Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act

Key Points

• This bipartisan bill, introduced by Senators Cassidy, Booker, Cramer, and Heinrich, would stop private health insurance companies from offering worse coverage for dialysis than for other medical services. It aims to protect people with end-stage renal disease (permanent kidney failure) from being singled out by their insurance plans.
• The bill prevents insurance companies from shifting the cost of dialysis to the government-run Medicare program. By keeping private plans responsible for covering these costs, the bill helps protect taxpayer dollars and ensures patients can keep their existing private coverage.
• Insurance companies would be banned from creating benefit limits that specifically hurt people who need dialysis, including limits on network composition that disproportionately affect them. However, insurers still have the right to choose which specific dialysis clinics are in their network.
• The bill amends the Social Security Act to clarify that plans cannot differentiate benefits — or have policies that have the effect of differentiating — between people with end-stage renal disease and other enrollees.