HHS Launches National Plan To Expand Home Dialysis, Transplant Reform

HHS announced the Kidney Care National Plan, a three-pronged initiative aimed at preventing kidney failure, expanding home-based dialysis treatment, and reforming the organ transplantation system including the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the plan targets what he called an anticompetitive dialysis market shaped by burdensome regulation. The initiative builds on a 2019 executive order that pushed Medicare payment incentives for home dialysis, which HHS says helped raise home dialysis use from 10.5% in 2017 to 16% in 2023. Medicare spending on end-stage renal disease patients hit $55.3 billion in 2023, underscoring the cost pressure driving the shift toward home-based care.

LTSS · Finance