Association of the Kidney Failure Risk Equation With High Health Care Costs

The Kidney Failure Risk Equations (KFRE) are accurate and validated to predict the risk of kidney failure in individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD), but their potential to predict health care costs in the US health care system is unknown. We assessed the association of kidney failure risk from the 4-variable and 8-variable 2-year KFRE models with monthly health care costs in US patients with CKD stages G3 and G4.

This was an ancillary study to a larger observational, retrospective cohort study examining the association between serum bicarbonate and adverse kidney outcomes. Monthly medical costs were calculated from individual health care insurance claims. Generalized linear regression models were used to examine the association of KFRE score with health care costs.

A total of 1721 patients qualified for the study (1475 and 246 with CKD stages G3 and G4, respectively). For 8-variable KFRE, each 1% (absolute) increase in risk was associated with 13.5% (P < 0.001) and 4.1% (P < 0.001) higher monthly costs for patients with CKD stage G3 and G4, respectively. For 4-variable KFRE, a 1% increase in risk was associated with 6.7% (P = 0.016) and 2.9% (P= 0.014) increase in monthly costs for patients with CKD stage G3 and G4, respectively.

Higher risks of kidney failure as predicted by the 4-variable or 8-variable KFRE were associated with higher 2-year medical costs for patients with CKD stages G3 and G4. The KFRE may be a useful tool to anticipate medical costs and target cost-reducing interventions for patients at risk of kidney failure.