DaVita Good Works: Deflection or Genuine Corporate Philanthropy?

Rajasthan, IndiaWhile DaVita Healthcare Partners Inc. continues to juggle the fallout surrounding various legal challenges, allegations and lawsuits over DaVita Heart Attack and other issues, the dialysis juggernaut is spinning its web further afield, into India, by way of a nonprofit organization that brings dialysis services to government-funded clinics.

Whether or not such an initiative is designed to steer attention away from allegations of kickback payments to doctors, or prior use of dialysis agents NaturaLyte and GranuFlo that resulted in alleged GranuFlo Heart Attack for some patients, remains to be seen.

However, there is little doubt that major companies spanning all genres of corporate activity are putting an increasing emphasis on good works. If such charitable activity serves a secondary purpose of deflecting attention away from lawsuits and investigations into corporate activity, then so much the better.

DaVita founded Bridge of Life - DaVita Medical Missions as an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit as a means to further kidney health and save lives through the provision of treatment, education and hope to underserved global communities.

According to Wireless News (10/19/13), that initiative has recently taken Bridge of Life - DaVita Medical Missions to India, where on October 2, the Rajasthan state government in India implemented a new initiative that provides dialysis at no cost to every patient at government-funded facilities.

DaVita already has a presence in India as DaVita NephroLife, a partnership between DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. and NephroLife Care (India) Pvt. that culminated in India’s first renal disease management center for Acute, Chronic, and End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD).

DaVita NephroLife then partnered with Bridge of Life to donate and install 10 dialysis machines - six for Jodhpur and four to Phalodi. Yet another charitable organization, Human Benefit Services (HBS) Trust, partnered with Bridge of Life in 2008 to provide 19 dialysis machines for two newly established dialysis clinics in Rajasthan state.

There is no question that the efforts of DaVita and its partners in bringing dialysis to India are laudable. However, it remains to be seen if similar concerns that have been raised in the US over Alkali Dosing Errors related to a previous DaVita recall of GranuFlo and NaturaLyte will be repeated at Rajasthan.

GranuFlo and NaturaLyte are two products manufactured by Fresenius Medical Care, which doubles as one of the nation’s largest operators of dialysis clinics. Previously, Fresenius identified an issue with its GranuFlo and NaturaLyte products that put patients at risk for GranuFlo heart attack, and issued a warning to doctors and healthcare providers at its Fresenius-branded clinics over the potential for Alkali Dosing Errors related to the two products.

However, the warning did not initially go out to other clinics also using GranuFlo and NaturaLyte, until the internal Fresenius communique was leaked to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). That chain of events has resulted in many a Fresenius lawsuit.

Similarly, many patients having suffered a DaVita Heart Attack have filed a DaVita lawsuit, alleging that DaVita should have known about the issues surrounding Alkali Dosing Errors.

DaVita will be hoping that their philanthropic work overseas helps to remove a bit of the sting from ongoing headaches over allegations of kickbacks to doctors for referrals or fallout from the NaturaLyte GranuFlo recall.