Though Kidney transplants add an average of 10 years to a patient’s life and that a transplanted kidney costs Medicare about $50,000 less than treating a patient using dialysis – simple life-giving math, except when you fact in that the $65 billion-a-year dialysis industry needs insured patients to offset losses from treating Medicare patients.An article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reviewed records from the U.S. Renal Data System and concluded that some kidney patients spend up to 5 years on debilitating dialysis before they’re put on the UNOS kidney transplant list…..and others who could benefit from transplants never make the list.
Data indicate that kidney transplants add an average of 10 years to a patient’s life. Overall, a transplanted kidney costs Medicare about $50,000 less than treating a patient using dialysis. The Pitt Trib Review study found the biggest dialysis providers need large numbers of patients covered by insurance to offset lower payments the providers get for dialysis from Medicare. This suggests dialysis centers are in the business of more dialysis patients.
“Transplantation ought to be mandated because the outcomes are better, the quality of life is better and it’s less expensive,”
nephrologist Dr. Tom Parker is quoted as saying. Parker co-chaired a summit on dialysis failures at Harvard Medical School in the spring.
Angeles Health International is glad to see the topic of kidney transplant vs. dialysis get some coverage. After all, the when of a kidney transplant has a significant impact on the patient’s quality of life. For patients not yet on dialysis, we see from the data that the opportunity for a successful outcome / longer post-transplant lifetime is substantially enhanced by a preemptive transplant, before dialysis ever starts.
Evidence suggests that transplant outcomes are superior for patients the less time that they spend on dialysis. Clinical studies have clearly shown that dialysis contributes to increased risk of cardiovascular damage, which impacts a transplant patient’s viability as a candidate for kidney transplant.
UNOS data from kidney transplants in the U.S from 1996 to 2006 also show that a transplanted kidney has better odds of surviving if from a living donor. More than one-third of all kidney transplants in the United States are made possible by living donors.
- The waiting time for the transplant recipient can be significantly reduced.
- The procedure can be scheduled according to the convenience of both the donor and recipient
- The quality of organs from live donors tends to be superior to organs from deceased donors
- There is less rejection and lower doses of anti-rejection drugs
- Transplantation has been shown to be less costly than dialysis over the long run
- You deserve “a long run’
In Georgia, Grady hospital is discontinuing their dialysis services. Read more about the cost of kidney transplant with and without dialysis here:
Hospital Angeles Tijuana is home to the leading kidney transplant team of Baja California. Our prices are less than half what a self-paying patient faces in the US. Our medical travel package for kidney transplant patients covers all expenses; we are the most experienced hospital in the world when it comes to working with international patients.
