CMS plans demo of bundled hospital-physician payments

CMS has announced a list of providers who will be participating in a new hospital-based demo project testing the use of a bundled payment for hospitals and physician services. (Bundling payments is a scheme in which both the hospital and physicians share a single check.) The project will focus on a small set of inpatient episodes of care, including 28 cardiac and nine orthopedic inpatient surgical services and procedures.

Participating providers include 1,189-bed Baptist Health System of San Antonio; 78-bed Oklahoma Heart Hospital of Oklahoma City; 436-bed Exempla St. Joseph Hospital in Denver; 418-bed Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa, OK; and four-hospital Lovelace Health System of Albuquerque.

CMS hopes that by bundling payments, providers will have a greater incentive to coordinate care and ultimately, improve outcomes, officials said.

To learn more about the demonstration:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece (reg. req.)

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