Azar: Trump administration rethinking payments to expand access to transplants, in-home dialysis

The Trump administration is considering ways it can adjust payments to boost access to in-home dialysis and kidney transplants. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Monday in a speech at the National Kidney Foundation’s Kidney Patient Advocate Summit that kidney care is a service line that’s ready for a value-based payment shake-up. Kidney care has “some of the worst incentives in healthcare,” he said. “Today, Medicare covers most patients with kidney failure, but we don’t begin spending a great deal on these patients until they’re already sick,” Azar said. “It is the epitome of a system that pays for sickness rather than health and this administration is intent on shifting these priorities.”  Azar said HHS is focusing in three areas to reform kidney care including investing more in prevention and detection, expanding treatment options, including the latest technology and making more organs—including artificial ones—available for transplantation.