Nordyke RJ, Reichert H, Bylsma LC, et al. - Via performing this observational cohort study of arteriovenous fistula (AVF) and arteriovenous graft (AVG) placements, researchers sought to delineate the healthcare resource utilization and costs of AVF and AVG use for incident end-stage renal disease patients in the United States. Using data from the United States Renal Data System, they included 38,035 AVF placements and 12,789 AVG placements for analysis. For AVF, total all-cause monthly costs averaged USD 8,508; mean monthly costs were USD 3,027 for inpatient (IP), USD 3,139 for outpatient (OP), USD 1,572 for physician services, and USD 770 for other care settings. The estimated average access-related monthly costs of USD 1,699 was observed that represented 20% of all-cause charges for AVFs. For AVG, the mean all-cause monthly costs of USD 9,605 was noted; by setting monthly costs were USD 3,811 for IP, USD 3,034 for OP, USD 1,881 for physician services and USD 879 for other care settings. These findings indicates a significant burden of costs due to vascular access (VA) on Medicare budgets and on patients. They suggest encouraging the optimizing process of care and discovering innovation to significantly expedite better stewardship of available healthcare resources.