The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Tuesday a coordinated plan to improve the nation’s kidney care.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects more than one in 10 adults—or 37 million people—in the U.S., data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show.
The Kidney Care National Plan has three priorities: preventing kidney failure, improving dialysis care while expanding patient choice and reforming the transplant system.
Department-wide agencies will use the plan to advance policy, payment, research, regulatory and oversight actions, according to the announcement.
Moreover, HHS will use the plan to advance a National Transplant Expansion Strategy, which it says expands on a 2019 executive order from President Donald Trump. The order—entitled “Advancing American Kidney Health”—established a “federal vision” for such care, officials say.
“President Trump changed the course of kidney care in 2019 by challenging a system that waited for patients to reach kidney failure,” said Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., HHS Secretary, in a statement. “Now HHS is building on that work by detecting kidney disease earlier, expanding treatment and home-care options, removing barriers to innovation and transplantation, and strengthening safety across the transplant system. Our goal is simple: preserve kidney health, give patients more choices, and help more Americans avoid kidney failure and live longer, healthier lives.”
The National Kidney Foundation said in a statement it “welcomes” the department’s focus on improving such care.
“This plan provides an important roadmap,” the organization said. “As HHS moves from recommendations to policy, NKF looks forward to working with the Administration, Congress and the kidney community to ensure patients remain at the center—and to build a kidney care system focused not simply on managing kidney failure, but on preventing it whenever possible.”
Kidney dialysis services provider DaVita said in a statement it shares the Trump administration’s “urgency to accelerate progress for Americans living with kidney disease,” adding that the plan “reflects many of DaVita's priorities.”
“Where we differ is the suggestion that kidney care has lacked innovation or that scale stands in its way,” the company said. “Kidney care is increasingly a proving ground for technology, clinical science and new models of chronic care.”
In a statement, Fresenius Medical Care said it supported HHS’ kidney care national plan, particularly its focus on “incentivizing innovation, increasing access to home dialysis, simplifying the path to transplant, and advancing earlier intervention to slow the progression of kidney disease.”
“Many of the goals and priorities outlined in the plan reflect areas where we are already investing and driving progress, including introducing innovations such as hemodiafiltration (HDF) to the U.S., a Referral Ready program that helps streamline the transplant referral process, and continued efforts to expand access to home dialysis and other patient-centered care options. Kidney disease requires solutions across the full continuum of care, from prevention and education to advanced treatment options at home and in-center dialysis, and transplantation,” Fresenius Medical Care said.
The agency has taken steps to reform the organ transplant system in recent months.
In August, it announced it would be decertifying organ procurement organization (OPO) Network for Hope.
Kennedy said the decision was made after “extensive reviews” from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) “found persistent patient safety failures” after repeated warnings and corrective action plans.
The federally funded OPO serves Kentucky and parts of Indiana, Ohio and Virginia. Last September, HHS also announced it would decertify Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency, a division of the University of Miami Health System.
The agency first announced a “major initiative” to overhaul the U.S. organ transplant system last July, building on Congressional and Biden administration-era work on reforming the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN).