Managing the Costs of Routine Follow-up Care After Living Kidney Donation: a Review and Survey of Contemporary Experience, Practices, and Challenges

Current Transplantation Reports
Krista L. Lentine1, Nagaraju Sarabu2, Gwen McNatt3, Robert Howey4, Rebecca Hays5, Christie P. Thomas3, Ursula Lebron-Banks6, Linda Ohler7, Cody Wooley1, Addie Wisniewski1, Huiling Xiao1, Andrea L. Tietjen8
1Saint Louis University Transplant Center, Saint Louis University Center for Abdominal Transplantation, 1201 S. Grand Blvd, St. Louis, MO, 63104, USA
2University Hospitals Cleveland Medical, Cleveland, OH, USA
3University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA USA
4Toyon Associates, Inc., Concord, CA, USA
5University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics,Madison, WI, USA
6New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, USA
7New York University, New York, NY, USA
8Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, NJ, USA

Tóm tắt

Abstract Purpose of Review While living organ donor follow-up is mandated for 2 years in the USA, formal guidance on recovering associated costs of follow-up care is lacking. In this review, we discuss current billing practices of transplant programs for living kidney donor follow-up, and propose future directions for managing follow-up costs and supporting cost neutrality in donor care. Recent Findings Living donors may incur costs and financial risks in the donation process, including travel, lost time from work, and dependent care. In addition, adherence to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) mandate for US transplant programs to submit 6-, 12-, and 24-month postdonation follow-up data to the national registry may incur out-of-pocket medical costs for donors. Notably, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has explicitly disallowed transplant programs to bill routine, mandated follow-up costs to the organ acquisition cost center or to the recipient’s Medicare insurance. We conducted a survey of transplant staff in the USA (distributed October 22, 2020–March 15, 2021), which identified that the mechanisms for recovering or covering the costs of mandated routine postdonation follow-up at responding programs commonly include billing recipients’ private insurance (40%), while 41% bill recipients’ Medicare insurance. Many programs reported utilizing institutional allowancing (up to 50%), and some programs billed the organ acquisition cost center (25%). A small percentage (11%) reported billing donors or donors’ insurance. Summary To maintain a high level of adherence to living donor follow-up without financially burdening donors, up-to-date resources are needed on handling routine donor follow-up costs in ways that are policy-compliant and effective for donors and programs. Development of a government-supported national living donor follow-up registry like the Living Donor Collective may provide solutions for aspects of postdonation follow-up, but requires transplant program commitment to register donors and donor candidates as well as donor engagement with follow-up outreach contacts after donation.

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