If this is not your name, click here.
| | If this is not your name, click here. | | |
| | Contact Us | Order Now | Journals | Bookstore | Register a colleague | | |
| |  Launch of New Renal Disease Management Organization DEERFIELD, Ill., Nov. 5, 1996 -- Baxter Healthcare Corporation announced the launch of a new affiliate, Renal Management Strategies Inc. (RMS), a renal disease management organization dedicated to creating nephrologist-led renal care networks around the country. The new organization also announced its affiliation with New Jersey Renal Management, LLC, the first such network in a planned nationwide roll-out. The New Jersey organization represents 47 nephrologists covering the state of New Jersey and is headed by John P. Capelli, M.D. It will focus on securing capitated, risk-sharing contracts for management of renal patients in the state. Heading the new affiliate is: Donagh McCarthy, president, Renal Management Strategies Inc. (RMS). He reports to Donald W. Joseph, group vice-president of Baxter International, Inc. and president of the Renal Division, Baxter Healthcare Corporation. Reporting to Donagh McCarthy are John P. Dickmeyer, M.D., senior vice president, RMS and Thomas K. Cox, vice president and general manager, RMS. "The renal care industry is moving quickly into managed care and global capitation," said Joseph. "The creation of RMS will enable us to continue at the forefront of the renal industry as it evolves, particularly by meeting the new demands for improved quality and reduced costs of long-term renal care. The cost of treating end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients already is high, and the projected increases in the number of patients could cause these costs to grow exponentially. Our goal is to reduce overall costs for payers by better treatment of pre-ESRD patients (those at risk of developing end stage renal disease) and ESRD patients to prevent or delay the progression of this disease," he said. The Renal Division, which also includes the company's $1.3 billion core business of products and services to treat kidney disease, is one of Baxter's four key businesses. Baxter has been an innovator and leader in the renal industry for the last 40 years, playing a pioneering role in the development of therapies for hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. "It is critical that the nephrologist become the focal point for all renal patient care issues," said Dickmeyer. "Our goal is to work with nephrologists and dialysis providers to improve patient outcomes along all points of the continuum of care. These networks will cover the full spectrum of renal care services: prevention, early identification, tracking, monitoring and treatment of pre-ESRD patients to dialysis or transplant for ESRD patients. Better case management of pre-ESRD will help delay the onset of ESRD, prevent patient hospitalizations, and reduce overall costs," he said. RMS will help develop networks of nephrologists to obtain comprehensive capitated contracts from payers covering the total care and cost of renal patients. In support of these networks, RMS will bring Baxter's expertise to advance the state-of-the-art for renal care by providing research and development, case management expertise, best practices guidelines and performance measures, patient education, clinical support, administrative services, data management and analytical support. Donagh McCarthy outlined the potential benefits of the RMS delivery system: -- For the patient, the local network affiliate will provide high quality, comprehensive renal disease management, a concept which is already working in the fields of diabetes, cancer and hemophilia. Patients will have the benefit of a specialized case management system and health care benefits tailored to the complex clinical issues accompanying end-stage renal disease. -- For the nephrologist, the affiliation with RMS' support organization will provide a wealth of data and clinical support to optimize clinical and economic outcomes. RMS will offer centralized administrative services, including risk management, to help nephrologists operate in a capitated environment. RMS will leverage its national presence to bring the benefits of national payer contracts to regional renal care networks. -- For payers, RMS brings easy access to broad networks of high quality renal care providers and the ability to control the cost of renal care. The total cost of care for treating end-stage renal disease patients can exceed $60,000 per year. Renal Management Strategies Inc. will not compete directly with Baxter's existing renal customers because it does not intend to acquire nor build dialysis centers in the United States, according to Joseph. "This is not a product pull strategy," Joseph said. "All patient clinical decisions in the regional networks, including decisions on modality and referrals to sites of care, will be made by the affiliated nephrologists. These will be based on data-driven standards of care, demonstrated patient outcomes, and operations efficiencies of the dialysis centers and other renal providers in the networks." Baxter's core renal business, headed by John H. (Jack) Corcoran, president, Renal Dialysis U.S., will work closely with dialysis center customers to improve their outcomes and cost position and prepare them to compete under managed care. Baxter International (NYSE: BAX) is a global medical-products and services company that is a leader in technologies related to the blood and circulatory system. Through its subsidiaries, Baxter has market leading positions in four businesses: biotechnology, which develops therapies and products in transfusion medicine; cardiovascular medicine, which develops products and services to treat late-stage cardiovascular disease; renal, which develops products and services to improve therapies to fight kidney disease; and intravenous systems/medical products, which develops technologies and systems to improve intravenous medication delivery, and distributes disposable medical products.
|
