Research Library

Federal mandates have affected nearly all areas of dialysis care delivery. Nonresident scholar Kevin F. Erickson and Wolfgang C. Winkelmayer evaluate the evidence behind two prior federal mandates to assess how the quality of evidence supporting each policy contributed to its overall success.

The authors discuss the origins of bundled payments as an emerging alternative payment model in the health care industry and examine its application and potential for expansion. Annals of Surgical Oncology: http://bit.ly/2OMorOX

In a study published by JAMA Internal Medicine, nonresident scholar Kevin Erickson — an assistant professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine — and his co-authors examined associations between dialysis facility performance and patient experience measures as well as patient, facility and geographic characteristics:

The authors examine adherence to treatment guidelines for colon cancer among elderly patients in Texas.

Higher costs for complex cancer surgery may be an indicator for worse, rather than better, quality of care, according to new research by the Baker Institute and the University of Texas MDAnderson Cancer Center. The study suggests that lower patient costs achieved by high-volume surgeons can be explained by the lower occurrence of “processes of care”— many of which are taken to avoid or treat complications that can occur during surgery, such as placing arterial lines or providing epidural anesthesia.

In this study, the authors examine the impact of consolidation among U.S. dialysis providers on: 1) the ability of patients to choose among competing dialysis providers and 2) the market concentration of providers in each hospital service area.

Little is known about regional variation in cancer treatment and its determinants. In this publication, authors compare rates of adherence to treatment guidelines for elderly patients across Texas and whether local specialist supply is an important determinant of treatment variation.

The Medicare program’s transition in 2004 to tiered fee-for-service physician reimbursement for dialysis care had the unintended consequence of reducing use of home dialysis. In this paper, authors evaluate whether payment reform influenced dialysis modality assignment.

Health care providers add multiple processes to the care of complex cancer patients, believing they prevent and/or ameliorate complications. However, the relationship between these processes, complication remediation, and expenditures is unknown.

Errors in surgical care for cancer patients may seem infrequent, but the costs associated with them are extremely high.