Podcast: Commercial Insurers Take Note: Bundled Payments Can Save Thousands Per Procedure
Health Affairs March 9, 2021
Listen to Alan Weil interview Christopher Whaley, a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, on bundled payments, the promise of direct payments in the commercial market, and whether alternative payments can go from a boutique idea to mainstream model.
Bundled payments have long been an experiment in the Medicare program to help reduce health care spending. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) gave the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services broad authority to test bundled payments, or paying providers for episodes of care instead of for each service provided.
Research has found savings associated with participating in the Bundled Payment for Care Improvement (BPCI) initiative. While there have been encouraging results, Medicare has experienced net losses under BPCI when taking reconciliation...