U.S. Medicare program leaves 2014 dialysis payments unchanged

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U.S. Medicare program leaves 2014 dialysis payments unchanged

(Reuters) - Medicare, the U.S. government healthcare program for elderly and disabled people, will leave its overall reimbursement rates for kidney dialysis treatment unchanged for next year, and said it will take three to four years to implement a mandated adjustment to its base rates. The rates, announced on Friday by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that sets reimbursement rates for Medicare, come on top of a 2 percent reduction that kicked in earlier this year under automatic cuts to federal spending. The agency said the rates reduce Medicare payments by 1.05 percent - the combined effects of an increase in the home health payment update percentage of 2.3 percent, offset by a decrease of 2.7 percent - the result of adjustments required by the Affordable Care Act - and a 0.6 percent decrease due to a refinement of the payment system. Fresenius Medical Care AG, or FMC, and DaVita Healthcare Partners Inc are the largest dialysis providers in the United States.

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