Grady Memorial Hospital said Monday that it will spend $750,000 for its share of a deal to allow continued dialysis treatments for 38 uninsured immigrants once served by Grady.
Three private dialysis providers -- Fresenius, DaVita and Emory Healthcare -- have agreed to provide charity care to 13 of the 38 patients. Grady will pay Fresenius $750,000 to care for the other 25 patients for a year, according to Grady spokesman Matt Gove. That cost is "well below" what the company is usually reimbursed by insurers for dialysis, according to a Fresenius spokeswoman.
Grady closed its outpatient dialysis unit in October to help balance its books. The hospital said the unit was losing $4 million a year serving about 100 patients.
All of the patients covered by the deal are immigrants and most are in the country illegally. Most Americans with end-stage renal disease are covered by a special Medicare program for dialysis patients. Illegal immigrants and some legal immigrants who are new to the country are not eligible for the program.
Emory confirmed that it will provide charity care for three patients. Fresenius and DaVita will each provide free care for five patients.
"This is what we were looking for -- a coalition of providers to work together to provide the care for these patients," Gove said. "It isn’t simply Grady’s problem, it’s a community problem."
State Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, a leader of the Grady Coalition, a patient advocacy group, criticized the agreement because it does not guarantee care beyond the one-year contract. "We want a permanent solution," he said.
Gove said that Grady would continue to help the patients seek more permanent alternatives for care. "The idea that we would be criticized for extending care for a group of patients that no one is willing to support is disappointing," Gove said.
Grady will ask the dialysis patients to go through the same personal financial review that all of its uninsured patients undergo to determine how much they should pay for their care. "We don't think it's unreasonable to ask patients to contribute whatever they can to the cost of their care," Gove said.
