Chronic Kidney Disease Improvement in Research and Treatment Act of 2024

This bill aims to improve the understanding of and access to treatment for chronic kidney disease through various Medicare and research provisions. It expands education, screening, and coverage options for patients, while also refining payment systems and promoting innovation in kidney care.

Sec. 101, Expanding Medicare annual wellness benefit to include kidney disease screening: This section adds chronic kidney disease screening to the list of services covered under the Medicare annual wellness benefit, effective January 1, 2025.

Sec. 102, Increasing access to Medicare kidney disease education benefit: This section expands the kidney disease education benefit to include patients with stage V disease and allows physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and clinical nurse specialists to provide these services. It also permits renal dialysis facilities to provide and be paid separately for these education services, effective January 1, 2025.

Sec. 103, Understanding the progression of kidney disease and treatment of kidney failure in minority populations: The Secretary of Health and Human Services must conduct a study on factors associated with kidney disease in minority populations and submit a report to Congress within one year.

Sec. 201, Refining the end-stage renal disease payment system to improve accuracy in payment and support therapies: This section establishes a permanent add-on payment adjustment for new renal dialysis drugs and biologicals after their transitional drug add-on adjustment period ends. It also extends the transitional drug add-on adjustment to three years for certain drugs and requires the Secretary to ensure payment for new innovative devices is adequate.

Sec. 202, Ensuring Medicare Advantage supports kidney care innovative therapies: This section requires the Secretary to make direct payment adjustments to providers and facilities under Medicare Advantage for new renal dialysis drugs and innovative equipment and supplies that receive transitional add-on payments.

Sec. 203, Improving patient lives and quality of care through research and innovation: The Secretary must conduct a study on increasing kidney transplantation rates, analyzing disincentives, donation practices, and barriers, and submit a report to Congress within 18 months.

Sec. 301, Improving patient decision making and transparency by consolidating and modernizing quality programs: This section revises the selection of quality measures for end-stage renal disease, requiring consultation with stakeholders, a minimum weighting of 10% for any single measure, and that measures be statistically valid and reliable, effective January 1, 2025.

Sec. 401, Medigap coverage for beneficiaries with end-stage renal disease: This section guarantees the availability of Medigap policies to all Medicare beneficiaries with end-stage renal disease, effective for policies on or after January 1, 2026. It also establishes a one-time enrollment period from January 1, 2026, to June 30, 2026, for eligible individuals.