Hearing: "Kidney Dialysis Patients: A Population at Undue Risk?"
Date: Monday, June 26, 2000
Media availability 1 p.m. in 628 Dirksen Senate Office Building
time/location:
Hearing time/ 1:30 p.m. in 628 Dirksen Senate Office Building
location:
Description: Thousands of Americans must undergo regular kidney dialysis to survive. The number of dialysis patients is skyrocketing as the nation ages. These patients receive their treatment at clinics across the country. Medicare pays for kidney dialysis. As a result, the federal government is charged with ensuring that dialysis patients receive good quality of care. Several dialysis patients and advocates believe the government is neglecting that duty, and charge that patients are suffering as a result. A new General Accounting Office report concludes that government oversight of kidney dialysis is indeed lacking, and the consequent lack of the right data makes it impossible to quantify how much patients are suffering.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Special Committee on Aging, and Sen. John Breaux, ranking member, will convene a hearing to explore the hardships that dialysis patients endure and the options for improving the government's oversight. Witnesses include two dialysis patients who will describe problems including untrained, unqualified dialysis staff; ever-decreasing amounts of dialysis; the questionable re-use of sensitive medical equipment; and a flawed patient grievance process.
Note: Sen. Grassley will hold a media availability immediately prior to the hearing to release the General Accounting Office report and field questions.
Witness List
Panel I
W. Kenneth Bays, D.D.S., Dialysis Patient, Pelham, Ga.
Brent Smith, Dialysis Patient, Chandler, Ariz.
George Grob, Deputy Inspector General, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C.
William Scanlon, Ph.D., Director, Health Financing and Public Health Division, General Accounting Office, Washington, D.C.
Panel II
Terry Bahr, President, National Renal Administrators Association, Reston, Va.
William F. Owen, Jr., M.D., President, Renal Physicians Association, Rockville, Md.
Jay Wish, M.D., President, Forum of End Stage Renal Disease Networks, Midlothian, Va.
Jeffrey L. Kang, M.D., Director, Office of Clinical Standards and Quality, Health Care Financing Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C.