Funding needed to provide the best care

The caregiving team at DaVita Cedar Rapids was honored to welcome Fred Schuster, a staffer from Sen. Chuck Grassley's office, to our facility recently. We welcomed the opportunity to speak with him about quality dialysis care and the importance of preventing any further cuts to the Medicare End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) benefit that enables us to provide lifesaving care to our patients.

As a dialysis nurse for more than 12 years, I have cared for hundreds of patients who rely on quality dialysis care due to kidney failure. I am all too familiar with the issues my patients face every day, both medically and financially.

My main concern is to provide the best care to my patients, but I simply cannot succeed without the resources needed to do so. I hope Sen. Grassley will carefully consider these patients and all of the available options before enacting further cuts to the Medicare ESRD benefit. Our patients deserve nothing less.

We thank Mr. Schuster for taking the time to visit our facility to understand kidney dialysis and hear from the patients who face challenges every day.

Tracy Seboldt

Facility Administrator

DaVita Cedar Rapids