KevinMD July 15, 2025
Imagine going to a restaurant where, instead of being charged separately for your appetizer, main course, and dessert, you pay a fixed price for the entire meal. That’s the idea behind a bundled payment plan in health care. Instead of billing patients and insurers for every individual test, treatment, or doctor’s visit during a medical episode—like a knee replacement—providers receive a single, comprehensive payment for all services related to a specific treatment or condition over a defined period. While this way of paying for our health care was being tested on a volunteer basis for the past two decades, the imminent requirement of bundled payments across hundreds of hospitals for certain surgical procedures in January 2026 leaves the question: Does...
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