ROCKVILLE, Md., Nov. 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The American Kidney Fund (AKF) today announced the Patient Access Initiative, a new effort to better understand and address ongoing health care access issues faced by people with kidney disease, including rare kidney disease, and their caregivers.
“We know that a significant number of kidney disease patients have challenges accessing the proper care necessary to appropriately treat their chronic kidney disease, including kidney failure,” said LaVarne A. Burton, AKF President and CEO. “We need to closely examine these obstacles, which can lead to life-threatening gaps in care, and develop actionable solutions so that we can slow the progression of kidney disease. Our new Patient Access Initiative represents a critical step toward addressing the crisis in kidney disease in America.”
A multi-year effort, AKF will host an in-person Patient Access Summit in 2023 with the following objectives:
- Identifying existing, widespread obstacles and challenges to achieving patient access to innovative and effective treatments across the kidney care spectrum
- Collecting insights on the challenges patients and caregivers face while navigating public and private insurance coverage
- Understanding current resources used by patients and caregivers to get information about access to innovative and effective treatments
- Improving recognition of how racial, ethnic and socioeconomic challenges affect a patient’s ability to access and afford innovative and effective treatments
- Creating strategies for improving provider education about new treatment innovations and equipping providers with tools to help patients access those innovations when approved
- Developing public policy solutions to patient access and affordability issues
AKF will establish a steering committee of public policy experts, advocacy professionals, industry stakeholders, health care providers and patients with experience in this area to review the current landscape, discuss barriers and solutions and help plan the summit and make recommendations for a path forward.
Initial funding for the Patient Access Initiative is made possible thanks to generous seed support from Travere Therapeutics, as well as Leadership Sponsor Novartis, Champion Sponsors Horizon Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and Supporting Sponsor Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease. Other sponsors are anticipated to join this growing effort.
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About the American Kidney Fund
The American Kidney Fund (AKF) fights kidney disease on all fronts as the nation’s leading kidney nonprofit. AKF works on behalf of the 37 million Americans living with kidney disease, and the millions more at risk, with an unmatched scope of programs that support people wherever they are in their fight against kidney disease—from prevention through transplant. With programs that address early detection, disease management, financial assistance, clinical research, innovation and advocacy, no kidney organization impacts more lives than AKF. One of the nation’s top-rated nonprofits, AKF invests 97 cents of every donated dollar in programs, earning the highest 4-Star rating from Charity Navigator for 20 years in a row as well as the Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid, formerly GuideStar.
For more information, please visit KidneyFund.org, or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
