Physicians, Advocates Seek Changes To Medicare ESRD Coverage.

In an article titled "Strange Financial Logic Of Medicare Kidney Coverage," thePhiladelphia Inquirer  (10/16, Osborne) reports on the "campaign by patients, doctors, and public-health advocates to change a government health program they say allows low-income patients to lose their transplanted kidneys needlessly -- the medical equivalent of buying a car and then refusing to pay for an oil change." While Medicare covers dialysis for patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD), as well as kidney transplants for these patients, it only covers three years of immunosuppression drugs following a transplant. After this three-year period, some patients stop taking the drugs, and end up with a failing kidney, which requires them to undergo more treatment. According to the Inquirer, "after years of failed efforts, the policy has almost taken on a mythical status in the annals of curious government policy." Legislation "introduced last year and stalled in Congress would extend coverage of the post-transplant drugs indefinitely."