WA

I am concerned about the proposal (file code CMS-2244-P) to allow state Medicaid programs the option to stop paying for non-emergency medical transportation. This includes transportation for hemodialysis. If CMS adopts this rule it is uncertain how many states will continue paying for a Medicaid service, probably not very many. Poor, disabled patients will have difficulty keeping up with routine but life sustaining treatments and essential health care. More of these patients will use emergency rooms rather than preventive health care. This will increase total health expenditures. Patients who should not drive may be forced back on the road. More riders will be shifted to paratransit services. Are these services prepared for an increase in riders? Dialysis providers will feel the effects when Medicaid patients lose transportation for three times weekly treatments as they will be more likely to miss treatments. The unit in which I work has 100 patients. Twenty eight of them are dependent on Medicaid transportation for life-sustaining dialysis.