Bundled payments are
coming. Are there any readers who have not heard? But do we know what
“bundled payments” might mean for anesthesiologists and pain physicians?
Although there are certainly
anesthesiologists participating in bundled payment systems—common
examples include global surgical packages or OB packages—no one has
written a field guide for the specialty. The chapter on bundled payment
for post-acute care strategies in MedPAC’s June 2013 Report to Congress
provides a thorough and up-to-date review of general bundled-payment
design issues. More important, Congress will consider MedPAC’s
recommendations in any new legislation on the topic, much as it did when
it wrote and adopted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of
2010, including a provision requiring Medicare to test a bundled payment
approach.
In a bundled payment
methodology, a single, bundled payment covers all of the services
delivered by two or more providers during a single episode of care or
over...
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