The new Medicare PPS and home dialysis.

Overall, we believe that bundling of payments to dialysis facilities is positive for home dialysis. The incentive for higher utilization of home therapies comes down to the fact that, with treatments for all modalities being paid at the same rate, providers will see that home modalities cost less than facility-based treatments. The adjustment for home training treatments is certainly helpful, but it is not incentive enough on its own. From our perspective, one of the biggest financial incentives for home dialysis and more frequent dialysis therapies is that these patients are statistically known to spend less time in the hospital, over time costing taxpayers and the ESRD Program less money. We will continue to encourage CMS to consider the overall cost implications of more frequent dialysis. We are hopeful that when hospitalization costs are accounted for, CMS will do even more to encourage the use of these modalities.