Unification of the Voice of Nephrology Stakeholders

Kidney Care Partners is a coalition made up of representatives from the entire kidney community. Its mission is to ensure that chronic kidney disease patients receive optimal care, lead quality lives, and have ready access to dialysis care. The coalition focuses on consensus building and a community-wide cooperative effort toward developing health policy in the interest of patients. Presently, end-stage renal disease care is underfunded, and factors such as an aging population and an increase in obesity are leading to increased demands on the system. Changes in reimbursement for erythropoiesis-stimulating agents will further challenge this system. Kidney Care Partners is strongly promoting health policy through the support of the Kidney Care Quality and Education Act of 2007 (HR 1193/S 691). Among their activities is the formation of the Kidney Care Quality Initiative in an effort to bring consensus to the development of usable quality measures.

Index Words: Kidney Care Partners, Health care policy, Dialysis stakeholders, End-stage renal disease legislation