Atlanta’s dialysis center market serves one of the largest end-stage renal disease populations in the Southeast, reflecting the city’s demographics including significant rates of diabetes, hypertension, and obesity that drive chronic kidney disease progression to dialysis dependence across a broad metropolitan population that includes substantial African American, Hispanic, and low-income communities disproportionately affected by CKD risk factors. The metro area’s dialysis infrastructure is dominated by the two national networks that collectively operate the majority of outpatient dialysis centers in the United States, DaVita and Fresenius Kidney Care, which together maintain dozens of locations across the Atlanta metro to provide three-times-weekly in-center hemodialysis within reasonable travel distance of the city’s geographically dispersed patient population. Independent nephrology-led dialysis practices and hospital-affiliated units supplement the national chains at certain locations, and home dialysis modalities including peritoneal dialysis and home hemodialysis represent a growing component of the Atlanta dialysis market for patients who meet clinical criteria and have the training and home support to manage their own treatment. Georgia requires dialysis facilities to obtain certificates of need from the state Department of Community Health and to comply with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Conditions for Coverage, and dialysis facilities are CMS-surveyed regularly with performance data published publicly through the Dialysis Facility Compare system.
When selecting a dialysis center in Atlanta, review the facility’s quality metrics published on Medicare’s Dialysis Facility Compare tool at medicare.gov, which provides standardized patient outcome data including adequacy of dialysis, hospitalization rates, transfusion rates, and infection rates that allow meaningful comparison between facilities in the same market. Ask the nephrologist who prescribes your dialysis treatment which facilities they have a clinical affiliation with, since having your nephrologist visiting the facility where you receive treatment enables closer monitoring and faster response to complications than remote management alone. Consider the facility’s location relative to your home and transportation options, since three-times-weekly attendance is required for standard in-center hemodialysis and transportation barriers are one of the most significant sources of treatment non-adherence for Atlanta dialysis patients. Red flags include facilities with significantly below-average adequacy of dialysis Kt/V scores on Dialysis Facility Compare, centers with high rates of avoidable hospitalizations and infections suggesting inadequate infection control or clinical monitoring, and facilities that do not provide dedicated social worker and dietitian services as required by CMS Conditions for Coverage.
Top Dialysis Center Companies in Atlanta
1. DaVita Atlanta Dialysis
Address: 567 North Avenue NE, Atlanta, GA
Website: https://www.davita.com
Services:
- In-center hemodialysis three times weekly
- Home hemodialysis training and support
- Peritoneal dialysis training and support
- Nocturnal dialysis options at select locations
- Renal dietitian services
- Social work support
- Transplant coordination assistance
- Vascular access monitoring and coordination
- Patient education and kidney disease management
About: DaVita is one of the two largest dialysis providers in the United States and maintains multiple Atlanta metro locations including the North Avenue NE facility in midtown Atlanta, providing in-center hemodialysis to end-stage renal disease patients who require three-times-weekly treatment sessions to replace the filtering function of failed kidneys. DaVita’s national scale provides its Atlanta facilities with clinical protocol standardization, quality monitoring infrastructure, and shared best practices across a network that collectively treats hundreds of thousands of patients, creating a data-driven quality improvement environment that individual independent dialysis units cannot replicate. The company offers an integrated continuum of kidney care modalities including in-center hemodialysis, home hemodialysis, and peritoneal dialysis, allowing patients to transition between modalities as clinical circumstances and personal preferences evolve without leaving the DaVita network. DaVita’s website provides the DaVita Dialysis Facility Compare Tool and guest services support to help patients and families touring facilities understand what to evaluate and arrange visits to locations being considered.
2. Fresenius Kidney Care – Atlanta Metro
Website: https://www.freseniuskidneycare.com
Service Area: Multiple Atlanta metro locations including College Park, Downtown Atlanta, Perimeter Atlanta, and Sandy Springs
Services:
- In-center hemodialysis
- Home hemodialysis training and monitoring
- Peritoneal dialysis training and support
- NxStage home hemodialysis system support
- Renal dietitian counseling
- Social work and financial counseling
- Vascular access management
- Kidney disease patient education
- Transplant referral support
About: Fresenius Kidney Care is the other dominant national dialysis provider in the Atlanta market, with multiple locations across the metro including College Park at 1720 Phoenix Parkway, Downtown Atlanta, the Perimeter area, and Sandy Springs, providing geographic coverage across the metro’s east-west and north-south corridors to serve the dispersed dialysis patient population. Fresenius Medical Care, the parent company, is one of the world’s largest providers of dialysis products and services, operating dialysis machines, dialyzers, and related supplies used both in its own clinics and sold to independent facilities globally, providing its dialysis centers with direct access to equipment and supplies within the corporate supply chain. Fresenius Kidney Care’s presence across multiple Atlanta locations with distinct geographic catchments including the southwestern College Park area and the northern Perimeter and Sandy Springs corridor ensures that patients throughout the metro have at least one Fresenius location within reasonable travel distance of their residence. The company’s home dialysis programs including peritoneal dialysis and NxStage home hemodialysis are supported by dedicated training nurses who work with patients through the learning process before independent home treatment begins.
