Recombinant Erythropoietin: Payment Options for Medicare

摘要

The special report evaluates alternative payment policies that Medicare might use to pay for recombinant erythropoietin. Identifies nine options and analyzed their implications across several dimensions: quality of care, access to care, costs and efficiency, equity, technological innovation, and administrative feasibility. Extending coverage to self-administration of the biologic would improve access to care, especially for home dialysis patients, but would raise expenditures of the Medicare program.