As commercial payers seek strategies to lower costs and improve care quality, they are increasingly paying closer attention to bundled payments.
While many payers express concerns about the impact of recent regulatory reversals that removed mandatory requirements for bundled payments, the benefits of bundled pricing still resonate strongly throughout the commercial marketplace.
In late 2017, CMS canceled mandatory bundled payment programs for cardiac care, and surgical hip and femur fracture treatment, along with the cardiac rehabilitation incentive payment model. CMS also switched participation requirements in the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) model from mandatory to voluntary while reducing the selected geographic areas from 67 to 33.
