Trump orders overhaul of organ transplant and kidney dialysis systems

Washington Post ^ | July 10 at 10:04 AM | Lenny Bernstein / Kimberly Kindy

[BenLurkin]

The initiatives Trump is scheduled to outline include five new payment models to encourage doctors to treat patients earlier and encourage home peritoneal dialysis; a crackdown on some of the 58 non-profit organizations that do a poor job of collecting organs for transplant; and a public awareness campaign aimed at patients. About 40 percent of people with kidney disease do not know they have it, officials said.

In the United States, most people receive hemodialysis, a treatment that requires a device to filter waste and toxins from their blood. Most receive it in clinics or private facilities that serve dozens of people each day.

Currently, the U.S. system creates incentives for clinic-based hemodialysis. Two companies, Fresenius Medical Care and DaVita, dominate the lucrative market. Physicians generally are reimbursed at higher rates for care of dialysis patients than for treatment of patients with kidney disease who do not yet need dialysis.

Average life expectancy for a person on dialysis is five to 10 years, though some live much longer.

A less expensive option is peritoneal dialysis, a treatment that uses a fluid infused through a catheter implanted in the abdomen, often while the patient sleeps. The process is used by only a small percentage of U.S. kidney patients.

A key to boosting transplantation will be cracking down on “organ procurement organizations,” the 58 nonprofits that collect organs from deceased donors and send them to transplant centers for implantation. Each OPO holds a monopoly over a chunk of U.S. territory and collects and reports its own data on how successful it is. Some poor performers have manipulated the numbers, researchers have shown.

Another Trump proposal would increase payments to live donors of kidneys and livers to cover more of their expenses, possibly including lost wages and child care.

[ssfromla]

I know they do get them. I'm just mouthing off to liberals the same way they do conservatives.

No offense meant to anyone that were able to get transplants. God bless them all.

[ssfromla]

Liver transplants just take a slice, IIRC.

I know and I'd give to anyone that needed and I was a candidate.

I was mouthing off to liberals the same way they do to conservatives.

I promise that I didn't mean to offend anyone.