VIDEO: Value-based care models can benefit nephrology but must remain patient-centered
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Key takeaways:
- Potential benefits of value-based payment models are quality of care and cost improvements.
- Challenges, such as paying upfront costs and finding administrative time, remain.
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Gaurav Jain, MD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham discussed value-based care in nephrology at the National Kidney Foundation Spring Clinical Meetings, here.
The CMS Kidney Care Choices and Medicare Advantage and End-Stage Renal Disease Treatment Choices payment models have encouraged more patients with kidney disease to seek transplants and home dialysis. Currently, about one-third of patients with end-stage kidney disease are enrolled in the Medicare model, Jain told Healio in a video interview.
As nephrology practices adjust to an evolving health care policy landscape, the transition to value-based care may have a significant impact on patients, Jain, an Editorial Board Member for Healio | Nephrology News & Issues, said.
Potential benefits of these programs include quality of care and cost improvements.
“Huge shout out to the policymakers, the transplant physicians and the nephrologists who are working with our patients to try and make their care better and keep the costs down,” Jain said.
While challenges remain for practices, such as paying upfront costs, finding administrative time and caring for patients with a “complex set of needs yet mak[ing] their care better, keep[ing] them engaged and keep[ing] the cost low,” Jain said the nephology practice is focused.
“We [are] focusing on care coordination, collaborative care, improving mental health and increasing the number of transplants and reducing kidney disease progression,” he said. “We have complex patients, yet a very engaged group of physicians who want to do right for the patients. We just need to find a way to make sure that these programs are sustainable, financially viable and remain patient-centered.”
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Jain G. Paper 274. Presented at: NKF Spring Clinical Meetings; May 14-18, 2024; Long Beach, Calif.
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