Accomplishments of the California Dialysis Council​

The CDC is the only ESRD organization exclusively dedicated to California dialysis issues. We are very proud of our accomplishments.

They include:

• Sponsoring legislation, which streamlined and clarified the confusing hemodialysis technician training and testing law passed in 1981.
• Sponsored legislation which authorized the administration of specified medications (e.g. heparin, saline, lidocaine) by hemodialysis technicians.
• Stopped several bills which would have prohibited reuse of dialyzers.
• Achieved many needed modifications in the State reuse regulations and worked with the Department of Health Services (DHS) to obtain a favorable interpretation of the dialyzer reuse consent law to make it clear that a patient does not have the "right" to demand a new dialyzer for every treatment when they are on a high flux dialyzer.
• Sponsored legislation, which reduced clinic licensure fees by an average of $1000 per year, per facility.
• Stopped DHS when they attempted to eliminate Medi-Cal/Medicare cross-over payments.
• Strenuously opposed and ultimately defeated several attempts by the state to eliminate non-emergency medical transportation provided to the dialysis patient under the Medi-Cal program.
• Worked with both state and federal fiscal intermediaries to improve the ESRD claims processing procedures.
• Established (1992) an administrative office to serve as a resource for the CDC membership.
• Worked with DHS and EDS to add InFed® to the Medi-Cal formulary to replace the less expensive but unavailable Inferon and to establish Medi-Cal reimbursement for EPO and Urokinase to be in line with that of Medicare.
• Established an ESRD Network Liaison committee to work with Networks 17 & 18.
• Sponsored legislation which eliminated duplicative reporting requirements of the Office of Statewide Health Planning & Development (OSHPD) as required in the State Annual Report of Clinics.
• Developed a "Managed Care Document" as an aid to facility members in the education of Managed Care Organizations regarding dialysis.
• Worked closely with ESRD Network 17 and DHS after the 1991 Northridge earthquake to educate members on disaster preparedness.
• Established liaisons with national ESRD organizations to influence federal issues.
• ESRD patients excluded from demonstration to move dually eligible Medi-Cal beneficiaries to Medi-Cal Managed Care.
• 10% Medi-Cal reduction in payments on hold as a result of CDC's participation in the Alliance for Patient Care.

Quantifying Savings
In this era of cost containment, decreasing revenues and consolidations, all expenditures must be justified, whether on the corporate or clinic level. Membership in CDC is certainly worth $600/year.
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To quantify just a few of our accomplishments (based on an 85 patient hemodialysis unit):

• Licensing fees: the decrease in licensing fees averaged over an 85 patient unit that performs 13,260 treatments per year is $0.08/treatment.
• Without Medi-Cal transportation, patients would miss treatments, resulting in lost revenue to the facility and an increase in hospitalizations. The statewide average of Medi-Cal patients is 27%. If seventeen patients have Medi-Cal and miss 10% of their treatments for a year due to ride problems, the facility loses revenue of almost $50,000 per year, or $3.75 per treatment averaged over the total treatments for the facility for the year.
• Elimination of the Medi-Cal crossover, taking into account the 20% of the composite rate, and 20% of the average amount of reimbursable medications, would amount to $44.02 lost revenue per treatment.
• Eliminating reuse of dialyzers, taking into account reprocessing equipment, supplies, and labor would still result in a loss of $13.03 per treatment.
• The legislature proposed to eliminate 12/13 of the monthly capitation fee paid to nephrologists for Peritoneal Dialysis patients. The rationale was that they were seen in clinic only once a month. Decreasing this reimbursement would have result in a loss of $6.65 per treatment averaged over 30 PD treatments per month.
• These savings add up to over $60.88 per treatment, not including the nephrologist PD fee!

Support the CDC
Where would your clinic be without the efforts of the CDC? Please support the CDC by joining your clinic as a member. Without your support, the California dialysis industry will lose its most effective advocate in Sacramento!