Miller's Kidney PATIENT Act Passes the Ways and Means Committee

Washington D.C. – Yesterday, the Kidney PATIENT Act passed 41-1 in the Ways and Means Committee. Congresswomen Carol Miller (R-WV) and Terri Sewell (D-AL) introduced the Kidney Patient Access to Technologically Innovative and Essential Nephrological Treatments (PATIENT) Act to provide access to critical care and affordable oral medicines for chronic kidney disease patients. 
 
“I was thrilled to see the Kidney PATIENT Act pass nearly unanimously out of the Ways and Means Committee and be one step closer to becoming law. This bill will provide patients with access to oral-only kidney disease therapies through their Medicare Part D benefit until 2027. Bipartisan support of the Kidney PATIENT Act from the Ways and Means Committee shows how important it is to take care of ESRD patients across the country. I look forward to the bill continuing to move forward in the House of Representatives,” said Congresswoman Miller.
 

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Remarks as prepared below:

• Thank you, Chairman Smith, for giving me the opportunity to introduce the Kidney PATIENT Act.
• With March being National Kidney Month, I can think of no better time to consider a bill that retains access to therapies for patients with End Stage Renal Disease.
• Patients with ESRD often take several drugs and supplements in addition to dialyzing multiple times a week.
• One type of drug that patients take is phosphate binders, which help patients maintain healthy levels of phosphate in their blood. These drugs help to stop cardiac events and treat bone disorder in ESRD patients – and can only be taken orally with a meal.
• Since the creation of the ESRD payment bundle, CMS has kept these drugs in Medicare Part D.
• Keeping oral-only drugs in Part D, acknowledges the difficulty that dialysis centers would face in dispensing these drugs, guarantees patients out-of-pocket spending caps, and allows patients to access these drugs at their local pharmacy.
• It also gives Congress time to review the ESRD Bundle, which is already stretched pretty thin with the many services and drugs that are reimbursed through it.
• Drugs entering the bundle can often lead to stifling of innovation – which is something Congress should continue to work to address.
• Under current law, these drugs are set to move from Medicare Part D coverage to the ESRD payment bundle in 2025.
• This bill, the Kidney PATIENT Act, will allow patients to continue to access oral-only kidney disease therapies through their Medicare Part D benefit until 2027 and require HHS to study and report on the effects of these drugs remaining out of the ESRD bundle—enabling Congress to understand what the implications would be if these drugs are to be shifted out of Part D.
• I would like to thank my good friends, Congresswomen Terri Sewell, and Suzan DelBene for all of their hard work to get this policy to a good, bipartisan place at the Ways and Means Committee, as well as Representatives Buddy Carter and Anne Kuster for their work to advance the policy at the Energy and Commerce Committee.
• I would also like to thank the kidney community, including the National Kidney Foundation, Kidney Care Partners, Kidney Care Council, and the American Society of Nephrology, for their support of this policy and tireless advocacy on behalf of the ESRD community.
• I look forward to this bill passing out of Committee favorably and continuing through regular order to reach the House floor.