"A flawed Medicare payment plan encourages aggressive use of a risky and costly anti-anemia drug on many kidney dialysis patients, say researchers who warn the system should be changed.
A new study finds that for-profit dialysis chains give higher doses of the drug than nonprofit dialysis centers. That practice may be putting patients at risk of deadly side effects, some experts said.
The drug is Epogen, and Medicare pays more for it than any other single drug: $2 billion in 2005. "
Via MSNBC
To read the article about dialysis profits click here.
1 comment:
It's really awful kidney dialysis is turning into such a money-making industry. They are making profits off people who are so sick they have to have their blood cleaned by machines. This should not be happening in a country that supposedly has the best health system in the world.
Have you been following the news on Epogen and other anti-anemia drugs. Medicare is now saying it might reevaluate their use, in light of dangers they pose if overused.
I read a really great blog on this issue called "Killing Patients and Bilking Taxpayers.' You can read it at http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/4/27/1518/07862
That blog outlines how the dialysis companies are getting politicians to increase Medicare reimbursement rates for dialysis at a time when health care budgets are being slashed for other services--and at a time when nearly 50 million Americans don't even have health insurance because they can't afford it. This is crazy.
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