RPA's annual conference for advanced nurse practitioners and physician assistants working in nephrology practices is planned for July 23-24 with a pre-workshop on July 22 in New York City. RPA's program committee has planned two and a half days of content-rich sessions with knowledgeable speakers based on feedback received from previous conference attendees and input from advanced practitioners. This is a meeting you don’t want to miss. Come hear how you can make an impact on your nephrology practice. Click here to find out more.

What's New

July RPA News now available 
Log into the members only section immediately to view/download.

RPA Releases Revised Medical Director Documentation Tool
RPA revised its documentation tool for the activities involved in serving as a dialysis facility medical director to reflect the changes included in the revised Conditions for Coverage for ESRD facilities. The documentation tool provides a checklist for both the medical director responsibilities and meetings attended as part of the medical director's continuing medical education. To review the new dialysis facility medical director documentation tool, please log into the members only section. Non-members may order the documentation tool by clicking on medical director.

RPA’s Capitol Hill Day is Perfectly Timed
Just as Congress began stepping up efforts to reform the U.S. health care system, RPA convened its Capitol Hill Day on June 8th.  This year’s event drew more than 40 nephrology practitioners who descended on Capitol Hill to advocate on behalf of the specialty as well as share RPA’s principles for health care reform.  RPA’s good fortune in scheduling the program allowed for RPA members to urge lawmakers to permanently fix the Medicare physician payment system, provide a pathway for Medicare payments to outpatient dialysis facilities for non-ESRD patients requiring dialysis, as well as address other RPA legislative priorities just as lawmakers and their staff were gearing up for a busy month of health care reform debates in both the House and Senate.  RPA advocates had captive audiences in their meetings as legislators and their staff have been eager for constituent input as well as issues they can bring to the debate.  To view pictures from Capitol Hill Day, please click here. If you couldn’t join RPA in DC, please contact your legislators to invite them to your practices and/or dialysis facilities during the August recess and share RPA’s legislative priorities and issue briefs with them in their home districts.

RPA Releases New Position Paper on ESRD Bundling
In mid-May the RPA Board of Directors approved a new position paper on the Revised Composite Rate Payment Bundle for ESRD Services. Among the issues discussed in the paper are the scope of services included in the composite rate bundle, drug reimbursement and the composite rate, case-mix, modality choice, and the impact of the revised bundle on treatment of pediatric patients.  To view and download the new position paper on the composite rate payment bundle for ESRD services, please log into the members only section. The paper can also be ordered by clicking on ESRD Bundling.

RPA Representative Named to RUC
RPA is pleased to announce that at the April meeting of the American Medical Association’s Relative Value Update Committee (RUC) RPA’s RUC Advisor, Rob Kossmann, M.D. was elected to the internal medicine rotating seat on the RUC. This is the first time this position has been held by a nephrologist, which serves to raise the profile of nephrology in an important public policy venue and enhance RPA’s ability to provide the specialty’s perspective on critical reimbursement issues. Dr. Kossmann will serve a two-year appointment beginning in September 2009. Congratulations Dr. Kossmann!

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION FOR PATIENTS ON PERITONEAL DIALYSIS. RPA has learned that there is a potential for high blood glucose readings among the small number of people with diabetes who are undergoing peritoneal dialysis with icodextrin (Extraneal) and using blood glucose meters that utilize an enzyme called glucose dehydrogenase pyrroloquinolinequinone (GDH-PQQ). Please click here for full details.

RPA Releases New Dialysis Facility Medical Director Position Paper. At its March 20, 2009 meeting the RPA Board of Directors approved a new position paper on dialysis facility Medical Director responsibilities in light of the revised Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Conditions for Coverage (CFCs) for End-Stage Renal Disease facilities implemented in October 2008. The position paper offers guidance on fulfilling the responsibilities set forth in the revised CFCs, outlines principles on how RPA believes the CFCs should be applied, and provides resources to assist the dialysis facility medical director. To view the new position paper on dialysis facility Medical Director responsibilities, please log into the members only section. The paper can also be ordered by clicking here.

CMS; RPA Provide Resource Documents on New ESRD Conditions For Coverage. On October 2 CMS provided the following links to documents that offer guidance on the revised Conditions for Coverage, which will be implemented on October 14. The first is a Frequently Asked Questions document, and the second provides a crosswalk from the previous Conditions to the revised version. Further, on October 6 CMS made public a revised version of the Interpretive Guidlines for the Conditions, which can be seen through the following link: http://www.nraa.org/Documents/SC-09-01_ESRDIGs1%201_memo.pdf. In addition to these documents, RPA provides resources to assist with complying with the conditions for coverage on our Keeping Kidney Patients Safe website at www.kidneypatientsafety.org. RPA will continue to provide resources such as these to RPA membership as they become available. Look for a comprehensive article in the November issue of RPA News for more detailed information about the Conditions for Coverage and its effect on nephrologists and dialysis facility medical directors.

Medicare PQRI Program Resources

To assist nephrologists and nephrology practices in deciding whether to participate in Medicare’s Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI), RPA has developed educational resources that provide general and nephrology specific background on the program. For more information, click here.

RPA Information on Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit – Part D - Click here for more information.

Consult Letter Template - Click here to complete and download.

Click to view multimedia video on how to use the toolkit. (22 minutes)

Journal for Healthcare Quality Publishes Results of RPA CKD Toolkit Pilot Test. Read the article published in the November/December 2007 issue here.

Our Mission

RPA is a national medical specialty association with a membership comprised of physicians in the subspecialty area of nephrology and their practice managers. The organization's mission is: to promote optimal care utilizing the highest standards of medical practice for patients with renal and related diseases; to promote and protect the professional status of the discipline of nephrology and to serve as a resource for the development of national health policy affecting renal physicians and their patients.