NEW ORLEANS, La. (BRPROUD) — The National Kidney Foundation of Louisiana (NKFL) celebrates new legislation creating The Kidney Disease Education and Prevention Task Force. The purpose of the task force is to highlight the importance of early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of kidney disease.
Members of this task force include government, agency experts and kidney community stakeholders. The overall goal is to improve patient outcomes and lower health care expenses for the estimated 87,560 individuals on Medicare with kidney disease.
This legislation, LA HCR 87, was introduced by Rep. Robert Owens and signed by Secretary of State, R. Kyle Ardoin.
The NKFL says kidney disease affects over 460,000 adults in the state.
Annual Medicare costs for treating pre-kidney failure are $23,558 per patient, $90,323 per dialysis patient and $25,942 per transplant patient after the first year of transplant — according to the NKFL.
For more information about NKFL or how to get involved as an advocate, visit voices.kidney.org and kidneyla.org.