CMS: Bundled payment programs already saving in Medicare payouts
Programs include payment models focusing on heart attacks, heart bypass surgery and hip fracture surgery.
CMS headquarters-Maryland
New bundled payment models focusing on heart attacks, heart bypass surgery, and hip fracture surgery show promising savings, according to Patrick Conway, MD, acting principal deputy administrator and chief medical officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Analysis shows 11 out of the 15 clinical episode groups showed potential savings to Medicare, Conway said.
Orthopedic surgery showed saw an average of $864 in savings per episode under Model 2, he said. Patients surveyed reported improved quality.
[Also: Mandatory bundled payment program drains hospitals with complex patients, study says]
The new models give incentives for up to 90 days after discharge to avoid preventable complications and readmissions by keeping people healthy at home.
Patients who received their care at participating hospitals said that they had greater improvement in mobility 90 days post-discharge than beneficiaries treated at comparison hospitals.
While cardiovascular surgery episodes under Model 2 hospitals did not show any savings, the quality of care was preserved, Conway said.
[Also: Cardiac bundled payments could yield big winners and losers, Avalere study finds]
"Over the next year, we will have significantly more data available, enabling us to better estimate effects on costs and quality," he said in a blog post.
This proposal followed the implementation of the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model that began earlier this year, which introduced bundled payments for certain hip and knee replacements.
More than 1,400 providers are currently participating in bundles through Medicare's Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative.
Twitter: @SusanJMorse
