Abstract
Incompatible living donor kidney transplantation (ILDKT) has been established as an effective option for end-stage renal disease patients with willing but HLA-incompatible living donors, reducing mortality and improving quality of life. Depending on antibody titer, ILDKT can require highly resource-intensive procedures, including intravenous immunoglobulin, plasma exchange, and/or cell-depleting antibody treatment, as well as protocol biopsies and donor-specific antibody testing. This study sought to compare the cost and Medicare reimbursement, exclusive of organ acquisition payment, for ILDKT (n = 926) with varying antibody titers to matched compatible transplants (n = 2762) performed between 2002 and 2011. Data were assembled from a national cohort study of ILDKT and a unique data set linking hospital cost accounting data and Medicare claims. ILDKT was more expensive than matched compatible transplantation, ranging from 20% higher adjusted costs for positive on Luminex assay but negative flow cytometric crossmatch, 26% higher for positive flow cytometric crossmatch but negative cytotoxic crossmatch, and 39% higher for positive cytotoxic crossmatch (p < 0.0001 for all). ILDKT was associated with longer median length of stay (12.9 vs. 7.8 days), higher Medicare payments ($91 330 vs. $63 782 p < 0.0001), and greater outlier payments. In conclusion, ILDKT increases the cost of and payments for kidney transplantation.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 3123-3130 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | American Journal of Transplantation |
Volume | 17 |
Issue number | 12 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases grants R01DK102981, R01DK098431, and F32DK093218.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons
Keywords
- clinical research/practice
- desensitization
- economics
- health services and outcomes research
- kidney transplantation/nephrology
- kidney transplantation: living donor