I have been enjoying the postseason baseball experience (where the Phillies are managing to be the giant killers for both leagues). Yeah, except for last night- a night of ignominy…
Continue reading Quinquagenary This Past Sunday
Exactly as I feared.
As I stated on 15 July 2019, when I discussed Trump’s Executive Order regarding dialysis, I considered that this executive order looked to be more aspirational than executional. Not even the End Stage Renal Disease Treatment Choices (ETC) payment model seems to have made a dent in the increased adoption of home dialysis services.
Continue reading Home Dialysis Implementation Scorecard
It’s been a year or so since TheDonald issued his executive orders covering dialysis procedures. The goals were laudable- more transplants and more home dialysis.
Continue reading A squelched executive order
The other shoe dropped?
A few months ago, I reported that a feeling I had for years is now backed up by data. I’m talking about the Dr. Erickson et. al. study which demonstrated that when chains take over independent dialysis clinics, patient care is compromised. In particular, patient mortality and hospitalization rates were worse after the merger.
Continue reading Where we get treatment matters?
So, is this good news or bad news? While the number of dialysis patients is increasing, the rate of annual increase has lessened. Back in 2016, there were 20K new patients, it dropped again last year, and this year the total increase was closer to 14K.
Well, this is getting interesting. After all these years of having Fresenius and DaVita swallowing up dialysis centers, there is change coming.
Continue reading Move Over. There’s a new guy in town!
I published my thoughts on home dialysis and why the practice is not prevalent yesterday. And, while I wrote that post more than a month ago, it was percolating in the queue all along. So, I can’t really say that the government attempted to refute my findings- since their reach (approved 16 October, but published on 16 November) never had the opportunity to review my thoughts. But, I will discuss theirs, today.
Continue reading You get what you pay for!
It always amazes me that U.S. dialysis patients are not more healthy than the rest of the world’s. Even though our program costs more than everyone else’s. Of course, many of our dialysis patients end up as dialysis patients because they have diabetes- which is the proximate cause of their kidney failure. And, keeps our dialysis population at the top of the charts (as in “way too many patients”). And, this also often leads to cardiovascular complications, which reduces the ability of these patients to undergo kidney transplants.
Continue reading If my magic wand had batteries…
Imagine my surprise. Dialysis would become a political weapon. (In light of this weekend’s events, this statement seems superfluous.)
Continue reading Why are "they" complaining about home dialysis?