KT/V ORDERED BY MEDICARE?

[TaffyTwoshoes27]

I recently received a call from my Fresenius Kidney Care PD Home Therapy Clinic indicating that Medicare has requested ALL PD patients to submit to a Kt/V test this month. I have had so many kt/vs since January that I have started to complain. Kt/V tests are usually required only every 3 months from a patient. I did one in June 2020. However, the Clinic said for this "Medicare-required Kt/V", I did not have to be bring in a 24-hour urine sample but only the drain bags from the treatment from the night before the appointment. This too is confusing to me because an accurate test for dialysis effectiveness needs the urine and the drain bags to get the results of the KT/V.

Has anyone else been told that Medicare made this request for ALL Dialysis Clinics (or just FMC?) PD patients?

I changed Fresenius clinics in May 2020 because I no longer wanted to go to a clinic with hemodialysis patients being the majority. The clinic, which was also Fresenius, did not have very good protocols in place for keeping patients safe to the Corona virus pandemic.

If anyone has heard this Medicare "demand" (which has never occurred in the 4.5 yrs I've been on PD), please let me know.

[TaffyTwoshoes27]

UPDATE: I learned by talking to the FMC Office Mgr that the clinic was willing to take only the drain bags for Kt/V analysis if it has been less than 30 days since last Kt/V test.

The Office Mgr (BSN, RN) said they received a call from Medicare requesting new Kt/V labs from ALL patients because they have not been keeping track (who hasn’t? Medicare or Fresenius....I don’t know) of Kt/V results since COVID hit.

This sounds rather suspicious to me. Why can’t FMC just submit the June results?

I asked to see the written Directive or letter from Medicare explaining this, but they say they did not get one.

The Kt/V procedure is a pain in the arse, but if a patient has been asked to submit one 3 months in a row, and then FMC or Medicare (allegedly) throws out the results, that gets me a bit miffed.

I take my 24-hour urine sample and drain bags into the clinic in a standard size cooler. I live alone and it is impossible for me to pick it up and get it into the car, let alone down steps and to the car.