Incentive problems concerning the timing and quality of dialysis
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation is composed of three essays that analyze incentive problems concerning the health care of end stage renal disease (ESRD) in the United States. The first essay is concerned with the unintended consequences of a proposed change to the system for allocating kidneys to patients on the transplant waiting list. In particular, policymakers in the United States have recently proposed to modify the kidney allocation system by assigning higher priority to patients who are on dialysis longer. The essay examines how this change may create an incentive for physicians to start their patients on dialysis prematurely and investigates how to mitigate this unintended behavior. The second essay investigates physician behavior directly from data, analyzing why the kidney function at which patients start dialysis has been rising over time in the United States. That is, why do patients seem to be starting dialysis earlier and earlier over time? The third essay is concerned with the quality of care of profit-maximizing dialysis providers. In particular, Medicare recently restructured its reimbursement system and publicly released previously confidential data on the quality of care of dialysis facilities. The essay analyzes how such policy changes influence the quality of care decisions of profit-maximizing dialysis providers. On the whole, this dissertation is intended to help policymakers as they make difficult decisions about kidney allocation policies, ESRD-related spending, dialysis reimbursement, and disclosing dialysis facility performance information.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2012 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Kumarasamy, Anicham P |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Graduate School of Business. |
| Primary advisor | Zenios, Stefanos A |
| Thesis advisor | Zenios, Stefanos A |
| Thesis advisor | Lee, Hau Leung |
| Thesis advisor | Wein, Lawrence |
| Advisor | Lee, Hau Leung |
| Advisor | Wein, Lawrence |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Anicham P. Kumarasamy. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Graduate School of Business. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2012. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2012 by Anicham Ponn Kumarasamy
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...