Dialysis Facility Compare (DFC) and Dialysis Facility Reports

Dialysis Facility Compare (DFC) is an internet website that provides important information and resources for patients and family members who want to learn more about chronic kidney disease and dialysis.

How to use DFC

It can help you:

• Search for Medicare certified dialysis facilities in any State
• Compare the services offered at dialysis facilities
• Compare the quality of dialysis facilities
• Find more information and links on kidney disease and dialysis treatments.

Look at the information on Dialysis Facility Compare carefully. Use it with other information as you compare facilities and decide where to get dialysis. You should also:

• Visit facilities that interest you
• Talk to dialysis facility staff and patients
• Talk to your doctor
• Contact kidney disease groups

The phone numbers and website for some of the kidney disease groups are found in the Resources section of the DFC website.

Dialysis Facility Compare also includes links to other websites with information about chronic kidney disease, hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, pediatric dialysis, kidney transplants, and family support.

For more information, visit DFC online.
For spanish, go to Compare el Cuidado de Salud en el Hogar.

 

 

The Dialysis Facility Reports (DFR) have been produced annually since 1995 under contract to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. An individual DFR is provided to each dialysis facility in the U.S. in the interest of stimulating quality improvement efforts and facilitating the quality improvement process. The DFRs allow comparisons of the characteristics of a particular facility’s patients, patterns of treatment, and patterns in transplantation, hospitalization, and mortality to local and national averages. If you have questions about the report for your facility, please call 734-998-9823.

Previously, www.DialysisReports.org was used for accessing and commenting on DFRs. This year, it has been expanded to provide: facility access to the ESRD QIP preview and final Performance Score Reports (PSRs); to allow facilities to submit a formal inquiry and clarification questions related to their preview PSR; and to retrieve their QIP Performance Score Certificates (PSCs).

The facility’s DFR will serve three functions:

1. Advance notification of the facility’s updated quality measures to be posted on the Dialysis Facility Compare website in November 2011. This provides facilities with an opportunity to submit a comment about their DFC measures to CMS via www.DialysisReports.org. These comments will not be posted on the DFC website.
2. An alert to facilities that the DFR will be sent to the appropriate State Survey Agency (SSA) in September 2011 for the State’s use in survey activities. This provides facilities with an opportunity to comment about their entire report via www.DialysisReports.org. Their comments will be sent to the appropriate SSA appended to a copy of the DFR.
3. A tool that the facility can use in their quality improvement activities. Facilities can provide feedback to UM-KECC/Arbor Research about their DFRs, or ask clarification questions about measures and methodology via www.DialysisReports.org.

The 2011 DFR will include information regarding the purpose of the report, the inclusion criteria for the calculation of the DFC measures, and how the facility can submit comments on their DFC measures, comments that they want their SSA to receive, and general comments about the DFR that they wish to share with UM-KECC.

The updated DFC measures will be based on 2010 Medicare claims data for the Urea Reduction Ratio and hemoglobin measures and 2007-2010 CMS data for the patient survival measure (based on the standardized mortality ratio). Much of the data used in the 2011 DFR is based on Medicare claims and other CMS data from 2007-2010.

ESRD QIP PSR Preview Period  

The facility’s ESRD QIP preview PSR will serve the following functions:

1. Review of PY 2012 QIP scores, which reflect facility performance in calendar year (CY) 2010 compared to either a facility’s baseline performance in CY 2007 or the CY 2008 national average. PY 2012 QIP scores could result in a reduction of up to 2% of total Medicare payments during the year.
2. Opportunity to submit one formal inquiry (per facility) for CMS review of a specific facility’s QIP score via www.DialysisReports.org.  Facilities may also submit clarification questions. CMS will respond to all inquiries via Arbor Research.
3. Preparation for the final PSR and PSC. The PSC will be available later in the year on www.DialysisReports.org. Facilities will be required to print and post their PSC for the public to view.

Submitting Comments and Inquiries during the Preview Period

Facilities may submit comments on DFC measures or DFRs for SSAs, and QIP score inquiries and clarification questions only during the preview period. All comments and inquiries must be submitted via www.DialysisReports.org. Only authenticated users who have been granted permission by their MAHs to submit comments or QIP inquiries and/or clarification questions, will be able to perform this action.

Since this is the first year for ESRD QIP, we anticipate many first-time users of www.DialysisReports.org, and potentially more access and process questions. A log-in Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document will be available on www.DialysisReports.org, visible with or without logging into the site. It will include: instructions on logging in, what to do about forgotten MAH passwords, how to set up access for facility users under the MAH credentials, and whom to contact if their MAH is no longer working with the facility.