First National Phosphorus Awareness Day is April 5, 2024

Medicare Phosphorus Drug Proposal Undermines Kidney Health Goals

WASHINGTON, April 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP), the oldest and largest unbiased kidney affected person shopper group within the U.S., is elevating public consciousness on April 5, National Phosphorus Awareness Day, in regards to the devastating impacts of unmanaged phosphorus ranges in people with superior persistent kidney illness (CKD).

Through AAKP’s Center for Patient Research and Education, the Association will launch a grassroots training effort by way of its subtle nationwide social media and e-mail advertising and marketing platforms to teach hundreds of thousands of at-risk Americans and their households on the significance of managing their phosphorus consumption and ranges.

Kidney sufferers are at an elevated danger for top phosphorus (termed hyperphosphatemia) because of their decreased kidney operate and an incapacity to excrete extra vitamins, together with phosphorus. Among these sufferers, phosphorus can accumulate to poisonous ranges. Hyperphosphatemia typically has no signs, and if undetected, can enhance the danger of seizures, stroke, coronary heart assault, and even dying. Approximately 80% of patients on dialysis require phosphate-lowering remedy on prime of a modified, low phosphorus diet. Hyperphosphatemia is outlined as a serum phosphorus stage larger than 4.5 mg/dL. To reinforce the 4.5 mg/dL marker, AAKP is marking April 5 (4/5/2024) the perfect goal for the primary National Phosphorus Awareness Day.

In 2019, AAKP launched the Decade of the Kidney™ to arrange larger public consciousness of kidney-related points and the overwhelming unmet affected person wants for larger investments and improvements in new kidney medication, diagnostics, and gadgets that may assist transcend outdated, high-mortality establishment kidney care. Kidney sufferers are medically advanced and sometimes handle a number of co-related well being circumstances together with hyperphosphatemia, hyperkalemia, CKD associated pruritis (CKD-aP), and more. 

The nationwide, bipartisan coverage consensus for addressing kidney illness, established beneath a number of presidential administrations and a number of Congresses, prioritizes larger illness prevention, upstream illness detection and earlier intervention, higher care administration, and avoidance of preventable kidney failure and the necessity for organ transplants and/or dialysis. In 2018, AAKP launched the primary and largest non-partisan voter training and registration effort, KidneyVoter™, within the kidney neighborhood. AAKP plans to interact and mobilize over 500,000 KidneyVoters™ in 2024 to make sure points impacting the lives and livelihoods of kidney sufferers will not be missed by candidates and elected leaders.

AAKP is working carefully with advocates, the media, and federal appointed and elected officers within the Executive Branch and Congress to drive commonsense reforms in nationwide kidney care coverage and follow. More than 37 million Americans reside with kidney illnesses, greater than 800,000 have kidney failure and wish dialysis or a transplant to reside, and practically 90,000 are awaiting a kidney transplant. The prices of kidney care to the American taxpayer and well being system exceed $100 billion {dollars} a 12 months. AAKP has additionally focused Government Determinants of Health (GDoH), regulatory and fee actions the federal authorities knowingly or unwittingly take, that negatively impacts well timed affected person entry to new therapies, as a key barrier to improved kidney affected person well being outcomes and decrease mortality charges.

AAKP President Edward V. Hickey, III acknowledged, “AAKP strongly believes that physicians and patients must have choice and access to the right treatment at the right time for the right patient, especially when it comes to managing phosphorus and avoidable catastrophic health events. Our inaugural phosphorus campaign puts a laser on a Government Determinant of Health the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has created by their proposed rule to shift vital oral treatments, including phosphate lowering therapies (PLTs), into the End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Medicare Prospective Payment System (“bundle”) starting January 1, 2025. The kidney bundled payment is a relic of the decades-old, pre-innovation mindset that prioritized drug access restrictions and short-term cost controls over long-term patient outcomes and taxpayer savings. We encourage all kidney patients and professionals to immediately call their elected leaders and demand that CMS abandon their proposed rule, recommit themselves to improved kidney patient health, and stop interfering with phosphorus management therapies.” Hickey is a U.S. Marine Corps Veteran, Chair of AAKP’s Veterans Health Initiative, and has an expert background that features senior posts on Capitol Hill and in two presidential administrations.

Kidney sufferers and all individuals of goodwill concerned within the struggle to enhance kidney well being are making their voices heard by contacting their U.S. Senators and asking them to help a companion U.S. Senate invoice to The Kidney PATIENT Act (H.R. 5074) within the U.S. House of Representatives. The Kidney PATIENT Act would instruct CMS to delay including PLTs to the ESRD bundle till 2033 or till the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves an intravenous (IV) remedy for decreasing phosphate. AAKP nationwide affected person advocates, in shut alliance with different sufferers and medical professionals, gained robust bipartisan help for The Kidney PATIENT Act final month in markup classes of each the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee in addition to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.

“Based on AAKP’s overwhelming success main National High Potassium Awareness Day (May 1) and National Itch Day (June 3) by way of our extremely efficient “Are You O-K+” and “Stop the Itch” campaigns, AAKP is well-prepared to guide one other nationwide kidney well being training marketing campaign. On April 5, National Phosphorus Awareness Day will further support individuals affected by kidney disease and empower them to stay on top of their care and remain strong,” acknowledged Diana Clynes, AAKP’s Executive Director.

Access extra phosphorus sources together with AAKP’s Nutrition Counter and Understanding the Food Nutrition Facts Label brochures, all seven editions of AAKP Delicious! kidney-friendly recipes, and our newest webinar on The Essential Role of Diet in Kidney Health.

Since 1969, The American Association of Kidney Patients has been a patient-led group driving coverage discussions on kidney affected person care selection and medical innovation. Over the previous decade, AAKP affected person advocates have helped advance lifetime transplant drug protection for kidney transplant recipients (2020); the Presidential Executive Order on Advancing American Kidney Health (2019); new job protections for residing organ donors beneath the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) by way of the U.S. Department of Labor (2018); and Congressional laws permitting HIV-positive organ transplants for HIV-positive sufferers (2013). Follow AAKP on social media at @kidneypatient on Facebook, @kidneypatients on X, and @kidneypatients on Instagram, and go to www.aakp.org for extra info.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Jennifer Rate
Director, Communications and Digital Operations
[email protected]
(813) 400-2394

SOURCE American Association of Kidney Patients