The OIG recently offered recommendations to CMS on how to update Medicare payments to end stage renal disease (ESRD) facilities for drugs used by dialysis patients. Based on a review of ESRD drug prices in the first quarter of 2012, the OIG concluded that independent dialysis facilities can purchase ESRD drugs for less than the levels provided in the ESRD base rate (9% below, in the aggregate), but average acquisition costs for hospital based dialysis facilities exceeded the reimbursement amounts (5% above, in the aggregate). Thus the OIG cautioned that any reductions to the ESRD base rate could potentially harm hospital-based dialysis facilities. While dialysis facilities’ average acquisition costs for the majority of drugs under review have decreased over the last 3 years, the average costs for epoetin alfa (which represented more than three-quarters of drug costs in responding facilities) have increased by at least 17%. The OIG also determined that the concluded that the Producer Price Index (PPI) for Prescription Drugs was not an accurate predictor of cost changes for most drugs under review. In addition to rebasing the ESRD base rate to reflect current trends in drug acquisition costs (as is required by law), the OIG recommends that CMS (1) distinguish payments in the ESRD base rate between independent and hospital-based dialysis facilities, and (2) consider updating the ESRD payment bundle using a factor that takes into account drug acquisition costs.