New Kidney Allocation System Associated With Increased Rates Of Transplants Among Black And Hispanic Patients [Addressing Inequities In Health Care]

Before the 2014 implementation of a new kidney allocation system by the United Network for Organ Sharing, white patients were more likely than black or Hispanic patients to receive a kidney transplant. To determine the effect of the new allocation system on these disparities, we examined data for 179,071 transplant waiting list events in the period June 2013–September 2016, and we calculated monthly transplantation rates (34,133 patients actually received transplants). Implementation of the new system was associated with a narrowing of the disparities in the average monthly transplantation rates by 0.29 percentage point for blacks compared to whites and by 0.24 percentage point for Hispanics compared to whites, which resulted in both disparities becoming nonsignificant after implementation of the new system.

Source: Health Affairs - June 5, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Melanson, T. A., Hockenberry, J. M., Plantinga, L., Basu, M., Pastan, S., Mohan, S., Howard, D. H., Patzer, R. E. Tags: Access To Care, Health Reform, Minority Health Addressing Inequities In Health Care Source Type: research