Stay Employed

I created an account on DaVita’s website even though I’m not a patient. They have a lot of information on kidney failure, dialysis, and diet. I was specifically interested in their Diet Helper™ which has a lot of recipes and nutritional information.

Today, I received an email from DaVita pointing to the Employment page of their website. Basically, the email says dialysis patients should keep working if possible because it keeps you healthier and happier. My dialysis social worker says this too. It’s better for your mental health if you can continue working instead of quitting and getting Social Security disability.

There could be another reason DaVita want their patients to keep working. 90% of their patients have Medicare as their primary insurance. Medicare reimbursement is pretty low so all their profit comes from the 10% with private insurance. I know I pay about 10x the Medicare rate to St. Joseph Hospital for dialysis in the past. Once I switch to Medicare as the primary insurance, that reimbursement amount will be a lot less.

Having not worked for three months and being on hemodialysis for most of that time, I would agree that working is good for your mental health. I was going crazy sitting at home all the time. Often I lost track of what day of the week it was since I didn’t have the weekly work schedule to keep track of time. Also a lot of my non-family relationships are with co-workers and not having regular contact for three months was very isolating. Of course, work has its own set of issues, namely stress and fatigue, but if you can work, you should try to work as long as possible.