BACKGROUND: Currently, many transplantation centers do not follow former living kidney donors on a long-term basis. Several potential barriers have been identified to provide this follow-up of former living kidney donors, including concerns that donor insurance will not reimburse transplantation centers or primary care physicians for this care. Here, we report the rates at which different insurance companies reimbursed our transplantation center for follow-up visits of living donors. METHODS: We collected data on all yearly follow-up visits of living donors billed from January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2010, representing 82 different donors. Concurrent visits of their recipients were available for 47 recipients and were used as a control group. RESULTS: We find that most bills for follow-up visits of living kidney donors were paid by insurance companies, at a rate similar to the reimbursement for recipient follow-up care. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that, for former donors with insurance, inadequate reimbursement should not be a barrier in providing follow-up care.
BACKGROUND: Currently, many transplantation centers do not follow former living kidney donors on a long-term basis. Several potential barriers have been identified to provide this follow-up of former living kidney donors, including concerns that donor insurance will not reimburse transplantation centers or primary care physicians for this care. Here, we report the rates at which different insurance companies reimbursed our transplantation center for follow-up visits of living donors. METHODS: We collected data on all yearly follow-up visits of living donors billed from January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2010, representing 82 different donors. Concurrent visits of their recipients were available for 47 recipients and were used as a control group. RESULTS: We find that most bills for follow-up visits of living kidney donors were paid by insurance companies, at a rate similar to the reimbursement for recipient follow-up care. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that, for former donors with insurance, inadequate reimbursement should not be a barrier in providing follow-up care.
Authors: Didier A Mandelbrot; Martha Pavlakis; Seth J Karp; Scott R Johnson; Douglass W Hanto; James R Rodrigue Journal: Transplantation Date: 2009-10-15 Impact factor: 4.939
Authors: Alan Leichtman; Michael Abecassis; Mark Barr; Marian Charlton; David Cohen; Dennis Confer; Mathew Cooper; Gabriel Danovitch; Connie Davis; Francis Delmonico; Mary Amanda Dew; Cathy Garvey; Robert Gaston; John Gill; Brenda Gillespie; Hassan Ibrahim; Cheryl Jacobs; Jeffery Kahn; Bert Kasiske; Joseph Kim; Krista Lentine; Marti Manyalich; Jose Medina-Pestana; Robert Merion; Marva Moxey-Mims; Jonah Odim; Gerhard Opelz; Janice Orlowski; Abid Rizvi; John Roberts; Dorry L Segev; Tina Sledge; Robert Steiner; Sandra Taler; Steven Textor; Gil Thiel; Amy Waterman; Errol Williams; Robert Wolfe; James Wynn; Arthur J Matas Journal: Am J Transplant Date: 2011-11-04 Impact factor: 8.086
Authors: Eric M Gibney; Mona D Doshi; Erica L Hartmann; Chirag R Parikh; Amit X Garg Journal: Clin J Am Soc Nephrol Date: 2010-04-22 Impact factor: 8.237
Authors: Hassan N Ibrahim; Robert Foley; LiPing Tan; Tyson Rogers; Robert F Bailey; Hongfei Guo; Cynthia R Gross; Arthur J Matas Journal: N Engl J Med Date: 2009-01-29 Impact factor: 91.245