A comparison of inpatient and outpatient Medicare allowable charges for continuous ambulatory peritoneal and center hemodialysis patients: a single-center study.

Medicare allowable charges were compared between 21 continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) and 25 center hemodialysis (CHD) patients for the 12-month period from Sept 1982 through Aug 1983 to determine if savings from CAPD therapy were offset by higher hospitalization charges. All adult patients on a single therapy for the 12-month period who were not dialyzed or hospitalized at other institutions were included. The CAPD and CHD patient groups did not differ significantly by age, sex, or incidence of systemic disease. However, the CHD group had significantly more black patients. The primary renal disease, the incidence of diabetes mellitus, and other systemic diseases did not differ between the groups. The number of hospital admissions was similar between the two groups. However, the CHD patients tended to have a higher number of hospital days than the CAPD group (17.5 v 12.4). Although the total hospital charges tended to be higher for CHD ($16,145) than CAPD patients ($9,872), this difference was not significant. Outpatient dialysis charges were significantly less expensive for CAPD ($16,470) than CHD ($28,233). Emergency department charges were also significantly less for the CAPD group. Charges for patients with and without systemic disease were analyzed separately. In both subgroups, all charges were less for CAPD therapy; however, this difference was significant only for outpatient dialysis charges. Total charges for the 12-month period were significantly less for the CAPD group ($26,453) than for CHD ($45,586). This demonstrates that hospitalization charges did not offset the savings of home dialysis in these patients.