Accountable Care Organizations Reduce Kidney Failure-related Healthcare Costs

"There are newer programs directed specifically at this group of patients, including the End-Stage Renal Disease Seamless Care Organization, or ESCO, program started in October 2015 and the upcoming Advancing American Kidney Health Initiative," said Dr. Shahinian. "Our study looked at an older and more general program, the Medicare Shared Savings Program ACOs, which started in 2012 and were directed to the Medicare population in general.

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In future work, it will be of interest to see if the newer, more kidney disease-specific programs will do even better than the ACO programs were able to achieve."

An accompanying editorial re-iterates this thought, noting that "one reason why savings among ACO beneficiaries receiving long-term dialysis are small--or nonexistent--may be because many ACOs do not focus specifically on patients with end-stage kidney disease."

Source: Eurekalert