Medicaid Program; State Flexibility for Medicaid Benefit

This e-mail is to oppose the proposal of allowing each State the ability to decide whether or not to provide Medicaid non-emergency transportation. This would be devastating to dialysis patients nationwide. Many medicaid patients are using this free transportation to and from dialysis. If the States are given a choice and they decide to cancel these services, then the dialysis patients will have no way of receiving their life-sustaining treatment. Most have no other way to get to their thrice weekly treatment. These patients will end up in the hospital without their dialysis treatments. Hospitalization costs will increase dramatically.Mortality rates will increase. Please do not allow this proposal to go through. Sincerely, Diane Halperin Davita Dialysis Social Worker