we worked on a number of bills that will help people with kidney disease. Below are several bills that are important to the American Kidney Fund and the patients we serve that we are continuing to support in 2020. Please take a couple minutes to send personalized messages to your members of Congress by clicking the links below.

• The Living Donor Protection Act of 2019 (H.R. 1224/S. 511) aims to ensure living organ donors are able to find insurance and have job protection when they take the necessary time off for the lifesaving procedure of donating an organ. The Living Donor Protection Act has 80 cosponsors in the House and 18 cosponsors in the Senate.
  Ask Congress to support the Living Donor Protection Act
  
  
• The Chronic Kidney Disease Improvement in Research and Treatment Act of 2019 (H.R. 3912/S. 1676) aims to improve the lives of those with kidney disease. The legislation would increase awareness of kidney disease, expand preventative services, improve care coordination and bring more nephrologists to underserved areas. The Chronic Kidney Disease Improvement in Research and Treatment Act of 2019 has four cosponsors in the House and two cosponsors in the Senate.
  Ask your U.S. Representative and Senators to cosponsor comprehensive kidney legislation
  
  
• The Medigap Consumer Protection Act of 2019 (H.R. 1394/S.2428) would require Medigap insurers to offer all Medigap plans to Medicare beneficiaries under the age of 65. Medigap is Medicare supplemental insurance to cover the costs that Medicare does not pay, such as copayments, coinsurance and deductibles. For dialysis patients covered by Medicare without a Medigap plan, medical bills could easily cause bankruptcy. In twenty states, dialysis patients under the age of 65 on Medicare are not guaranteed a Medigap plan. All Medicare beneficiaries deserve access to a Medigap plan regardless of age. The Medigap Consumer Protection Act of 2019 has 27 cosponsors in the House and one in the Senate.
  Urge your Members of Congress to cosponsor the Medigap Consumer Protection Act of 2019
  
  
• The Comprehensive Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage for Kidney Transplant Patients Act of 2019 (H.R. 5534) would lift the three-year limit on Medicare coverage of immunosuppressive drugs for people who have had a kidney transplant. After three years, if the patient is under the age of 65, Medicare will no longer cover the individual or their needed medications. In cases where kidney failure patients cannot find alternative health insurance and they can't afford to pay for their immunosuppressive drugs out-of-pocket, they don't have access to the drugs and ultimately lose their kidney. The bill has 14 cosponsors in the House, and we are expecting a companion bill in the Senate to be introduced this year.
  Urge your elected officials to support immunosuppressive drug legislation
  
  
• Surprise medical bills are health care bills that patients didn’t know were coming. The issue stems from when consumers choose in-network hospitals and believe that the physicians who work at the hospital are in-network when they are not. These bills for out of network providers can be much higher than normal copays or coinsurance that consumers pay, and they have led to financial hardship and even ruin for some patients. Lawmakers continue to work on legislation that protects patients from the potential of massive medical debt by holding them financially harmless.
  Urge Congress to enact legislation that protects kidney patients from "Surprise Bills"
  
  
• Congress included funding for KidneyX at $5 million at the end of 2019. KidneyX is the Kidney Innovation Accelerator, a public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the American Society of Nephrology that seeks to accelerate innovation in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of kidney diseases. these grants to private companies that will spur innovation in kidney care.
  Contact your members of Congress to thank them for funding KidneyX
  
  

Administration Activity

In July 2019, the President signed an Executive Order launching the Advancing American Kidney Health initiative, which aims to increase efforts to prevent, detect and slow the progression of kidney disease; provide patients with kidney disease with more options for treatment; and deliver more organs for transplant.

The American Kidney Fund submitted comments on the proposal to make home dialysis more readily available and also made recommendations that we believe will better ensure patient choice and quality of care, increase patient education and better measure the patient experience.