Private equity investors continue to be active investors in the dialysis industry, as we’ve frequently discussed in the past, including in the Law360 report on “Private Equity Interest in the Dialysis Sector Continues to Thrive” that can be accessed here.

Investors should be aware of updates to the end-stage renal disease (ESRD) payment system and incentive program released in a final rule by CMS on October 31. Changes in the final rule include:

  • Continuing a base reimbursement rate of $239.02 per dialysis treatment for renal dialysis services provided in calendar year 2015.
  • Delaying the incorporation of oral-only drugs into the ESRD prospective payment system until January 1, 2024, at the earliest.
  • Rebasing and revising the ESRD bundled market basket by blending two pharmaceutical price proxies.
  • For payment year 2017, removing one clinical measure, hemoglobin greater than 12g/dL, and the adoption of the standard readmission ratio, which assesses the rate of unplanned readmissions of ESRD patients to an acute care hospital within 30 days of an index discharge from an acute care hospital.
  • For payment year 2018, adding two new clinical measures, the standardized transfusion ratio and pediatric peritoneal dialysis adequacy, and three new reporting measures – pain assessment and follow-up, clinical depression screening and follow-up, and the National Healthcare Safety Network’s healthcare personnel influenza vaccination measure.
  • For payment year 2018, the mineral metabolism reporting measure will allow the submission of both serum phosphorus and plasma phosphorus measures.