Medicare will pay dialysis providers more per treatment next year. In the Charleston area, that money goes to three operators.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services set the 2027 base payment for a dialysis treatment at $297.52, up from $281.71 this year, in a final rule published in the Federal Register on Oct. 30. The rule takes effect Jan. 1.
Part of the increase comes from folding oral drugs called phosphate binders into the base rate, which added $12.85, according to the rule.
CMS estimates that its total payments to dialysis facilities will rise 2.7% in 2027, or about $190 million. Patients’ coinsurance will rise by the same percentage, or about $50 million nationally, the agency estimated.
CMS’s dialysis facility listing, released Oct. 28, shows 21 dialysis facilities in Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties, including three home dialysis programs, with 345 dialysis stations among them. Fresenius Medical Care operates nine, DaVita seven and Dialysis Clinic Inc. five.
CMS lists every Fresenius and DaVita site as for-profit. It lists four of the five Dialysis Clinic Inc. sites as nonprofit.
By stations, Fresenius has 152, Dialysis Clinic Inc. 97 and DaVita 96. Fresenius’ largest local site is FMC RAI Care Centers Charleston, with 26 stations, according to the listing.
CMS also rates dialysis facilities from one to five stars. Of the 20 Charleston-area facilities with a rating, nine have one or two stars, eight have three stars and three have four or five. The two five-star facilities are home dialysis programs run by Fresenius and DaVita in Summerville.
The only one-star facility in the three counties is Fresenius Medical Care North Charleston, a 20-station clinic, the listing shows.
The rule also raises Medicare’s payment for dialysis for patients with acute kidney injury. CMS projects a 5.4% increase in those payments for 2027.
