SR1741 99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR1741 LRB099 21314 MST 47053 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), also known as kidney failure, currently impacts 661,000 Americans, and more than 89,000 Americans die from ESRD annually; and

WHEREAS, More than 115,000 new ESRD cases are diagnosed each year and more than 5,100 of those live in Illinois; and

WHEREAS, Dialysis or a kidney transplant are the only treatments for ESRD; 70% of ESRD patients are on dialysis; and

WHEREAS, When dialysis is the method of treatment, a patient can obtain treatment in their home with either home hemodialysis (HHD) or peritoneal dialysis (PD); transportation to a dialysis center 3 times a week for hemodialysis is also an option; and

WHEREAS, Home dialysis provides significant economic and lifestyle advantages such as greater autonomy and flexibility over when a patient dialyzes; it reduces dependence on transportation, as there is no travel to a clinic for treatments, and is therefore more conducive for work, which is demonstrated by higher rates of employment among home dialysis patients; and

WHEREAS, The first three months of dialysis cost, on average, upwards of $43,000 per patient; and

WHEREAS, Access to a home dialysis training program allows for Medicaid patients to move to Medicare as their primary payer on day one of treatment, not at month four, which is called the "Medicare waiting period" and therefore saves the State of Illinois significant costs; and

WHEREAS, The three-month Medicare waiting period creates significant costs for states; if there are 1,000 new Medicaid cases of ESRD in Illinois, this could mean as much as $43 million in annual Medicaid costs during the waiting period; and

WHEREAS, Only 10% of dialysis patients receive treatment at home; and

WHEREAS, ESRD disproportionately affects minority Americans; incidence among African Americans are 3.7 times greater than in caucasians; and

WHEREAS, Hispanic patients are 13% less likely to receive PD and 37% less likely to receive HHD, while African American patients are 29% less likely to receive PD and 17% less likely to receive HHD; and

WHEREAS, There is less home hemodialysis and home training in poorer counties, and counties with fewer minorities offer greater access to home hemodialysis; and

WHEREAS, There are other barriers that preclude many patients from accessing home dialysis which include the lack of sufficient provider education about home dialysis, insufficient reimbursement for home dialysis, limited patient awareness of the home modality, and potentially burdensome requirements for care partner support; most of these barriers were also noted in a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued in the fall of 2015; and

WHEREAS, Policymakers can alleviate these burdens by focusing on telehealth, medical waste laws, and reimbursement; they can enable and encourage providers to offer more home dialysis to more of their patients and to provide a pathway for staff-assisted home hemodialysis; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we recognize the importance of equal access to all dialysis modalities for End Stage Renal Disease to preserve State funds by enabling more patients who can benefit from home dialysis to receive access; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we urge State agencies and policymakers to implement policies to decrease the lack of access to home dialysis modalities, which disproportionately affects African-Americans and other minorities, by improving access to home dialysis; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be delivered to Governor Rauner, Senate President James Cullerton, Speaker of the House of Representatives Michael Madigan, Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, and House of Representatives Minority Leader Jim Durkin.