As part of the Medicare Conditions for Coverage, dialysis providers are expected to collaborate with ESRD Networks on specific objectives each year to improve quality of life and outcomes for dialysis patients in their care.
CMS Announces the CY 2025 ESRD PPS Final Rule is Published
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announces that the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Prospective Payment System (PPS) Final Rule for calendar year (CY) 2025 is published online at the Federal Register.
Each year, CMS issues a final rule to update the Medicare payment policies and rates for renal dialysis services furnished to beneficiaries. Additionally, this rule finalizes updates to the ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP) requirements, including the replacement of the Kt/V Dialysis Adequacy Comprehensive Clinical measure with a Kt/V Dialysis Adequacy measure topic.
For additional information, use the following links:
Federal Register: The final rule is displayed online at the Federal Register.
Additional information about the ESRD QIP is available on CMS.gov.
Health Equity and CLAS
Health Literacy
Personal health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others. Healthcare organizations should assume that anyone may have difficulty understanding healthcare information and navigating the healthcare environment.
There are many resources available for Health Literacy screening, both informal and formal assessments. Consider adopting Health Literacy Universal Precautions. Learn more:
The HHS Office of Minority Health (OMH) has released its 2024-2026 Language Access Plan that outlines strategies to advance language access in policies, programs, and operations. Read the plan to learn more about OMH’s commitment to facilitating meaningful access to resources for persons with limited English proficiency (LEP). Check out the 2023 HHS Language Access Plan to learn about broader departmental efforts to support individuals and communities with LEP, and access LEP resources in multiple languages.
Visit OMH’s Language Access webpage to learn more about language access initiatives and find other language access resources.
On November 7, 2024, the old personnel screens in EQRS were discontinued and replaced with a simpler set of screens- one for facility contacts and a separate one for medical personnel (physicians who sign the forms).
Medical personnel duplicates were removed based on the physician's NPI number. All other non-medical contacts were deleted. Facilities need to re-enter their facility contact information no later than December 31, 2024. This information is critical, as your email addresses are the key to ALL Network communications to you.
CMS has made an adjustment to the date of death field on Form CMS-2746. Effective October 21, 2024, the date of death field cannot be edited directly on the Form CMS-2746 screen in EQRS. Changes to the date of death field must be made in the Medical Information section on the Patient screen in the patient's record in EQRS.
Decreasing Hospital Admissions and Emergency Department (ED) Visits
ED visits, hospital admissions, and readmissions are frequent among ESRD patients. Working to decrease the utilization of hospital services among this population can decrease cost and improve patient outcomes. Frequent hospital visits are not just a dialysis clinic or hospital problem; they are a community problem and all providers in the community have a role in providing high quality, coordinated and patient-centered care that prevents avoidable hospital stays. The Qsource ESRD Networks have provided this Hospitalization Hub as a resource to share best practices and tools to assist in the effort to reduce ED visits, hospital admissions and readmissions.
Antibiotic Stewardship Week November 18-24, 2024
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that research shows at least 30% of patients on hemodialysis treated in the United States receive intravenous (IV) antibiotics at least once per year. Qsource ESRD Networks would like to encourage dialysis facilities to work towards implementing best practices in antibiotic stewardship to combat antibiotic resistance and ensure patients are receiving the appropriate antibiotics needed to fight infections.
Do you need tailored interventions to help your facility decrease hospitalizations and emergency visits? Book an appointment with a Quality Improvement advisor now.
Vaccinations are proven to be a vital aspect of maintaining health. They protect us from diseases that are serious and sometimes deadly. Many patients and healthcare staff may wonder why it is that they have to receive vaccines to prevent diseases, and having questions about the unknown is normal. Patients who receive hemodialysis have been identified by the CDC as a high-risk population for which vaccination is recommended. To assist you in making an informed decision, Qsource ESRD Networks are happy to provide resources to answer questions that are commonly asked.
Do you need tailored interventions to help your facility decrease hospitalizations and emergency visits? Book an appointment with a Quality Improvement advisor now.
The Forum of ESRD Networks’ Kidney Patient Advisory Council (KPAC) has put together a Thanksgiving Campaign to show gratitude for healthcare providers this season. There are two posters—one that can be displayed alongside either of the postcards that patients can use to write messages of gratitude to their healthcare providers and one that can be a standalone Thanksgiving poster for display in the facility. They are available in both English and Spanish. Please consider sharing photos of your Thanksgiving Campaign with us at Qsource-Peers@qsource.org so that we can share in our Peer Memo and on social media.
Take our Transplant Self-Assessment today! Then book Technical Assistance (TA) with a Quality Improvement Advisor for tailored interventions to meet your clinic’s individual needs.
The proposed IOTA Model aims to increase access to life-saving transplants for patients living with kidney disease and reduce Medicare expenditures. This model would focus on encouraging transplant hospitals to use more of the kidneys that become available for transplantation and facilitate more transplants from living donors.
This material was prepared by Qsource, an End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Network under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Views expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the official views or policy of CMS or HHS, and any reference to a specific product or entity herein does not constitute endorsement of that product or entity by CMS or HHS. 24.ESRD.11.201
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