Provision of transplant education for patients starting dialysis: Disparities persist.

Background: All patients starting dialysis should be informed of kidney transplant as a renal replacement therapy option. Prior research has shown disparities in provision of this information. In this study, we aimed to identify patient sociodemographic and dialysis facility characteristics associated with not receiving transplant information at the time of dialysis initiation.

Assessment of Spending for Patients Initiating Dialysis Care.

Importance: Despite a widespread belief that private insurers spend large amounts on health care for enrollees receiving dialysis, data limitations over the past decade have precluded a comprehensive analysis of the topic.

Objective: To examine the amount and types of increases in health care spending for privately insured patients associated with initiating dialysis care.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A cohort study covering calendar years 2012 to 2019 included patients with kidney failure who had employer-sponsored insurance for 12 months following dialysis initiation.

Association Between Hospital Private Equity Acquisition and Outcomes of Acute Medical Conditions Among Medicare Beneficiaries.

Importance: As private equity (PE) acquisitions of short-term acute care hospitals (ACHs) continue, their impact on the care of medically vulnerable older adults remains largely unexplored.

Objective: To investigate the association between PE acquisition of ACHs and access to care, patient outcomes, and spending among Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized with acute medical conditions.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cross-sectional study used a generalized difference-in-differences approach to compare 21 091 222 patients admitted to PE-acquired vs non-PE-acquired short-term ACHs between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2018, at least 3 years before to 3 years after PE acquisition.

Variability in Prices Paid for Hemodialysis by Employer-Sponsored Insurance in the US From 2012 to 2019.

This cross-sectional study compares the prices that private insurers vs Medicare paid for hemodialysis in the US from 2012 to 2019.

Hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19: Variation in Regional Political Preferences Predicted New Prescriptions after President Trump's Endorsement.

Context: On March 19, 2020, President Donald Trump endorsed using hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 treatment despite inconclusive evidence of the drug's effectiveness. This study sought to understand the influence of political preferences on prescription uptake by quantifying the relationship between a geographic area's partisan leaning and hydroxychloroquine prescription rates following Trump's endorsement.

Methods: We analyzed hydroxychloroquine prescriptions filled in 205 continental US designated market areas (DMAs) between March 1, 2018, and July 31, 2020, and the percentage of votes for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election in each DMA.

Private Equity Acquisition And Responsiveness To Service-Line Profitability At Short-Term Acute Care Hospitals.

As private equity firms continue to increase their ownership stake in various health care sectors in the US, questions arise about potential impacts on the organization and delivery of care. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we investigated changes in service-line provision in private equity-acquired hospitals. Relative to nonacquired hospitals, private equity acquisition was associated with a higher probability of adding specific profitable hospital-based services (interventional cardiac catheterization, hemodialysis, and labor and delivery), profitable technologies (robotic surgery and digital mammography), and freestanding or satellite emergency departments.

Strategic Patient Discharge: the Case of Long-Term Care Hospitals.

Medicare's prospective payment system for long-term acute-care hospitals (LTCHs) provides modest reimbursements at the beginning of a patient's stay before jumping discontinuously to a large lump-sum payment after a prespecified number of days. We show that LTCHs respond to the financial incentives of this system by disproportionately discharging patients after they cross the large-payment threshold. We find this occurs more often at for-profit facilities, facilities acquired by leading LTCH chains, and facilities colocated with other hospitals.