dialysis

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction barring the government from enforcing a rule allowing insurers to refuse to insure dialysis patients who get financial assistance from charity groups.

Nationwide, fewer than 10 percent of people who need kidney dialysis do it at home. But close to 40 percent of patients of a Montana doctor do it at home. Medicare is hoping that becomes a trend.

About 5,500 immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally need dialysis. The publicly funded insurance they're eligible to receive only covers the treatment when it's urgently required.

Not all doctors are convinced that the preferred point of connection for patients to blood-cleaning dialysis machines is always the best.