Cost-Analysis Fuels Debate on Transplant Waitlists

Policies that increase access to waiting lists for kidney transplant are likely to substantially increase administrative and medical costs without providing any benefit, said authors of a new study.

An examination of cost reports from all certified U.S. transplant hospitals from 2012 to 2017 indicated that Medicare reimbursements for transplant evaluation and waiting list management increased from $0.95 billion to $1.32 billion, according to researchers led by Xingxing Cheng, MD, of Stanford University School of Medicine in California. Read more.