CMS will run a project to determine if using bundled payments--payments for episodic treatments shared by both the hospitals and the doctors delivering care--can improve efficiency and quality overall, notes Modern Healthcare. A recommendation for such action was given last month by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. Patients from Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas will be the guinea pigs for this experiment. Twenty-eight cardiac and nine orthopedic inpatient surgical services will be eligible for the bundled payments, which also will be "actively marketed" as "value-based care centers."
To learn more:
- check out this Modern Healthcare article