Besides insurance coverage, what major shifts did the affordable care act emphasize?
What are the unintended consequences of “dialysis for all”?
What kind of insurance covers dialysis?
Anyone with ESRD qualifies for medicare, and medicare covers dialysis
ESRD is the only disease that can qualify a person for medicare coverage
However, for patients with private insurance, their insurance is responsible for the first 30 months of dialysis costs until they are medicare eligible
What are balancing measures?
Efforts to ensure that changes do not have unintended consequences
How is dialysis different in other countries vs. the United States?
Other countries (like South Africa) have more stringent requirements on who qualifies for dialysis
(Age, BMI, HIV negative, HepB negative, no other “negative factors”)
=> There are fewer people on dialysis in South Africa than in America (although I don’t see this being very equitable)
Hong Kong has a “peritoneal dialysis first” policy - this helps to reduce costs
What are the fluid intake guidelines for patients with CKD?
There are no specific guidelines, but it is generally recommended that patients don’t drink excessive fluids
Note: Many patients with CKD also have heart failure - limit fluids to 1.5 to 2 L/day in patients with heart failure
Give some examples of health care outcomes
Which reimbursement system would incentivize physicians to accept patints that are healthier to minimize time spent and services rendered and to maximize the amount they receive per patient?
Capitation
What reimbursment system payes a certain amount based on a patient’s diagnosis?
Payment by episode of illness
What is the leading cause of mortality in patients with CKD?
Cardiovascular disease
What are “professional” healthcare services?
What kind of insurance covers these services?
Which organization convenes to develop a standard patient outcome measurement set?
Why is this important?
International Consortioum of Health Outcome Measures (ICHOM)
This makes implementing these measure sets easier, because individual phsyicians and hospitals don’t have to sort through all of the potential tools that they might use - ICHOM has already met and decided upon the best measure sets to used for each patient population/condition
African Americans represent 13.2% of the US population, yet constitute more than ____% of all patients in the US receiving dialysis for ESKD
African Americans represent 13.2% of the US population, yet constitute more than 35% of all patients in the US receiving dialysis for ESKD
What are the challenges of using PROMs to improve health outcomes?
Data is not easy to maintain and integrate
What drug improved kidney transplant outcomes in the 1980’s?
Cyclosporin
An immunosuppressant (calcineurin inhibitor)
Healthcare represents ____% of the United States GDP
Healthcare represents 28% of the United States GDP
For patients with established end stage renal disease, the most effective form of renal replacement therapy is:
e. Living, compatible kidney transplant
What is kidney paired donation?
“Kidney exchange”
An incompatible donor donates to the pool, in return for a different living donor’s kidney (if their desired recipient is also incompatible with their donor)
All transplants must occur simultaneoulsy (but they do not have to take place at the same center)
This allows for more well-matched living donor transplants
Why does low birth weight correlate with increased risk of developing CKD?
Low birth weight
= Smaller kidneys
= Reduced nephron number
= Mismatch between kidney capacity adn adult excretory load
How are kidney allografts monitored?
Biopsy
What are “bundled payments?”
How do they compare to “fee for service?”
Bundled payments = an alternative payment model built around defined episodes of care
A single case rate or target price makes the providers financially accounable for all services in the specified time frame
Providers will be reimbursed a fixed amount - this incentivizes the proiver to ensure high-quality, cost-effective care
What disparities may exist in the development of precision medicine may exist in CKD?
The human reference genome that is used to guide precision medicine does not contain all ancestral genomes and variations in equal representation
What is the inheritance pattern of the APOL1 G1 and G2 alleles?
Autosomal recessive w/incomplete penetranc
What is the prevalence of CKD?
>30 million Americans have CKD
(14% of the population)