MOUNT OLIVE TWP. – Rep. Leonard Lance, R-7, toured the Fresenius Medical Care (FMC) Kenvil Dialysis Facility on Friday, June 5 and later announced his support for legislation that would improve care for people with chronic kidney disease.

Lance is co-sponsor of the bill, the Chronic Kidney Disease Improvement in Research and Treatment Act of 2015, H.R. 1130, S. 598).

His 7th District includes the Morris County municipalities of Mount Olive, Chester, Chester Township, Dover, Long Hill Township, Mine Hill Township, Mount Arlington, Mount Olive Township, Netcong, Roxbury Township, Washington Township and Wharton.

The Chronic Kidney Disease Improvement in Research and Treatment Act supports improvements in the research, treatment and care of chronic kidney disease to benefit more than 636,000 Americans living with kidney failure which is known as end-stage renal disease, or ESRD, according to a statement.

Of those in kidney failure, 430,000 rely on life-sustaining dialysis care to survive, including 12,616 in New Jersey. The bill also would give patients with ESRD the choice to enroll in Medicare Advantage.

“The health care team at the FMC Kenvil Dialysis Facility is delivering high quality care to patients,” said Lance, a member of the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee. “As a cosponsor of the Chronic Kidney Disease Improvement in Research and Treatment Act I am working in Congress to ensure patients have access to the important services they need.”

Donna Buglisi, clinic manager for FMC Kenvil Dialysis Facility, said the proposed legislation supports greater patient choice, coordinated research programs, and economic stability for dialysis facilities.

“We believe this legislation would strengthen the delivery of care to dialysis patients including those we treat in Kenvil as well as the millions of Americans living with kidney disease,” Buglisi said.

Advocates have long stressed that federal policies are needed to provide patient choice and to ensure access to life-sustaining dialysis, to increase research into CKD, and to create stability in Medicare’s crucial ESRD program, the statement said.

The proposed legislation would improve patient outcomes through care coordination, expand access to traditionally underserved patient populations, and set the U.S. on the path towards a cure through efficiently managed and coordinated biomedical research, the statement said.

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