A United States court stayed an order to prevent dialysis patients from using charitable assistance to buy private insurances. The new rule is not fair to dialysis patients and dialysis providers. It will limit and discriminate the dialysis patients if their insurances do not cover dialysis treatment. Dialysis providers will have the tendency of being underpaid by the patients if the insurance company refuses to cover dialysis services.
Dialysis is a medical treatment and service that requires long-term treatment. If a dialysis patient is financially incapable, the expensive treatment becomes unaffordable. The patient eventually passes away. According to a report in Metro, the preliminary hold order will stand until the court changes it, said Fresenius Medical Care (FMC).
This is the reason why Charitable Institutions allow assistance to dialysis patients who can't afford the full services of the treatment. Despite this aid from donors, t
he assistance provided is not enough to see the dialysis patient through. To make ends meet, the patients seek the help of private insurance companies for coverage augmentation. They purchase insurance policies that cover dialysis treatment.
The new law provides that dialysis patients will prevent the use of charitable assistance to buy insurance from private companies. It will require the dialysis providers to disclose to insurers, information regarding the source of the charitable assistance. The insurers will not sell their products to dialysis patients if this is the case, according to a report in an article of Reuters.
The court injunction of the new order comes as good news for the dialysis providers, Fresenius Medical Care, DaVita Inc., and the United States Renal Care Inc. These dialysis companies providing medical treatment will have the tendency to fail in giving full service to dialysis patients.
With the high cost of dialysis treatment, reaching to up to $100,000 per year, the best option is commercial insurance. The expense of premium often goes beyond the capacity of dialysis patients. The providers' option is to file suit to prevent under servicing and affordability extended to the sick, as stated in an article in Law 360
.
