Home Dialysis in the New USA Bundled Payment Plan: Implications and Impact

Abstract

On 1 January 2011, a new payment system for Medicare patients will be implemented in the United States. This new system bundles services previously charged separately and under a “fee for service” environment. The authors discuss the implications of this approach. Over the next several pages is a response by American physicians and dialysis innovators to a federal initiative to change the way dialysis is paid for in the United States. Peter Blake, the Editor-in-Chief of Peritoneal Dialysis International, invited Thomas Golper to articulate physicians’ concerns with this new payment scheme. After the government of the USA closed its comment period over the new payment methodology, called “bundling,” Golper sought out colleagues from diverse backgrounds and compiled this collective view of the situation.