It’s somewhat of an understatement to say that a lot will change in 2011 for dialysis clinics when a new payment system goes into affect. Yet, the battle to determine just how good or bad that change will be is being waged in the blogosphere, as well as in the halls of Congress and the agencies that advise it.

It should be of no surprise that EPO is at the center of the debate. Right now, anemia drugs are a profit center for dialysis centers, and Medicare pays more than $2 billion annually for them. However, safety concerns and the cost brought scrutiny from Capitol Hill and led to legislation calling for a bundled dialysis payment.

As a result, anemia drugs have the potential to become a cost center for clinics, which will be scrambling the next two years to figure out how to stay financially viable while also making sound clinical decisions.

How to balance these decisions will be the focus of intense debate as policymakers finalize the payment system. And look no further than the Internet read about—and participate in—the ongoing debate.

In late September, Dennis Cotter, who is president of the Medical Technology & Practice Patterns Institute, wrote a blog for Health Affairs in which he said the current approach to determine the payments, which will be based on historical data to determine how anemia drugs should be paid for, is problematic.

Click HERE to read the blog.

His views have sparked debate, and the comment section of the blog has remained active through December with comments from prominent doctors and even a Medicare-contracted researcher looking into bundling and anemia drugs.

Jane Heibert-White, the executive publisher of Health Affairs, also included Cotter’s blog in her write-up of health reform ideas President-elect Obama should consider.

Cotter’s blog as well as the subsequent comments are worth the read, especially if you have a vested interest in how dialysis bundling will affect your clinic. If past is prologue, it’s best to be involved and know the potential changes, rather than be blind-sided by them.