3. Kidney Care Center of Georgia
Website: https://www.kidneycarega.com/dialysis-clinics/
Service Area: Multiple Georgia locations
Services:
- In-center hemodialysis
- Chronic kidney disease management
- End-stage renal disease treatment
- Nephrology-affiliated dialysis care
- Vascular access coordination
- Renal dietitian and social work services
- Transplant evaluation coordination
About: Kidney Care Center of Georgia represents the nephrology-independent practice model within Atlanta’s dialysis landscape, providing dialysis services in affiliation with nephrologists who prioritize maintaining practice independence from the large national chains that dominate the market. The independent model can provide closer integration between the prescribing nephrologist and the dialysis unit’s clinical team, since the same physician group that manages the patient’s kidney disease and prescribes dialysis may have a more direct operational relationship with the facility than is typical in the national chain model. Kidney Care Center of Georgia’s multiple locations across the state ensure geographic accessibility for patients in both metro Atlanta and surrounding Georgia communities who prefer an independently operated nephrology-affiliated dialysis facility. The practice’s dialysis services operate within the framework of nephrology management that addresses not only dialysis adequacy but also the comprehensive management of complications of chronic kidney disease including anemia, bone disease, cardiovascular risk, and transplant candidacy evaluation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How do I choose a dialysis center in Atlanta?
A: The most evidence-based approach is to review each facility’s publicly reported quality data on the Medicare Dialysis Facility Compare tool at medicare.gov, which provides standardized metrics including percentage of patients meeting dialysis adequacy targets, infection rates, hospitalization rates, and patient survival data. Location and transportation access is equally important since missing dialysis sessions due to transportation problems is a major cause of poor outcomes and hospitalizations, and choosing a facility within accessible distance or on a public transit route is a practical consideration as important as quality metrics. Ask your nephrologist which facilities they visit clinically, since having your prescribing physician present at your dialysis unit enables closer monitoring. Many Atlanta patients also tour the facilities they are considering, paying attention to cleanliness, staff responsiveness, and the chair spacing and overall environment since dialysis sessions last three to four hours three times per week.
Q: What does dialysis cost in Atlanta?
A: Dialysis is extraordinarily expensive without insurance coverage, with standard in-center hemodialysis costing approximately $90,000 to $120,000 per year per patient. For this reason, virtually all Atlanta dialysis patients are covered by Medicare, since end-stage renal disease patients of any age become eligible for Medicare within 90 days of starting maintenance dialysis under the Medicare ESRD benefit, regardless of their prior insurance status or age. Georgia Medicaid covers dialysis for patients who qualify based on income, and most patients with commercial insurance who are already enrolled remain on their commercial plan as primary for a coordination period before Medicare becomes primary. The patient’s out-of-pocket cost for dialysis is therefore primarily determined by Medicare cost-sharing, with most patients paying no or minimal copays for dialysis sessions themselves, though medication copays, transportation costs, and dietary supplements represent ongoing out-of-pocket expenses.
Q: What is the difference between hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis in Atlanta?
A: Hemodialysis, which is performed at in-center dialysis facilities like those operated by DaVita and Fresenius in Atlanta, filters blood through an external dialyzer machine three times per week for three to four hours per session, requiring patients to travel to the dialysis center six days per week for treatment sessions. Peritoneal dialysis uses the patient’s peritoneal membrane as the filtering surface, instilling dialysis solution into the abdomen through a surgically placed catheter, dwelling for a period, and then draining, a process that can be performed at home either manually several times daily or automatically overnight using a cycling machine. Home peritoneal dialysis provides significantly more lifestyle flexibility than in-center hemodialysis, eliminates transportation requirements, and distributes the dialysis dose more evenly across the week. Both DaVita and Fresenius offer peritoneal dialysis training and support for Atlanta patients who are clinical candidates for home therapy, and your nephrologist can evaluate whether home peritoneal dialysis is an appropriate option for your clinical situation and lifestyle.
Conclusion
Atlanta’s dialysis center market provides end-stage renal disease patients across the metro with access to in-center hemodialysis, home hemodialysis, and peritoneal dialysis through national networks and independent nephrology-affiliated facilities distributed across the city’s diverse neighborhoods and suburbs. DaVita’s Atlanta network including the North Avenue NE facility provides in-center hemodialysis with an integrated continuum of home dialysis modality support and national quality monitoring infrastructure. Fresenius Kidney Care’s multiple Atlanta metro locations including College Park, Downtown, Perimeter, and Sandy Springs provide geographic coverage across the metro’s major population corridors with home hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis training support. Kidney Care Center of Georgia provides the independent nephrology-affiliated dialysis model for patients who prefer closer integration between their prescribing nephrologist and their dialysis facility. Review Dialysis Facility Compare data at medicare.gov, discuss your options with your nephrologist, and tour facilities before selecting your Atlanta dialysis center.