Study: Specialized Disease Management Program Decreases Charges & Hospital Stays for Kidney Sufferers

A latest study, presented at National Kidney Foundation’s 26^th annual Spring Clinical Meetings, seeks that kidney sufferers who’ve a specialized disease management program available to them have decreased the medical costs, reduced inpatient hospital admissions and better patient outcomes in contrast to patients without the specialized disease management program.

“Charges of renal care can increase rapidly with chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression.  Managing these sufferers early in their CKD might improve quality of care and delay initiation of renal replacement therapy,” claimed Kael Haig, MS, Associate Director, Healthcare Economics, OptumHealth and the lead author in the study.  “Specialized renal disease management programs can decrease the overall costs and hospital admissions.  We require redesigning how we handle renal patients and provide them with education, tools and resources to understand their disease so that sufferers can actively participate in the management of their progressive CKD and comorbid conditions.  Having an engaged patient, engaged provider and engaged payer is the key to cost effective and quality renal care.”

The new study measures the link between access to a specialized disease management program and outcomes among sufferers with Stage four or five CKD. Patients involved in the study were commercially insured members who were almost 18 years old and were identified as having Stage four or five CKD during the time period of January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2015. The study authors compared two populations: a group who had the DM program available to them and a group who didn’t. The availability of the specialized disease management program relied on the patient’s employer purchasing the program. This research included 29,086 unique patients: 8,366 were eligible for the DM program, 20,720 weren’t eligible for the program.

Sufferers who had access to the DM program had significantly lower monthly medical spending than patients who didn’t, $2,430 compared to $2,917.  In addition, sufferers who had access to the DM program had importantly fewer monthly inpatient admissions than sufferers who did not have access to the program, 0.04 compared to 0.05.  Patients who had access to the DM program also had a decreased threat of starting chronic dialysis compared to individuals who did not.

The research was presented during the National Kidney Foundation 2017 Spring Clinical Meetings in Orlando, FL from the day of April 18-22.  For the last 26 years, nephrology healthcare experts from across the country have come to the NKF Spring Clinical Meetings to learn about the latest developments related to all aspects of nephrology practice, network with coworkers, and present their research findings. The NKF Spring Clinical Meetings are designed for meaningful change in the multidisciplinary healthcare teams’ skills, performance, and sufferer health outcomes.  It is the mere conference of its kind that concentrates on translating science into practice for the whole healthcare team.