RPA's Unique Value to Industry Supporters:

View RPA’s list of current Corporate Patrons

View the 2024 RPA Engagement & Support Opportunities

View RPA's Corporate Patrons Standards and Levels of Support

RPA Offers Access to Nephrology Practice Thought Leaders from all Corners of the Country

• Guidance to industry partners seeking coverage for drugs and devices benefitting kidney patients; how to educate nephrology practices on the advantages of using their products; perform critical reviews in advance of Federal Agency consideration of products.
• RPA offers unique insights into nephrology practices to develop custom research projects. 

RPA Possesses Political Intelligence about National Policies and Legislation Affecting the Specialty

• Surveillance through Political Action Committee (PAC).
• Participation in AMA-led specialty meetings, ACP’s Council of Subspecialty Societies and Subspecialty Advisory Group on Socioeconomic Affairs, provides insights on legislative issues as well as regulatory policies affecting general medicine
  and nephrology.
• Rich network of contacts informs RPA senior staff about macro-level policy trends and their impact on nephrology practice.

RPA Drives Legislative and Regulatory Policies Affecting Quality and Safe Kidney Care

• RPA is acknowledged as the driving force behind the legislative provision allowing services to be provided to Medicare beneficiaries with acute kidney injury (AKI) in outpatient dialysis facilities. RPA’s position paper on AKI influenced subsequent CMS policy in this area.
  
• As the lead nephrology organization in physician measure development, RPA ensures that quality metrics in kidney disease care are feasible and not unduly burdensome to practitioners.
  

RPA Impacts CPT Code Creation and Valuation

• RPA represents nephrology at AMA’s CPT Editorial Panel where Medicare Part B services are defined and revised; and at the AMA’s Relative Value Update Committee (RUC) where all codes are valued for payment.
• RPA gets results. For example, RPA responded to a CMS solicitation on the loss of relativity between the outpatient dialysis code family and their underlying evaluation and management (E&M) building block codes that resulted in valuation increases of between 13-27% for the entire code family as part of the 2021 Medicare Fee Schedule. 
  

RPA Influences Payment and Coverage Policies

• RPA works with CDC on ICD-10 codes for kidney disease related diagnoses.
• RPA collaborated with CMS on the creation and refinement of the monthly capitated payment (MCP) codes for nephrologist services provided to ESRD patients.
• RPA works with Medicare Carrier Medical Directors to develop local coverage policies.
• RPA’s proposal for a nephrologist-focused payment model submitted to PTAC and our ongoing collaboration with CMMI on kidney payment structures helped shape the development and refinement of the AAKHI kidney payment models. 
  

Need more information? Contact the RPA office at rpa@renalmd.org or 301-468-3515 to discuss becoming part of RPA's Corporate Patron Program.