March 3, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 42 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Page H1447]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              ST. CROIX NEEDS PERMANENT DIALYSIS FACILITY

  (Ms. PLASKETT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, in 2017, due to natural disaster and lack 
of electricity, 200 dialysis patients were forced to evacuate the 
Virgin Islands.
  Some never returned; some are still hoping to; and some who did may 
once again have to leave. Patients on St. Croix are still receiving 
treatment in a mobile unit that faces an uncertain future.
  FEMA has slow-walked the release of funding and guidelines that will 
allow our hospital to build a permanent and comfortable facility on the 
island for lifesaving dialysis treatment.
  The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, CMS, has refused to 
recertify the temporary mobile unit, instead giving the unit month-to-
month extensions, citing that, by now, there should have been a more 
permanent structure.
  Stuck between FEMA's slow-walk and CMS' decision are people, people 
who need stability and empathy. If these Americans are forced to make 
the hard decision as to whether to leave home again, these Federal 
agencies would have failed them.
  At least 15 of the dialysis patients who were forced to leave the 
first time are no longer with us. They passed away before they were 
able to come home.
  This National Kidney Month, let's work to ensure that this doesn't 
happen again.

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