Bundled Payments Are Moving Upstream

By creating a Musculoskeletal Institute and a bundled payment model that focuses on the condition or person level of care, rather than the procedurelevel, leaders at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas, Austin are finding early success in improving care outcomes while controlling the cost of care for degenerative musculoskeletal disease. Results include double-digit improvement in functional status of the patients at the first follow-up visit, and a decrease of more than 25% in the utilization of elective surgical procedures among the population receiving care.

Development of Bundled Payments

Medicare pioneered bundled payments with the adoption of the diagnosis-related group (DRG) system for hospital inpatient services in 1983. Since then, bundled payments have expanded and evolved...