title: Palliative dialysis in end-stage renal disease.
abstract: Dialysis patients are often denied hospice benefits unless they forego dialysis treatments. However, many of those patients might benefit from as-needed dialysis treatments to palliate symptoms of uremia, fluid overload, etc. The current Medicare payment system precludes this "palliative dialysis" except in those few cases where the terminal diagnosis is unrelated to renal failure. As approximately three quarters of all US patients on dialysis have Medicare as their primary insurance, a of review of Medicare policy is suggested, with a goal of creating a new "palliative dialysis" category that would allow patients to receive treatments on a less regular schedule without affecting the quality statistics of the dialysis center.( 1 ).
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, James H. Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, 37614, USA. trivedi.disha@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Disha D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Trivedi
mesh_terms: D006291:Health Policy / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D006278:Medicare / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms / Q000592:standards; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D014481:United States