Safety Net Grants

The out-of-pocket costs for dialysis patients can be enormous. Safety Net Grants from the American Kidney Fund help dialysis patients with a wide variety of financial needs related to treatment. Last year, more than 30,000 patients received these grants.

 These grants cover: 

Treatment-specific expenses such as transportation costs to reach dialysis; over-the-counter medicines, medication co-payments, kidney donor expenses and other necessities such as dentures.

Medications, nutritional products, and durable medical supplies. The American Kidney Fund has contracted with ECHO Pharmacy®, a mail order pharmacy, to provide medications and supplies at discount prices, thereby increasing the purchasing power of patients’ grants.

Disaster relief assistance when catastrophic events strike dialysis patients’ communities. This program provides funds to assist patients replace medications, food and household items and pay for other necessities lost because of disasters such as flooding, hurricanes, etc.

The cost of dialysis while traveling. Patients or facilities may be reimbursed for the 20% of treatment costs not covered by Medicare or any other source for emergency transient dialysis. Grants are limited to travel necessitated by death or serious illness in the family or for the purpose of kidney transplant workup only.