A National Randomized Trial Seeks to Increase Kidney Transplants. Is it Working?
Penn LDI
The largest national randomized controlled trial of payment incentives to improve health and lengthen life for people with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is underway. LDI Senior Fellows Vishnu Potluri, Yuvaram Reddy, and Amol Navathe say the 2021-2027 ESRD Treatment Choices (ETC) model needs adjustments to meet its goals.
More than 800,000 people in the U.S. live with ESRD or kidney failure and need dialysis or a kidney transplant to stay alive. Transplantation has better outcomes, but only 13% of people with ESRD are on the growing kidney transplant waitlist. People who are Black, Hispanic, or in other minority groups are more likely to have ESRD but less likely to receive a transplant.
Reddy, Potluri, Navathe, and coauthors evaluated whether ETC is meeting its goal of increasing access to transplantation by comparing the number of patients added to the transplant waitlist under the control policies versus ETC.