ESRD Modernization Act of 2004 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act, as amended by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, to provide for an annual update mechanism under the Medicare end stage renal disease (ESRD) program to adjust the payment rates for changes in input prices and inflation.
Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish demonstration projects to: (1) increase public awareness about the factors that lead to chronic kidney disease, how to prevent it, how to treat it, and how to avoid kidney failure; and (2) enhance surveillance systems and expand research to better assess the prevalence and incidence of chronic kidney diseases.
Requires the Secretary to establish demonstration projects to enable individuals with ESRD to develop self-management skills.
Provides for Medicare coverage of kidney disease patient education services.
Directs the Secretary to: (1) establish demonstration projects to evaluate how blood flow monitoring affects the quality and cost of care for Medicare beneficiaries with ESRD; (2) provide appropriate incentives to improve the home dialysis benefit for individuals on behalf of whom payment may be made; (3) enter into an arrangement with the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences to evaluate the barriers to increasing the number of individuals with ESRD who elect to receive home dialysis services under the Medicare program; (4) review the surgical procedures and evaluate whether to include in such procedures the full range of dialysis access procedures and to revise such units to reflect evaluation findings; (5) review the relative value units under Medicare that are applicable with respect to physicians' services for vascular access procedures and revise them to reflect accurately the difficulty of such procedures; and (6) establish demonstration projects under which the Secretary shall evaluate methods that improve the quality of care provided to Medicare beneficiaries with ESRD.
Directs the Comptroller General to study and report to Congress on the impact of the temporary codes for nephrologists' services applicable under the fee schedule for physicians' services.