Care of Undocumented Immigrants with ESRD: A Consistent Federal Policy is Needed, Experts Say

Abstract

The flurry of media coverage that surrounded the closing of the outpatient dialysis clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta brought widespread attention to a problem that is all too familiar to most nephrologists. Faced with a lack of funding and crippled by the task of providing long-term, uncompensated care, the sprawling safety net hospital decided to close the clinic, which had provided dialysis care for more than 50 patients, many of them undocumented immigrants.