ESRD PROGRAM ECONOMICS

The Economics of End-Stage Renal Disease

The Economics of End-Stage Renal Disease

Introduction

This discussion will assess the major reimbursement mechanisms presented in the article while summarizing the economics of providing ESRD treatment from the organization's point of view. In order to do so adequately, the research paper will also analyze the patient options and political tradeoffs related to cost of treatment, quality of treatment and access to treatment. In conclusion, the discussion will converge towards the evaluation of the ethical implications of treatment options that are based on cost evaluation. It merits highlighting that this research paper will give special consideration to the article: End Stage Renal Disease economics and the balance of treatment modalities, by Sullivan (2010).

Discussion

There is evidence that the higher the amount spent per capita on ESRD Program, the lower the percentage spent on medical technology (Neil, et. al., 2009). One possible explanation is the fact that the prices of medical technologies are well comparable across international markets, while labor costs in ESRD Program, there are significant differences. Indeed, it seems that the more money is put into ESRD Program, the more they spend on personal expenses, instead, to allocate to the cost of the technology (Locatelli, Vecchio & Cavalli, 2010). Medical technology is an easy target for warning lifted a finger pointing at too high a cost. Expenses for medical technology are easy to identify because they are usually technology supplied in boxes marked price. This is such expenses vary from personal and other expenses related to ESRD Program.

Medical technology is very often getting into the spotlight when it is placed on the market a significant innovation and particularly if it is an entirely new approach to a diagnosis or therapeutic procedure. It is clear that the introduction of new technology as a standard practice in any new sector or sub-sector will see double-digit growth in medical costs for this technology in the coming years and sometimes decades (Bestley & Watson, 1993). It is not easy to identify important factors that control costs in ESRD Program, there are many black holes in both the European and the American ESRD Program system, and very little is known, what is actually spending money from the budget for ESRD Program. Much of the black hole is caused by the absence of market mechanisms (Muller, et. al., 2008). The competitive market has some basic mechanisms:

The customer has a reasonable idea of the perceived end product.

If necessary, the customer has access to information about the product.

The customer has other alternatives.

The ESRD Program are set to different principles:

End user / beneficiary / patient is isolated from the payer.

End user / beneficiary / patient has very little say in how the money will be spent on his own ESRD Program.

Although they are known to the public data on the efficacy and safety of service providers, it is often very difficult to understand.

The patient often does not know how to look good medicine.

In the ESRD Program, the patient understands the environment, can assess good manners, ...