Variation in Cost and Quality of Kidney Transplant
You have two options when your kidney stops working- dialysis and kidney transplant. Dialysis is a long-term procedure that requires frequent hospital visits. On the other hand, a kidney transplant is a one-time process where you have to make visits only for follow-ups. Therefore, it is important to understand the treatments’ pros and cons before making the final choice.
However, these largely vary regarding the quality and cost of kidney transplants. This post will read about the variation in cost and quality of kidney transplants.
Cost Variation of Kidney Transplant
The kidney transplant cost varies on many factors. Hospital payments for the single kidney transplant diagnosis-related group (DRG) are accountable for a large percentage of kidney transplantation costs. In fact, DRG payments are part of the prospective hospital’s payments that provide care for a particular disease.
Besides that, a single DRG cannot be changed for kidney transplantation or case complexity. There are two payment options available for analysis and DRG payments – readmissions and outlier payments. However, both of these payment options also have some negative consequences. Check it out.
Payments for Readmission
Completing payments for admission within 30 days of the kidney transplant procedure.
Payments that are outliers
In Medicare claims, the presence of an outlier payment and the associated amount is specifically identified. The hospital gets a fixed percentage of the submitted charges during an outlier case.
High-cost patients
The researchers calculate payments for high-cost kidney transplant patients as a percentage of overall Medicare payments. Moreover, they calculate the percentage of cases linked with such payments and the ratio of these payments to total Medicare payments.
MEDPAR provided additional patient-level clinical data, such as age at transplant, gender, race, donor source (living or deceased), and comorbidities. Then they collect data at the provider level, including hospital teaching status and kidney transplant surgical volume. Then they investigated the extent to which high-cost patient payments connect with the various patient and facility characteristics.
A multivariable logistic regression model was used for the patient-level analysis, with the outlier payment status. Another model was developed, with the dependent variable being the 30-day readmission payment status. As the dependent variable and the covariates stated above as the independent factors.
Now let’s talk about payment variation across hospitals in detail.
Payments Variation Across Hospital
According to the report, the researchers assess the rate variation of payments for high-cost patients. They calculated the ratio of total hospital payments with high-cost patients. Though the outcome in this analysis was not precise for differences in pricing across hospitals and regions, our dependence on the ratio of adverse outcome payments to total payments addresses price adjustment directly.
Researchers then looked into the relationship between high-cost patient payments and hospital case mix. To begin this investigation, they ranked hospitals based on projected mortality. Then they calculate the predicted death rate by developing a multiple logistic regression equation with the following dependent variables: patient characteristics (age, gender, donor source, race, and comorbidities) and hospital status.
The hospitals then graded and classified into tertiles based on their case mix. Researchers then looked at the correlations between hospital case mix and two center-specific outcome measures.
Medicare payments for high-cost patients (outlier and 30-day readmission payments) account for a sizable fraction of overall kidney transplant surgical care costs in the United States. The rates of these payments vary significantly amongst kidney hospitals. High-risk patients were more likely to qualify, and hospitals with more high-risk patients earned larger compensation. After correcting for changes in the case mix, historically high-performing hospitals had lower rates of future payments for bad outcomes. This data implies that hospital quality has a major impact on Medicare payments for kidney transplants.
Wrapping the post
The main focus of this study is to show how variation in cost and quality of kidney transplants affects the patients. Certainly, there are huge quality and cost variations of kidney transplants. Therefore, it is vital to look for the best hospital for kidney transplant in Turkey. Lyfboat offers you an extended list of hospitals along with information about payment packages. The main aim is to provide all the information to the people looking for the best treatment options. One of the best aspects of Lyfboat is it provides live consultation where you can ask any question about the treatment and get answers from experts.
The hospitals then graded and classified into tertiles based on their case mix. Researchers then looked at the correlations between hospital case mix and two center-specific outcome measures.
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